Debunking modern Manipuri novel

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By: Taibungo Khuman *

The modern Manipuri novel seems so fundamentally different from the past and so varied and wide-ranging in itself that it is so difficult to realize that it has deep roots in what came before and, at the same time, a pervasive unity that distinguishes it from its past.

When traditional historians or critics talk about the modern Manipuri novels they mean since Dr. Kamal's Madhabi in thirties.

Similarly, modern novel surveys used to begin with Pacha. Only in Manipuri modern novel there must be a general agreement not treat this time span as one period.

The new writers are much concerned as the old ones with the psyche as the focus of life experience.

Only, with their modern conception of the psyche, they grow more and more impatient of the quaint little patterns into which the old psychological novelists had tried to force this protean creature, and their deposition to ignore all sorts of things that go to make up human personality.

And the new writers have felt the need to break up these conventional patterns. Instead of uniformity and simplicity, they tend to diversity and complexity.

It is generally assumed that the great complexity of modern life and the sense of flux and uncertainty of a revolutionary period make writing unusually difficult. Great revolutions in human society change men's consciousness and revolutionize not only their social relationships, but their outlook, their philosophy and their art.

Historians and critics say modern Manipuri literature have started from the early part of the 20th century. Dr. Kamal's novel Madhabi (1930), Kh.Chaoba’s Labanga Lata and Hijam Angahal's Jahera are of a romantic bent. Romance was the non-realistic, arstocratic literature of feudalism.

It was non-realistic in the sense that its underlying purpose was not to help people cope in positive way with business of living but to transport them to a word different, idealized nicer than their view. These writers could not be called as modernists in general term of literature.

R.K.Shitaljit's novels show the writer’s strong moral beliefs, which is critical of the behavior of others, a moralist indeed. But his later novel "Nungshi Wakheiba"(1951) is somewhat different from his earlier works.

H.Guno sets histories ramble on with much of love and abundance incidents, following the traditional style of plot construction and characterization. But his "Bir Tikendrajti Road"(1983) is an attempt, his hardest attempt to write an alternative novel.

Kumari Thoibi Devi’s novels are from a purely feminine outlook, speaking much of the soul in the traditional romantic style of writing novels. R.K.Elangbam's novels are full of sympathy and directness style.

In highly orthodox and sensitive Manipuri society the novels of Kh.Ibohal marked a distinct departure in respect of theme and language.

The above mentioned novelists followed more or less traditional styles of well-made novel. They are not technically, any more than socially, revolutionaries; but each of them had something new to say and therefore had to discover new means of expression, new ways of modifying or transforming existing techniques to meet the new needs.

III

Pacha’s novels represent the most complete reaction against the main tendencies of well-made novel.Indeed, it represent the most complete break, with the entire historical tradition of the novel.

If it were not for the widespread influence it has had on other books which are obviously novels, we might leave it out of our account as being a freak of nature, a thing sui generis and hardly in any proper sense of a novel at all.

In Manipuri well-made novel the plot was greatly reduced and sub-ordinate to the psychological interest; or, rather, identified with it the plot was strictly confined to some narrow spiritual issue. But this issue, which limits the plot, gives it its sharp definition and makes it a plot.

Another Manipuri novelist who tries to write differently is B.M.Maisnamba. But his techniques are also of a romantic bent. That is the well-made novel is by no means dead is shown by appearance and the great popularity in the last part of the 20th century.

References:

Nahakpam Aruna, A Collection of Critical Essays in Manipuri Literature, Imphal, 2001.
Joseph Warren Beach, 20th Century Novel Studies in Techniques, New York : Appleton-Century-Crofts, ©1932.
John Barth. "The Literature of Replenishment". The Friday Book. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984.
Stream-of-consciousness technique in the modern novel, Port Washington, N.Y. : Kennikat Press, 1979.
The cultural forum, Manipur, Ritu Literary Journal, April, 1999.
Manipur Sahitya Parishad, Glimpse of Manipuri Language and Literature, Imphal 1970.
Pacha, Na Tathiba Ahal Ama 1969, Imphal and its climatic conditions, 1972

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* Taibungo Khuman (a pseudonym) contributes to e-pao.net regularly. You can contact the writer at taibungo_khuman(at)yahoo(dot)com . This article was webcasted on August 29th, 2007.

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