Feminism And Its Voice In Manipuri Poetry
Laishram Bharati Singh
Associate Professor
Dept. of English
Introduction:
The
movement which started in Europe and America in the 1960’s and 1970’s for the
liberation and emancipation of women, better known as Feminism in general, was
instrumental to the emergence and proliferation of similar movements in
different parts of the world. The earliest feminist movements of the West were
founded on strong social and political concerns. These movements concentrated
on the struggle for equal rights and opportunities for women in matters
relating to their economic, personal lives and political spheres. It also
attempted to widen the self-awareness of women in order to challenge the
traditional views of women as passive, dependent and irrational. It has been duly
observed that, what was happening in socio, economic and political fields
ultimately permeated down to the realm of literature as well. We come across a
good number of modernist women writers of the West who advocated strong
feminist views and ideas and vented criticisms against the stereotyped
traditional representation of women in the earlier writings right from late 19th
century onwards.
Feminism,
in the true Western concept, is basically non-existent in Manipuri society. For
in the tiny State of Manipur, it never, to the contrary, began as a purely
social movement. The nature of the movement that we notice in the West with its
societal set-up and cultural conditions is far different from the feminism that
we find here in Manipur, which took birth in the form of voice and protest in
the hands of some modernist women poets. The land has its own fertile culture,
which is unique in itself and well reflected in the social fabric of the
society. As a consequence, a synthesis
of the social and cultural ethos of the land and the movement of feminism that
began in the West is the kind of feminism that is seen for the first time in Manipuri
literature, especially, in the poetry of the women-writers of around twentieth
century onwards.
Part I
To
trace feminism and its voice in Manipuri poetry, one has to be acquainted with
the history of the Manipuri women, their conduct and attitude, their role and
activities in the various spheres of life in relation to the society. Historical
records provide evidence that in the very ancient period, women in Manipuri
society held a high social position in spite of the fact that the society was
patriarchal in nature. A lot of myths, legends and literature, etc., refer to
their undaunting valour, sacrifice and participation in the administration of
the region. In this regard, mention may be made of the names of Leima Leisna
Panthoibi, Leima Namul Chaobi, Khongjamnubi Taruk, Leima Bhanu Matau Nungonbi,
Kuranganayani, Induprabha, etc. Besides, the worship of goddesses in ancient
Manipur, recorded in ancient books like Ningthourol
Lambuba, retained even in recent times give ample emphasis and
credibility to highlight the status and dignity attributed to the women of the
time. Even today, in many a Manipuri or Meitei household, Goddess Leimaren, the
consort of the King of Gods, is seen being worshipped according to the ancient
Manipuri religious faith. However, with the advent of Hinduism of the
Vaishnavite cult from the early part of 18th century, the imported ideology
of the domineering androgen that the women are inferior and servile to men
became the system of social construct which began to exhibit in the very own beliefs
and ethos of the Manipuri community. Gradually, as the repressive
male-domination became in vogue, women started reeling under the gender
discrimination and seem to be still in the feminine phase.
However,
when we look at the status of and role played by the Manipuri women in the
society, we find that theirs is quite different from and even better than that
of other women in other societies. No doubt, at home, she plays her different
roles of a daughter, sister, wife, and mother to perfection. Surprisingly,
these women do not give much value and importance to their personal lives.
Problems of individual lives and gender are never an issue to be discussed or
pondered over; and as such, the drudgery of household chores is usually taken
for granted and borne silently. In the societal affairs, her role can be seen
as an extension of her domestic concern. Her involvement in the various
functions of the society emerges out of her own initiative and interest. Though
individuality is lost in the bargain, these women perform best when they work
in groups. Female bonding must be one of their attributes that evolved to
counter their suffering and deprivation from societal patriarchy. They are
usually united in their mission against discrimination and subjugation, not for
themselves, but, in a broader perspective, for the people and the community as
a whole. The Nupi Keithel or Ima Market which was established in 1580A.D.
stands tall to claim the economic independence that the women of Manipur enjoy
from their male counterparts. The market, run exclusively by women or mothers,
is an important means of livelihood and survival for many homes. They stand as
carriers of the legacy of women power to act in a non-violent way at different
times in history to achieve truth and justice. It is seen that the
social-cultural and political tradition of Manipur has accepted the women of
Manipur in whatever task that they may take up; though the acceptance is based
much more on social and moral approval than on legal sanctions. The
manifestation is seen in the two epoch-making Nupilans of 1904 and 1939, the
first women movements of Manipur against colonial British rule. The fact
remains that the revolutions were not organised by educated women and lacked
objective certainty. Over and above, they were seen as a movement of
dissatisfaction against colonial excesses and exploitation. Nevertheless, it
cannot be denied that it emerged as a spontaneous response to combat the
prevailing situation and eventually set the trend of feminist movement of an exceptional
kind, an indigenous product of the soil of Manipur that never displayed any
hesitation to fight against injustice when the honour and rights of the land
and the people are in peril.
