Revisiting Pacha's Imphal with critical prism
- Part 2 -

Ronid Chingangbam *

One can see that Thanil's understanding of Rose and her mother was shallow. Here, Thanil traced Rose and her mother's origin by only looking at their situation but not through tracing "the exploited lives" in hills. Had Thanil or Pacha himself been genuinely interested in knowing Rose, he would have tried to find out what their sufferings were, what led to their present predicament and what he could do to help the two women.

The mother's words "We who live in the hills, have a very miserable life" reminded Thanil of only an incident in Sendra, though Sendra cannot be technically called a hill. One day, when he visited Loktak Lake to enjoy its beauty, he found a young man and a young woman having intercourse in a bush. He, however, interpreted it, as if the young woman was being raped and was protesting.

He wanted to intervene but his friend, the manager stopped him. Here, again his belief of Manipur as a holy place and the image of Meitei Chanu he nurtured was shattered. Yet, he cherished the last moment when he embraced his helpless, illiterate Ketukee on the last day he met her.

Thanil's instinct for intervention has now become an act of saving Manipuri culture now. Seen from all these aspects, one can infer that, Pacha's protagonist Thanil is a chauvinist who conforms and wittingly or unwittingly propagated patriarchal structures.

Pacha seems to be lamenting the degeneration of morality in the Manipuri society of the 60s and 70s. However, the morality that was being questioned is only that of Manipuri women. He fails to realize that men are equally to be blamed. Thanil observed from his hotel room women selling their flesh to earn a living like "the B.A. passed girl" who slept with a Mayang Professor to score few marks but caught by Pakhangs (youth) and humiliated on the streets of Imphal.

Thanil too laments for the women who were victimized in the games played by big politicians' game and in the rush for appointment to higher posts in the government service. Pacha brings forth a strong image of exploited Manipuri women but he failed to do so in case of the young tribal girl, Rose. The only plausible reason for this could be the fact that Rose is not a Meitei and thereby, does not fall in the category of Meitei Chanu.

Mayangs: Thanil started to drink since the day he went to a businessman's party. His drinking companion was the hotel manager, Ramchandra Prasad, a dhobi, who was from Bihar also becomes Thanil's friend. They often drank together with the hotel manager who is their common friend. Ramchandra Prasad's affair with a married woman and their helpless relationship reminded Thanil of his girlfriend Ketukee.

But gradually Thanil saw no worry in Ramchandra Prasad when it came to his worry about Imphal. He thought Ramchandra Prasad as someone who cared only about earning his wealth and "sucking" his homeland dry. Someone, who was least, bothered about the deteriorating Manipur as long as his profits keep coming. Thanil saw Ramchandra as a parasite.

Ultimately, Thanil started to hate Ramchandra Prasad. The hatred of non-Manipuri migrant daily wagers, especially from states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, is still seen even today. Unlike Pacha, Thangjam Ibopishak lamented on the hardship lives of migrant workers in Manipur in late sixties in his poem "Charamnaraba Keithel Hui"

Society:

Pacha seems to be lamenting the degeneration of morality in the Manipuri society of the 60s and 70s. Other than what Thanil experienced firsthand, he came to know many other darker shades of Imphal through a press album of his editor friend. He read about a 40 years old woman named Ibechaobi, being caught by police of Chakpi Karong for leaving an unknown infant at Lamphel. The woman was the mistress of a Minister.

Pacha brings out a pertinent aspect of the Manipuri society, highlighting the dirty side of Politicians and their exploitation of women. Pacha drew his inspiration from real- life incidents. Such incidents were not uncommon in 70s in Manipur. One can also cite Shri Biren's poem "Ei Laiming Loude" (I am not baptized) from his first book of poetry collection "Tollaba Shadugi Wakhal" (Thoughts of the Wretched Animal).

Shri Biren, Pacha and many other poets and writers were member of the literary society Naharol Sahitya Premi Samiti. One can see that all these poets and writer they share the love to redefine Imphal/Manipur in their own way.

Thanil reads further, the next story is about a Mayang (non Manipuri) Superintendent of Police, Mangalam who was involved in the killing of four girls and seven boys, who were part of the protest march. Here too we see that Pacha was more farsighted than most of his contemporary writers.

All these incidents remind Thanil of his colleague Priyalata's words "Holy place! Our Holy place Manipur" and the irony of the situation he is involved in.

Pacha also talked about the restriction on the freedom of expression through the episode of an article named "Cancer Mawong-gi Lal" (Cancer like War) written by a young man. His editor friend was jailed for publishing an article in the newspaper.

Pacha even made an attempt to touch Manipuri literature sarcastically. After meeting a boy who came to the editor's office with a manuscript named "Eina, Nungshiba, Khangbide Nangna" a story by himself. The editor says, "This is how our creative writing is, one affair one book, one break up one book, for friendship with Politicians, one party, the Administration and literature of Manipur."

Pacha experimented with his writing not only with techniques but with languages too. Thanil as a man from Silchar who speaks Bengali too, throughout the novels Pacha used Bengali and Sanskrit. When Thanil was disappointed by what he saw and heard in Imphal, he recited the Gita. He believed that there was politics in Gita. It is interesting to note here that when Thanil imagined the image of Meitei Chanu he pictured Moirang Thoibi and when he was disappointed or rather angry; he recited Gita to calm himself down.

It is said Pacha's poems are far better than his novels. This is an unknown fact to most of Pacha's readers. There is another side of Pacha through which one can look at Manipuri society of 70s.

His contribution to Manipur and Manipuri literature is colossal. We owe him a debt that cannot be repaid however much we try. His works are still relevant to contemporary Manipur. One can say that the 'diseased' Manipur that Pacha wrote about has worsened in the last 3-4 decades.

The Manipuri society still remains intensely patriarchal; the phanek is still untouchable and unmentionable. Pacha's greatness lies in his far-sightedness. Even decades ago he could foresee the doom where Manipur in general and Imphal in particular was headed. Pacha's self righteous character Thanil has grown bigger and bigger and with every passing day his anger has taken monstrous dimensions.

In 1970s, Thanil was a man who wanted to save Imphal, its Meitei Chanu, morality, culture, future, etc. but today Thanil has become a crusader almost like the monster in Frankenstein, performing his moral obligation - leaving aside the Gita - to save his culture and tradition.

Concluded