The Political Monument: A brilliant seminal work

Saikh Md. Sabah Al-Ahmed

(sabahalahmed@gmail.com)

In the genre of socio-political treatises, especially those written from the Northeastern swathes, there have been a few pioneering (published) work, if one browses through library shelves. Most prominent amongst those that have stood out are Sir Edward Albert Gait's A History of Assam (1906), Surya Kumar Bhuyan's Anglo-Assamese Relations (1937), and Debo Prasad Barooah's Indo-British Relations 1950-1960 (1977).

In line with these seminal works of history over the last hundred years or so comes another path-breaking book of recent vintage – The Political Monument: Footfalls of Manipuri History by Laishram Memo Singh and Maheshsana Rajkumar. If one carefully goes through this copious volume, then this author-duo deserves a big round of applause for their laborious and painstaking work of putting together a groundbreaking volume that has rich socio-political overtones.

The book is a study on the socio-political as well as the cultural history of Manipur. Along with outlining the movement of the Indo-Aryan civilization towards Southeast Asia, and the formation of the Burmese empire, the kingdom of Manipur, and the Ahom dynasty, this publication also delineates the advent and consolidation of British imperialism in South Asia and Southeast Asia, and the ultimate fate of Myanmar (Burma), Assam and the politics of free India. Moreover, it attempts to shine a light into the mist of the past thousands of years and transforms the historical memories of bygone days into a living reality.

The book seeks to reveal several historical factors, which lend to its uniqueness. Amongst those, two occurrences may be stated here, to point out their distinctiveness. They are as follows: First was the great revolution in Manipur, with respect to religion in particular, and social, cultural and political arenas, which was carried out by Gariba Niwaza (Pamheiba) Maharaja, the great sovereign monarch in Southeast Asia in the mid-eighteenth century. The second was the achievement of the Congress Chief Minister RK Dorendra Singh of Manipur in 1980, during the rule of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi at the Centre. In fact, RK Dorendra Singh was successful in his role as a 'Well-Meaning Mediator' in engendering a better understanding between the Government of India and the student leaders of Assam.

On being asked what inspired them to write such an exhaustive volume, the author-duo poured their hearts out: "It is a fact that Manipur's history resides only at the level of regional history in our country. This is quite shocking and disheartening. It was, therefore our heartfelt desire to have Manipuri history earn a major share and a larger space in the composite history of India. Thus, this has both motivated and inspired the two of us to pen this publication."

Published by EBH Publishers (India), Panbazar, Guwahati, the book is priced at INR1495. It has 25 chapters spread over 552 pages, and Appendices consisting of 87 illustrations/photographs, 20 maps, 98 letters, 22 newspaper clippings, and 5 invitations. The book is available (online) at amazon.in and at Jain Book Shop Publication (PC Jain), Thangal Bazar, Imphal.