The
Meira Paibis (Women Torch Bearers), which began in the late 1970’s, is one such
successful and active women movement that have metamorphosed from the earlier
Nupilans. It exhibited women or mother power in their relentless combat against
alcoholism and drug abuse in the late 1970s and later on, has extended its
sphere of activity to safeguard the people and the society from all sorts of
discrimination, marginalisation and State and non-State repression. The Meira
Paibis (who are mostly middle-aged mothers) have large enrolments, and usually
work at the grass root level. Though spontaneous and powerful, more often than
not, they act on impulse. In them, we find the zeal and enthusiasm of fighters
against the general hurdles of the land yet never ever alienating themselves
from their prior responsibility of their home and hearth.
Part
II
Feminism
in Manipuri Literature is the legacy of the efforts put forth by some liberal
thinkers like Hijam Irabot Singh and Laishram Somorendra Singh who did their
best to set the Manipuri women free from the age-old shackles of dominance
inherent in the male-dominated Manipuri society. Irabot formed some
organisations like the Bhadra Mahila Samaj and the Mahila Sammelani to
bring awareness of the ills of the patriarchal society and encourage the
education of women. L. Somorendra too took up his cudgels against the problems the
womenfolk had been facing due to the effect of ‘gender-biasness’. Later, with
the setting up of Tamphasana Girls’ School in 1935, Manipuri women got the
light of western education and with this a sea change in their thinking and outlook
in the society came about. They were the new crop of educated women. Thoibi
Devi (1920-1996), M.K. Binodini (1922-2011) and Kh. Pramodini Devi (1924-2006)
were amongst the pioneers. They picked up the strain that the male writers had
initiated and proceeded to highlight, with vibrant and evocative thought and
style in their writings, the state of being of the women in a male-prejudiced
society.
The
later part of the 20th century reveals a significant shift of
outlook of women in Manipuri Literature. Relevant observations and inquiries begin
to appear in Manipuri poetry of that period as to the proper representation of
women as well as the attempts to present, understand and delineate their
emotions, thoughts and ideas by the poets. However, all the writings of modern
women writers on women cannot be subsumed as writings on feminism. At the
initial stage, a feminine tone marks the writings of most of the female
writers. The first entry into the realm of Manipuri poetry by a woman writer is
the publication of Sajibugi Leirang
(The flower of April) by Kh. Anandi in 1967. Kh. Subadini’s Maangkhraba Esheigi Sur (The Lost
Tune, 1975) and Longjam Ongbi Ibempishak’s Mammi
Shamlaba Khonjel (The Faded Voice, 1976) soon followed suit. Though
phenomenal in their approach, the mood and technique employed in the
anthologies are quite conventional.
It
were Sanjenbam Bhanumati, Moirangthem Borkanya, Arambam Ongbi Memchoubi,
Ibemhal, Kh. Subadani, Sabita Bachaspati and others who ushered in the new era
of feminist poetry from the 1980s onwards. S. Bhanumati’s Khonjelsibu Nanggira (Is this Voice Yours!, 1982) and M.
Borkanya’s Loinaidaba Thamoigi Eshei
(The Song of the Eternal Soul, 1988) set the trend and ultimately carved a
niche in feminist Manipuri poetry. The main objective of this paper is to
highlight the kind of feminism and its voice in the writings of these women
through a selective study of their poems.
Memchoubi,
in her poem, Whoever are you? (1984),
expresses the wretched conditions of the woman who suffered under patriarchy. She
is agonised by the very thought of the woman’s undeserving fate after all the
sacrifices she has made for the society. Social constraints have restricted women to
raise their voices and question the predominant doctrinal traits attributed to
women prescribed by the male-favoured society.
You
drench the earth with your blood
You
aroused waves of excitement with your smiles,
But you
remain neglected,
Woman,
O woman!
Whoever
are you?
