“The Strange Affair of Robin S. Ngangom"

 Ngangom’s “The Strange Affair of Robin S. Ngangom" is one of his longest poems. It describes a visit to his native place, Manipur, which was ravaged in the conflict between Indian armed forces and the insurgents. Though the poem is autobiographical in nature, in him is found the capability of transforming his personal experiences in a conflict ravaged land to the generalised experiences of people belonging to many parts of North-East India. It is a critique on how the powerless has to remain subdued and succumb to the wishes of the powerful even if that dispossesses them from their rights and freedom. The poem is divided into four parts. 

The first part of the poem (lines 1-61) is a description of how the ‘pristine’ native land of his boyhood have been turned into ‘murderous’ in the present with pervading hunger, distrust and destruction. The second part of the poem (lines 62-105) gives a description of how the Indian armed forces through their ‘appliances of death and destruction’ brought havoc to his native land making the whole concept of freedom and independence into a farce. The third part of the poem (lines 106- 51) deals with his to all the youths to cherish the new faith abandoning ‘ideological horror’ and remain ethically obliged to their identity. 

In the fourth part of the poem (lines, 152-98) he describes pessimistically the darkness that the ‘coarse theatre of time’ has inflicted on him and the people of his native land creating a sense of hopelessness and imprisonment which usually prevail in a war-ravaged region. In the very first stanza of the poem, there is a mention of the phrase ‘wheel of fire’ (3), which gives the hint of a turmoil so intense and powerful that it has the capacity to destroy or engulf everything. Metaphorically, the phrase is indicative of bloodshed and horror that have encircled the poet and the people of his state, in particular, and all the people of the North East India, in general. 

The poet is reminiscent of how the Kingdom of Manipur turned into a princely state in the British rule and how it eventually got transformed into a full-fledged state of India in 1972. The expression ‘…misplacing/ a bronze bell/ somewhere sometime’ (4- 6) is suggestive of the political transition of the land which is instrumental in bringing changes in cultural, social and economic life. Such feelings get unfolded in the poem when he says that he left behind ‘many untended hearths’ (7) and a glimpse into the past awakens him of the changes that has loomed in him. 

These changes have pulled him to such an extent that he feels the pain of being alienated from the past making him envious of and enchanted to the days in his childhood. The poet believes that though they possess a ‘pristine’ (49) past, their present is full of persistent paradoxicalities, hatred and suspicion. The poet discovers how his neighbours now has fallen in acute hunger with ‘begging bowls in hand’ (36-37). He implores people to shun, erase, ‘slash and burn’ (42) the traces of hatred, malignity and suspicion that divide the community and weaken the power to write their ‘murderous history’ (45) – a phrase that connotes the socio-political turmoil, stories of hungry people, bloodshed, killings and rape that have engulfed his land. 

The poet is cynical of the youths’ celebrating Christmas without dispossessing hate and fear, and without abandoning the idea of violence. The poet feels that their conflict with the nation have become so costly that it has turned the land into a state in which freedom has become a farce and words like rape, extortion, confessions, embezzlement, vendetta, sales, marriages have become usual in everyday newspapers. This conflict has left many women with scars on their body and mind transforming love relationship overshadowed with stigma and a sense of guilt. Hence, with a heavy heart he points his canon to describe the extent to which the men and women of his land have had to bear the brunt of the conflict: ‘When I turn with a heavy heart towards my burning land, the hills, woman, scream your name. Soldiers with black scarves Like mime artists Turn them in seconds into shrouds.’ (lines 70-75)

The poet is very much critical of the soldiers belonging to the Indian armed forces for turning his ‘fabled land’ into a hellhole and the leaving it filled with memories of how deadly weapons were used to crush the insurgents resulting in death, destruction and devastation. ‘…trucks carrying the appliances of death and devastation, for the eager rescuer in his armoured car, for the first visitor to the fabled homeland, the graves of youth who died in turmoil are the only milestones of the city.’ (lines 76-81) 

The poet implores the new generation to merge with the nation, for any attempt to overpower the mighty army of the nation will prove to be very costly for the state. Here he warns the new generation how the fast-rising capitalistic and materialistic world have brought uncertainty to their land. He reflects upon how even common day to day items, like oil, lentils and food for babies have become uncertain because of social, political and economic instabilities. With a more accentuation he articulates that things like fire, water and air are fast becoming commodities. 

Hence, he appeals to all the youths not to lose ‘uprightness’ and not to abandon the trail of a life with honour, dignity and decency at the same time remaining patriotic by ‘mourning’ their ‘merger with the nation’ and ‘honouring martyrs who died in confusion’ (33-34). He implores them to remain respectful to and express solidarity with their native culture, folklore and literature. In the last part of the poem the poet gives yet again a gloomy picture of how he has been destined to live in his prison-like motherland amidst an all-pervasive atmosphere of pain and loss where festival of light is a distant past and even if he wants to flee from the homeland, he cannot because he is in love with his motherland. 

He laments his existence in such a world and so he writes: ‘The festival of lights happened during childhood Today, I’m again with widows who cannot light lamps anymore.’ Thus, Ngangom’s poem may be a subjective expression of how the people of Manipur has suffered due to the conflict between his state and the nation, but it is also a document for having a peep into their life before and after the conflict erupted. 

It reminds us of William Butler Yeats’ poem “Easter 1916” where the poet while criticising the foolishness of the Irish rebels in their fight for independence against the mighty British soldiers also admires their bravery, patriotism and sacrifice. The greatness of Ngangom’s poem is its unique way of its detachment from the ‘art for art’s sake’ literature by engaging itself in a more meaningful purpose of reforming or directing the society through its incorporation of the burning social concerns, such as dislodgement, dispossession, otherness and estrangement.