Remembering Hijam Irabot Singh

            Hijam Irabot was a promethean figure of Manipur who was a foremost cultural personality in many areas of artistic achievement, sportsman, social activist, and communist revolutionary.

            Irabot was a good student since his childhood and was also good in sports. In the early 1920s the influence of the Indian national movement started to creep in Manipur. From 1922 Irabot was started to be influenced by politics, became the editor of the first magazine, Meitei Chanu editions began publication.

            In 1924, Irabott had his first contact with the national movement. Meanwhile, he was appointed a Magistrate by the king of Manipur. Ignorant in law and jurisprudence, he worked hard to learn them, and he was always anxious to reform them so that the inequalities might be eliminated. At the same time, remembering his hard days at school, he devoted himself to the spread of education in Manipur. Primary schools began to spring up all over the hills despite the unsympathetic attitude of many of the state officials. High Schools too were opened in Imphal.

            Realising that an organisation uniting all the Manipuris was necessary for large-scale reforms in the State, Irawat took the initiative in forming the Nikhil Manipur Mahasabha with the clear aims of striving for national unity, and social uplift.The Mahasabha drew the patronage of the Raja. At the third session of the organisation held at Mandalay in Burma, Irabot was sent by the Raja to preside on his behalf and he was elected a Vice-President.

            The wave of State People’s movement in 1936-38 touched the shores of distant Manipur as well, and the Nikhil Manipur Mahasabha moved forward from a purely social welfare organisation to a political movement with demands for reforms. The organisation built under the patronage of the Raja turned into a liberal body, in the ensuing tug of war between the loyalists and reformists, the reformists won and Irabot was elected President by an overwhelming majority.But the reformist character of the movement soon gave way to more radical mass demands.

            Irawat and his group carried on a campaign for reforms and collected mass signatures of thousands of Manipuris demanding responsible government.

            But with the outbreak of the WWII in 1939, Manipur State’s People’s movement got in touch with the Congress in Assam mainly through the initiative of Irabot. The growing economic crisis hit the people and the prices went up. Big monopolists and rice-mill owners started grabbing all the stocks of paddy, and the poor Manipuris were threatened with famine. The Nikhil Manipur Mahasabha demanded the control of the rice-monopolists then. But this was ignored by the authorities.

            This led to the starting of mass satyagraha by heroic Manipuri women. Military police charged them, resulting in injury. Irabot rushed back from Silchar where he was then organizing the Manipuris in co-operation with the Congress. Satyagraha found the Nikhil Manipur Mahasabha shaky and it backed out. Irawat and his group, however, realizing the great significance of the movement not only welcomed it but formed the Praja Mandal with a more radical programme. Repression, however, could neither break the Praja Mandal nor cow down the Satyagraha; and the authorities had to climb down and ban the export of paddy. This victory consolidated the Praja Mandal but its leader was clamped down in jail for three year.

            Inside jail, Irabot came in touch with the communist prisoners, and by studying Marxism grasped the full significance of the working-class and peasants’ movements in the battle for freedom.Upon his release from jail in March 1943, not being permitted to enter Manipur, he began political work amongst the peasants and the former teagarden workers of the Manipuri community in Cachar. He became the Secretary of the Cachar District Kisan Sabha and President of the Surma Valley Kisan Sabha.

            That time Manipuri community bore the brunt of the shortage of cotton fibre because of the war. There were alarming shortages of other essential commodities besides salt and cotton fibre. The Kishan Sabha had taken up the initiative, of organizing of a co-operative movement in the Silchar sub-division to mitigate the scarcity under the leadership of Irabot Singh. Lakhipur, Attarotillah, Kamrangabusty, Harinagar, Udharbond and Borkhola were the centers. Kishan Sabha and the societies procured all the essential commodities by approaching the Government and sold them through fair price shops.

            Irabot Singh attended the First Congress of the CPI held in Bombay in 1943 after the legalisation of the party and, also, the Second Congress held in Calcutta in 1948. From 1948 to his death in September 1951 Irabot Singh carried out partisan warfare against the government.  His activities as a communist were such that the importance of his work spread far beyond the borders of the state of Manipur.

            He was a delegate at the All India Kishan Conference at Bhakna Kalan, Punjab from 2nd – 4th April, 1943. After returning from Bhakna Kalan Irawat was endeavouring to organise a, Manipuri Kisan Party‟ at Silchar.

            By March 1950, many prominent leaders of the Communist Party were arrested, after the Government of Manipur (GOM) and Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India (GOI) made concerted efforts to suppress the peasant up surging. Even Criminal Conspiracy cases were instituted to deal the Communist and peasant leaders. Manipur Communist Conspiracy Case of 1950 is a classic case of such measures taken up to stem down the movement. Nevertheless, the movement was carried forward under severe repressions

            He was building the Kisan Sabha, among the peasants on the one hand and set up cultural squads for espousing the cause of the peasant struggle for land and other rights in Cachar. He composed Manipuri songs on the themes for struggle against British Imperialism and resistance against the Fascist invaders. Songs were also composed about the glorious victory of Soviet Union against the Nazi invaders, against Japanese atrocities in China and other Asian countries. This was the manifestation of his creativity as an artist. Another legendary cultural icon of that time Hemango Biswas wrote “He got intensely interested in the progressive writers and the People‟s Theatre movements, we were then organising in Sylhet and Cachar. I discovered in him a creative artiste – who could compose, sing and dance. His talks enlightened me a lot about the rich traditions of Manipuri culture. I learnt first from him the epic story of Khamba and Thoibi – the them weaving the fabric of Manipuri life and culture” (Hemango Biswas, “Irawat Singh – The Artist in Arms”, in R.K. Sanajaoba, et al., in Irawat, Sentinel of the East, Irawat Centre for Marxist Studies, Imphal, 1988, p. 25.)

            The Indian People.s Theatre Association (IPTA) was formed in Manipur by him. Malini Bhattacahrjee wrote “For him, political and cultural activities were mutually supplementary. The idea of the special role played by cultural activities in political movement provided by the formation of IPTA must have appealed deeply to the artistic as well as political sensibilities of Irawat. Perhaps, he was fully convinced that cultural consciousness was an important component in the political awakening of a nation” (Malini Bhattacharya, “Irawat Singh: A people‟s cultural activist”, in R.K. Sanajaoba, et al., Jananeta Irawat Singh, The Humanist Crusader, A Millenium Tribute, Irawat Centre for Marxist Studies, Imphal, 1999, pp. 12-13.)

          The first Communist Party of Manipur was formed on 23 August 1948. In the June/ July 1948 election to the Manipur Assembly, Irabot contested and won under from the Utlou Constituency as a Krishak Sabha candidate. Irabot could not attend the first meeting of the Manipur Legislative Assembly held on 18 October 1948 because of the warrant against him. Irabot formed an underground Communist Party of Manipur on 29 October 1948 and carried out armed struggle against the government. He died on 26 September 1951 at the foothills of the Anggo Hills.