In
her second book Androgi Mei (The
fire of Andro,1990), she reacts against the social constructs and customary codes
of conduct that encircled a woman in her married life . As such, she fervently
evokes the women to break free from the rigid shackles that bind them. Thus, for
their emancipation, she writes,
‘Set your daughter free
Bind me not with the golden chain,
Adorn me not with the attire of superstition.
Where many a bold son
Is washing with his own blood
The heaps of dirt,
Let me go there and join
In the chorus of the fallen heads,
In the eternal song they sing.’
The
society that is in the present political scenario of Manipur, women have hardly
any representation in active politics. That means they are denied of any
participation in decision-making bodies. Memchoubi again expresses this
phenomenon in her poem ‘Nongoubi’
where she gives the situation an allusion to the story Nougoubi (Papiha) bird
in the mythical story of creation. The conditions of the bird which gets
excluded from participating in the works of creation as it was busy maintaining
its home and family is the similar predicament faced by a Manipuri woman . The
poet, here, attempts to construct a new myth for a new generation:
Come out O
Nongoubi!
Today we shall create anew,
We are ready to
journey to the source of light.
Come, let us
create anew.
In
Nongthangleima (The Goddess of Lightning),
the new woman is envisioned as to possess the spirit of lightning.
Even
if your soul listens or not,
Even
if you agree or not,
I
am
The
answer to your age-old question.
Did
you think of me as
The
skylark floating in moonlight
Or
the dewdrop clinging
To
the soft petal
Of
a rose blooming at dawn?
No,
I am none of these.
I
am the goddess of lightning,
The
goddess of lightning, do you know.
At
my harsh, strident voice
The
old world will crumble.
Memchoubi
traces the myths and legends of ancient times and manifests them with a new
meaning and a path to lead on. Her woman is one who adds to the richness of
life and who believes in the power and qualities of a woman. Her woman is in no
way synomymous to the new woman created by the western feminists. She is
neither fiery nor subservient in her demeanour. She is hardly the attacker but
more of a defender. She possesses enormous moral strength and spirit that helps
her to perform her womanly tasks and endure long-sufferings, besides being the
protector and custodian of the society at large. Memchoubi epitomises the
Manipuri new woman as a mother-figure who shoulders all her responsibilities
with unabated spirit and fervour. Her poem, Eigi
Palem Nungshibi (My Beloved Mother),
is eloquent in projecting the true essence of the Manipuri woman. Here, she portrays
the predicaments of a hillwoman mother, who, though born as a ‘daughter of a
mountain chief’, ‘serene’ and ‘stately’ in her nature, carries a heavy basket
on her back and trudges along the hill ranges. When stopped by the poet to
inquire what she carried,
“Here,
have a look,” mother said and
Bending,
showed me the load on her back
Never
disburdening herself even for a moment,
I
looked, eager to know what she was carrying, and
Found
inside that basket, mother’s own basket,
Her
old husband and
Her
son flushed with youth.
Wondering
I asked
“What
is this, mother?”
Mother
looked at me only once
Then
calmly said---
“How
would they survive
If
not carried by me?”
Without
saying another word
She
went ahead just like before
Calm
and composed
That
beloved mother of mine.
The
trend, thus set by Memchoubi, is heightened in the poems of Lairenlakpam
Ibemhal Devi. In one of her poems, she questions the treatment of woman as a toy,
playing with her body and soul.
‘A soulless thing, a mute puppet,
Forced to pander to your whims.’
In her poem, Nongthanggi Innaphi ( The Stole of
Lightning, 2002), she makes a clarion
call to the women to ---
Tear
down the encircling walls
As
pupas gnaw through the enclosing cocoons,
Come
out to acquaint with the free air.
In
her poems, she demands that a woman ought to be cared as a human being and not
the way the society treats a woman as a woman. She desires to assert her
identity as an individual human being rather than be contented with the
identity of the various roles the society has enshrined her. In one of her
poems, the woman is awakened in realising the fact that the weight of customary
values and traditions that woman were destined to carry is not a gold necklace but
a dog-chain band round her neck. She hates it and wants to break free from it.
To
my mother
By
my grand-mother
To
my grand-mother
By
my great grand-mother …
The
dog-chain
Thus
handed down
Through
countless centuries
Is
put round my neck
By
my own mother
Like
the treasure of the newly-wed
She
would put it on me
And
say---
“This
is your ornament”
But
I
hate it
I
disgust it more.
