Sanakhwa Haojaomacha Yaiskul Lakpa and his son Sengoisana of 1891
- Part 2 -

Waikhom Damodar Singh *

The Maharaja and his brothers arrived in time but they were very disgracefully kept waiting at the gate of the residency for nearly two hours. The high handed and uncalled for act on the part of the British Commissioner highly angered Senapati Bir Tikendrajit Singh who therefore immediately withdrew from attending the Darbar on the ground of sudden sikness felt on him and so the Darbar was postponed to 8 am of the next morning of 23 Morning in the assembly of which Tikendrajit did not turn up again on the same ground of ill-health.

So the Chief Commissioner, Mr Quinton decided to use force to capture Tikendrajit anyhow under a deceptive plan—he conveyed to the Manipuri king that he had decided to return to Assam and before he and his party would like to witness the Manipuri "ras leela" dance which was accordingly arranged in the palace temple on the same day of 23 March 1891 in the night.

While the function was going on being witnessed by a large gathering of men and women including children the British force treacherously raided the residence of Senapati Tikendrajit Singh in the process of which encounter between the Manipuri force and the British took place which resulted to the killing of many innocent civilians including women and children.

The furious Manipuris retaliated and the residency was attacked and the position of the British party was very much in danger and therefore Mr Quinton called for an immediate ceasefire and had agreed to come to the Manipur palace without any escort and arm. Therefore in the evening of 24 March Mr Quinton, Colonel Skene, Mr Grimwood, Mr Cossins and Lt Simpson accompanied by an unarmed sepoy with a bugle went to the palace for further nagotiations.

The negotiation failed and the British officers came out of the Darbar Hall but they were suddenly attacked and were caught hold of by a large angry civilian crowd, who were mainly the aggrieved relatives of the civilians killed during the attack of the British in the previous night and who had assembled outside the Darbar Hall and became a very violent and unruly mob and thus they did not spare them for their guilt of killing their innocent "near and dear ones". The ill-fated five British Officers were thus helplessly murdered—beheaded after led of one by one.

The unhappy incident occurred thus made the "root-cause" for the breaking out of the Anglo-Manipuri War in April 1891. The Government of India declared war against Manipur on 31st March 1891 but before that a British force under Lt Grant along with 80 men including 30 men of the 43 Gurkha Rifles left the Tammu Garrison at 5 am of 28 March on foot and reached Pallel at 7 am of 30 March 1891 and began the battle against the Manipuris from 7 am of 31 March.

When they reached Thoubal they were greeted by hot fires from the Manipuri Army who were already in the positions of their camp established there and therefore Lt Grant and his party retreated and established their fortified camp surrounded by thick mud walls at Thoubal Athokpam at the Sagolsem compound which had been deserted by its inhabitants and continued the fighting with the Manipuri column of force stationed at Tboubal Waikhom Ingkhol on the North-East of Tomjing hillock under the command of Yaiskul Lakpa and other valiant commanders.

It was on the morning of 6 April 1891 that the Manipuri force initiated the offensive action, in that, they advanced for the final close quarter battle assault and came very close towards the British camp and encircled it from outside the mud-walls of their camp where Lt Grant and his men remained confined and trapped in the trench and it was during that period that courageous Yaiskul Lakpa was about to begin the final hand-to-hand fithting by jumping out of the mud-wall and in the process he was suddenly hit by the firing from Lt Grant from his pistol.

Highly enraged with the wounding of his father Sengoisana jumped out and chased the fleeing British officer and injured him with his lightening cutting strokes from his sword, also he finished three other Gurkha escorts of Lt Grant. However Sengoisana also succumbed to his fatal injury inflicted by the firing from the pistol of Lt Grant who was lying on the ground severely wounded and thus "ended the lives of the two heroes of Manipur who selflessly and most gallantly acted against the enemy for the cause of defending the independence of their mother country, the independent Manipur.

With the fall of Yaiskul Lakpa and his son, Sengoisana the Manipuri column retreated towards Imphal, so also the British column from their Tho-ubal Athokpam camp towards Pallel with the with the wounded commander Lt. Grant carried away on a bamboo made stretcher. The British reacted with full scale invasion of Manipur asserting their supremacy in power—with a three-pronged attack, one from the north under the command of Majpr General H. Collet who was also the commander-in-chief of the whole operation launched against Manipur, another from the west under the command of Colonel RHF Rennick and the third column from the south from Tammu under the command of Brigadier General T Graham who were ordered to converge on Imphal on 27 April 1891 by latest.

Thus the strongest Tammu column under Brigadier T Graham left Tammu on 23 April 1891 and reached Pallel in the early morning of 25 April and soon reached Khongjom and encountered on the same day the Manipuri Army positioned in the underground trenches dug-up nearby the bank of Khongjom river. Due to their superiority in firing power with automatic weapons etc and strength of the force they emerged victorious and they made the Manipuris humbled down under their imperial "yoke" from the morning of 27 April 1891 till they restored "de-facto" their independent sovereignty with effect from the midnight of the 14th of August 1947.

Though the British decisively won the anglo-Manipuri war they in their very hearts, silently praised the Manipuris for their "very gallant courage and highly patriotic spirits" that they had vividly noticed from the encounters they had put up so bravely against them though they were much inferior in their "fire-power" and "force-strength", who clearly exhibited that they are indeed the brave decendents of brave ancestors.

In the hand-to-hand fighting, Sengoisana, Wangkhei Meiraba etc had clearly exhibited that even the famed Gurkha soldiers for their deadly "close quarter battIe", fighting with their Khukris are no match against the Manipuri or Meitei Thang-Ta (hand­to-hand) fighting with lightening and very mesmersing movements of the hands and feet. It is most gratifying and encouraging that the very unique type of indigenous and heroic Marshal arts and its spirits remained inherited very much in-tact, and that the Manipur Thang-Ta Associations are putting their priceless efforts for the "popularisation and preservation" of the same.

It is with the very aim that the observation of the "death anniversary" of the heroes, Yaiskul Lakpa, Sengoisana and others are being carried out as an annual features so that the young generations of Manipur may "imbibe" the "patriotic and self-sacrificial" spirits for the sake of defending independence and integrity of their motherland as had been exhibited by the heroes vis-a-vis always remembering the highly "dedicative British Spirit" which is kept displayed in the "epitaph" erected in the Kohima Second World War Cemetry, saying "When you go home, tell them of us that we gave ours today for them tomorrow"—such is the self-sacrificed spirit that has been gloriously (illustriously) left by our heroic forefathers, especially those who most heroically laid down their lives in the "anglo-Manipuri-battle" by fighting against an enemy who were much superior in "strength" and "fire-power" with automatic firing weapons including canons and mortars.

May God bless their great and sanctified souls to live ever peacefully.

Concluded...