Meeting people and cultures beyond oneself is the key. I gathered so many stories from my meetings and travel. The many conversations that I had and the stories I have heard have culminated in to music.
AKHU CHINGANGBA
In my musical career of 15 years I have extensively engaged myself with various conflicts in my home state Manipur. I was tired of singing and writing of death, fake encounter killings, ethnic conflicts, etc. I wanted to look at Manipur as a place of hope and dreams beyond the bloodshed and decades old insurgency movements. The perk of being an artist is you can dream beyond reality and create an imagined land in your head.
In our folklore you will come across this line “Ching-na koina pansaba” which can be loosely translated as “guarded by range of hills”. That’s how Manipur is defined in our literature i.e guarded by range of hills. But in the last three centuries people that belong to this so called land Manipur have been migrating and settling across Myanmar, Bangladesh, Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura. When you look at the history of people of Manipur you have to consider the history of the people beyond the geographical boundaries.
Sometime in early 2010 I came across some literature by Meetei poets and writers from Sylhet, Bangladesh, in an Imphal based literary magazine ‘Saklon’. To these poets and writers Manipur is a home that they have been deprived of. There is love, hope, dreams and a longing in their writings. Earlier, for me Manipur was defined by eminent poets and writers like Thangjam Ibopishak and Yumlembam Ibomcha. I have read every book and poem by these great poets who emerged in last sixties. The way I write and see Manipur is highly influenced by their literatures.
But this time I wanted to explore the stories and poems by these Manipuri poets and writers from Assam and Bangladesh. Moreover I wanted to know about the folklores, oral traditions, stories of migration and struggles of the Manipuri Diaspora community as minority in these places. I was lucky enough to get a grant from India Foundation for the Arts (Bangalore) to travel across Assam and Bangladesh to embark on a new journey to make a new music album based on the lives and stories of Manipuri diaspora.
In 2018 I travelled across Assam and Bangladesh and met various student activists, writers, poets, cultural activists, etc. I gathered so many stories from my meetings and travel. I made so many friends through out my journey.
Poet and writer Thokchom Bishwanath was the first person I sat down with during my travel in Assam. He told me stories of Lamyanba Hijam Irabot and how Irabot mobilised peasants and tea garden workers in Cachar in early 1940s just after he got out of Sylhet jail. Thokchom Bishwanath follows the ideology of Hijam Irabot and spends his life as a real farmer apart from being a poet and writer. He also introduced me to various Manipuri poets and writers of Assam. Yumnam Ilabanta was one poet Bishwanath talked about during our meeting.
I met Yumnam Ilabanta, the poet at his house at Sribar, Lakhipur, Assam. I was taken a back by surprise as I was slowly exposed to a beautiful landscape of Ilabanta’s poetry. I came across his poem ‘Barak, You are pretty’ which completely blew my mind with the metaphors in the poem. The poem is like an ode to the beauty of the Barak River. But the poet brings out the lives around the river and most importantly the pain and agony of peasants which they have gone through during natural calamities like flood. The poet also sketches the mythological characters Khamba-Thoibi fishing at the Barak River. The poem inspired me to write a song called ‘Khamba Thoibi Tangkak’ which was featured in my last music album “Ema gi Wari (Stories of my mother)”
Manipur and Burma (Myanmar) was frequently on war invading each other and bringing chaos to each other. The most prominent invasion of Burmese was during 1819 to 1826. This period is known as Seven Years Devastation and the darkest era in the history of Manipur. Burmese depopulated the kingdom. Many Manipuris were taken as captives to Burma. Also there was a huge migration of the Manipuris to Cachar (present Assam) including the king and his family.
Manipuris in Cachar settled along the bank of the Barak River. It is believed that making rice puff and flakes were the professions of the Manipuris then. During my visit I visited many Manipuri villages that reside along the bank of the Barak River. Singerband is one such village that grabbed my attention. Next to the crumbling river bank a colony of mud houses sits. The roads were not motorable. Children would walk miles to reach the schools. Bamboo groves would lean on the narrow lanes. I wrote a song about the simple lives in this village “Singerband”.
In Sylhet Bangladesh, I had the chance to sit down and interview A. K. Sheram who is a writer, poet and cultural activist. He shared with me stories of how he and his friend formed the literary organisation ‘Bangladesh Manipur Sahitya Sangsad’ in early 1970s right after East Pakistan got independence and named itself Bangladesh. He also shared with great stories of friendship between two legends Hijam Irabot and Hemango Biswas. Hemango Biswas was a revolutionary singer, writer and freedom fighter. While growing up in Manipur we grew up singing this song “Thangol ado maya thangu” (Sharpen the sickle). To my surprise it turned out it was actually a song written by Hemango Biswas but later translated into Meiteilon by HIjam Irabot sometime in mid 1940s. Also I found out the song was popularised in Manipur in 1950s by this singer named Chandrakala. Chandrakala passed away in early 2018 at her residence in Imphal, the same year I travelled to Bangladesh to find out about her. I still regret that I missed to meet her in person. Chandrakala seemed to be very popular among the Manipuris in Bangladesh in fifties. When I met the Manipuri writer from Sylhet Khoirom Indrajit told me stories of Chandrakala and how he was even inspired to write about her music.
It took me one year to travel and write the music for the album ‘Ema gi Wari’. The many conversations that I had with Manipuris in Assam and Bangladesh and their stories have culminated in this album. There are still many untold stories of these Manipuris that I want to explore. I believe it is going to be a life long project for me to gather stories of the Manipuris across these valleys.∎
Akhu Chingangbam has a doctorate in Physics from Jamia Milia Islamia University, New Delhi. He completed his post-doctoral assignment on Cosmology in a Thai University. Akhu is a lyricist, singer and founder of the folk-rock band Imphal Talkies and The Howlers.