This
is a strong feeling that emanated spontaneously after many years in the
experience of the woman. In the male domain, the complaint of the woman is
never audible. However she tends to raise her voice in defiance to be heard and
there unveils her true picture of the feminist.
‘You must know me
You and I are one player
on a stage,
Otherwise
By this hand wearied in washing your feet
Shall have to shutter your image
That is turned into stone.’
In
Ibemhal’s poems, the woman’s heart is like a volcano lying dormant for long, where
from sparks fly out when eruption occurs.
The
same feelings and discourse are aroused in the poems of Kshetrimayum Subadani (
Peegi Wari, The Tale of Tears, 1995) too. According to her, a woman is confined
within the four walls of a room. She is also not pleased with the concept of
marriage where the woman is servile and the man is the lord. The relationship
is that of the master and the servant, which implies exploitation.
Writing
with a feminist stance is not an easy task for the female writers burdened with
the male hegemony. They are sceptic about their logic behind delineating their
experiences as women. However, the increasing consciousness of gender
sensitisation in the world around them has instilled them enough courage to
voice their feelings and thoughts without inhibition. S. Bhanumati, who used to
advocate traditional womanhood, began to pose questions on a woman’s space in
the home.
In
the eve of life
When
all belongings have been wrested
By
Khamnung Kikoi Louonbi (Death)
And
disguised as mother,
When
she calls me
To
the tiny makeshift hut
Made
by sons and neighbours,
Well,
is this my real abode?
Where
is the daughter’s place?
Shall
I go unknowingly,
And
retreat thus in perplexity?
Poet
M. Borkanya depicts the plight of a poor woman scorched by the heat of
existence in her book of poems, Loinaidraba
Thawaigi Eshei (The Eternal Song of the Soul, 1988). In her poems, she
reveals the disgrace and misery endured by Draupadi and Sita in the episodes of
the Mahabharata and Ramayana and relates those incidents to the dictums of male
hegemony.
A
recent publication of an anthology in 2011 by three women poets of Manipur
jointly is a great venture as it carries on the legacy of feminist poets to the
extreme. The book significantly entitled Tattooed
With Taboos is unique in itself, in the sense that the poems are all
written in English and not translations, the cover picture depicts a ‘phanek’,
the sarong-like garment worn by Manipuri women that embodies a lot many
symbols, and four blood spots for the double o’s in ‘Tattooed’ and ‘Taboos’
that signifies that the Meitei phanek is tattooed with taboos. The three women
are Shreema Ningombam, Soibam Haripriya and Chaoba Phuritsabam. They proclaim
that women have been made to surrender their individualities at the altar of
socio-political violence and on repressive patriarchal structure for quite
long. Their anthology would be one of
the first of its kind of true feminist literature in Manipur.
According
to Shreema, their poetry is a form of resistance and rebellion. As a part of
literature, it can be a medium for construction of a new world and a new moral
order which is basic to feminist politics. In this way, poetry can be a means
as well as an end. In the words of Haripriya, poetry expresses what she feels
as a woman. Chaoba also claims that poetry carries the untold dreams, desires
and hopes of a person. It can provoke a reader to understand her womanhood and
realise what she wants from her life. Once a woman claims her body and soul, no
one can suppress or conquer her.
Conclusion:
Feminism
of modern times, is connected with non-violent co-operation and has a potential
for peace-making where its manifestation can be noticed in its attempts to
facilitate participatory human relations rather than control them, and its
insistence on making the personal political and vice versa. It also implies
reconciliation rather than victory. Feminism of this manner, has set in a
process by which women in caring, non-violent and peaceful ways are learning to
respect themselves, value their own work and to evoke, expect and demand that
respect from others. Feminism of this contextual background, coupled with the
land’s very own socio, economic, political and cultural uniqueness, make its
manifestation, for the first time, in the field of Manipuri literature. It is
through the writings of the women poets of Manipur that we notice feminist
poetry of the kind, which suits the Manipur context. With such new breed of
women poets coming up in the eastern horizon, we hope the day will not be far
away when the status of Manipuri women will be better and empowerment is
enshrined to them.
________________
References:
1. R.K.
Jhalajit, A Short History of Manipur,
Imphal, 1992.
2. Hodson,
T.C., The Meitheis, Low Price
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New Delhi, 1992.
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Feminism in a Traditional Society – Women
of Manipur Valley,
Shakti
Books, New Delhi, 1984.
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23rd Issue, Manipuri Women in
a New Role, Manipuri State
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