Desperately looking for an Irabot : Rebel with a cause
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: September 29 2011 -

Hijam Irawat - 114th Birth Anniversary celebration :: 30 September 2010 at Imphal

Hijam Irabot. The name evokes the sense of romanticism usually associated with “rebel with a cause” and Manipur today sees in him as the first political leader of the land, who had the vision, charisma and the political ideology to fire the imagination of the people at a crucial period in the history of the land.

Born as he was in 1896 and breathing his last in 1951, Irabot straddled an important phase in the history of Manipur, first as part of the British Empire and when Manipur became a Part C State of the Indian Union, courtesy the controversial Merger Agreement of 1949, though his impact on post merger Manipur is something is not as prominently felt as in the pre-merger days.

Irabot came at the point of time when the Sun never set on the British Empire and the influence of Vaishnavism was at all time high, impacting on the lives of the majority Meitei community which in turn resonated in its social life, the art, literature and even in the script used to record the history of the people and the land.

With the British setting up base in Manipur, modern education as is understood today, too came along and Irabot did his primary and middle school at Johnstone School, now Johnstone Higher Secondary School.

His early education, his high school days at Bangladesh, his jail stint at Sylhet etc all had an impact on Irabot and if he is associated with the Communist ideology today, the first seeds of this ideology were sown during his days in Sylhet jail, when he came into contact with some Communist ideologues. However to see him solely as a Communist leader would be to narrow down the persona of the man and his world views.

That the events of the day, when Manipur was a princely State under the British Raj, would have an impact on him was obvious and true to the characteristics of a true leader, he rose to the forefront during the Nupilan of 1939, when womenfolk of Manipur rose as one against the artificial scarcity of rice.

In one stroke, Irabot was able to strike the chord of the people by turning this uprising into a statement of women power as well as a rebellion against injustice from the rulers of the day. This happened long before women power had entered the lexicon of the people and caught the imagination of the universe.

A champion of the downtrodden, prominently identified with the peasantry, Irabot was a multifaceted personality, who was a sportsman, a theatre enthusiast, a writer, but most prominently a man with a political vision who championed the idea of an electoral system in the land.

That he earned the displeasure of the then monarchy did not stop him from airing his ideas, a hallmark of a leader, which has become extinct today in Manipur. This was before India had become a Republic.

It says something about the man as well as the present state of affairs here, that even after more than 50 years of his death, Manipur continues to desperately look up to Irabot for inspiration, thereby reflecting the huge leadership vacuum and his greatness as well.

The history of Manipur after its merger with India may have seen a different trajectory if Irabot had lived longer and not passed away just two years after the 1949 Merger Agreement.

This is the past but the question of why Manipur has so miserably failed to live up to the legacy of a man like Irabot should haunt the collective consciousness of the people.

It says something about a land which is one of the oldest Kingdoms in South East Asia, hopelessly groping in the dark without the faintest idea of which direction the land and the people are headed towards.

At best the only thing which can be said with a degree of certainty is that the people and the land are fast hurtling down an abyss from which there will probably be a point of no return.

The very fact that Hijam Irabot was a sketchy figure for the greater part of Manipur's history after its merger with India, before his memory and life was resurrected in the 90s, says something about a people whose history has been distorted grotesquely. Who allowed this to happen ?

No one but the people, who preferred to lead a life of the Lotus Eaters, wallowing in the shadow of a superimposed entity. If Irabot's name is there as a source of inspiration there are some elements too who are hell bent on defiling his memory to serve their own vested interest.

The huge leadership vacuum is one devil that needs to be exorcised and at the same time there is also the growing need to expose the pretenders who do not hesitate to take the name of the late leader to put into place their own agenda.

The least that the people of Manipur can do is not to tarnish his fair name. This would be a fitting salute on his birth anniversary.