Khwairakpam Chaoba’s ‘Lamgi Chekla Amada’

This is my journey from being captivated by romanticist literature to embracing politically charged and rebellious works as I reflect briefly on Manipuri literary pioneers and critique sentimental indulgence.

Back in the day, schools and colleges always seemed to push me towards being a romanticist. It was the “desirable” thing to be—a dreamer lost in the arts, along with the rest of the sentimental crowd. Being that kind of “soft-ist” also makes you the perfect conformist, just what society wants. So naturally, as a teenager, I was drawn to the likes of Keats and his friends, and closer to home, Manipuri poets like Anganghal and Chaoba.

But as I explored the world of poetry and literature more deeply, I found myself connecting with the rebels—the Singnaba poets, the Beat Generation, the Hungryalists, and others like them. That’s when I realised that the overly sentimental kind of literature—what I jokingly call heiraang-leiraang literature (or in English, “artsy-fartsy lit” for art for fart’s sake)—works best in peaceful, privileged places. In those faraway lands, arts and literature are luxuries, indulgences even.

We, on the other hand, don’t have that kind of privilege. This is for one simple reason: we are from Manipur.* As Orwell once put it:

This is a political age. War, Fascism, concentration camps, rubber truncheons, atomic bombs, etc. are what we write about, even when we do not name them openly. We cannot help this. When you are on a sinking ship, your thoughts will be about sinking ships. (Writers and Leviathan, 1948)

(In fact, I have been Howling for a Radical Literary Landscape)

Letting go of the heiraang-leiraang lit took time, but after a decade, I circled back and learned to re-appreciate Manipuri literature. Perhaps I matured enough to recognise that the pioneers of modern Manipuri literature—all romanticists, without exception—were filling a void that had been left empty for over two centuries, ever since Hinduism swept through and reshaped the culture.

From my high school days, and from hearsay years later, one exceptional work that comes to mind is Lamgi Chekla Amada by Khwairakpam Chaoba (1896–1950). This purist delight is one of the most influential poems in modern Manipuri literature. It’s so impactful that it has found its way into school, college, and university textbooks, as well as competitive exam syllabuses, alongside classics like Dr Lamabam Kamal’s Nirjanata, Hijam Irabot’s Chaokhatpa, Laishram Samarendra’s Amuba Khonggrao, and Thangjam Ibopishak’s Anouba Thoonglaba Jiba, among others. Recently, while working on an editorial design project, I decided to render Chaoba’s poem into Meitei Mayek. It’s my small way of revisiting and honouring this timeless work.

Read:  The Poet and the Art of Poetry, a translation of Kabi Amasoong Kabya by Khwairakpam Chaoba on this blog.