SEVEN SISTERS POST

NOVEMBER 30, 2011

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Following the footsteps of Rama

Bal Sahitya Akademi winner Siddhartha Sarma brings to light a facet of Mamoni Goswami that is often ignored: that of a world renowned academic and scholar
NE of the turning points in Goswamis life as a scholar was during her stay at Vrindavan, where she pursued her research at the Institute of Oriental Philosophy on a scholarship from the government of Assam in 1969. Goswami had already inherited a strong interest in Vaishnavite traditions and literature, since her family belonged to that sect of the state. But at Vrindavan, she bought a voluminous edition of Tulasidas Ram Charit Manas and began her scholarly journey into the numerous retellings of the Ramayana. She did her PhD on a comparative study of Tulasidas Ramayana and Madhav Kandalis Ramayana from Assam, a work which has been subsequently cited by numerous scholars as a ground-breaking analysis in the field of studies on the Indian epic. Continuing in this theme, Goswami wrote Ramayana: From Ganga to Brahmaputra which was released in 1996 by the then president of the country. In this monumental work, she has summed up the various iterations that the epic has undergone over the centuries in North and East India. She also attended several International Ramayana Conferences in countries across South and Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Indonesia and China as one of the worlds foremost scholars specialising in the story of Rama. Besides several articles in national and international articles on this subject, she also wrote the novel Dasarathir Khoj in 1999. As a Ramayana scholar, she was also naturally drawn into the preservation and study of ancient manuscripts from Assam written on various subjecs. She actively cam-

Eyes like the sun: Mamoni Goswamis short stories

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NANPITH Award winner Mamoni Raisom Goswami gained fame as a novelist only after she had become known to the readers through her short stories. There was a reason behind why she loved to write novels more than short stories. In her own words, the vast world of novels is like the sky while the world of short stories is a part of the sky as reflected in the water collected in a cows footprint. Sinaki Morom (1960), a collection of short stories, was Goswamis first book in print. There were very few women fiction writers at the time. Her short stories drew the attention of readers as well as authors, young and old. The world of her short stories is vast. It will not be possible to discuss all her short stories in this short essay. The discussion here will focus only on some of the stories included in Mamoni Goswamis Favourite Short Stories (1998). This book has 15 stories Sanskar, Yatra, Ishwariya Sangshai aru Prem, Poroshu Patoror Nad, Hriday, Udong Bakas, Barafar Rani, Pashu, Nangath Chahar, Parash Ratan, Riniki Riniki Dekhisu Yamuna, Matri, Parashmoni, Sei Endhar Puharoru Adhik and Bijanu. These stories appeal to me for they display Goswamis style, narrative, use of local dialects and metaphors among others. They also show her preference for distinctive subject matters the heart of a woman, folk culture, love of nature and the burning issues of Assam and other parts of India. Dr Banikanta Kakati had written in Nari Hriday (Womans Heart), one of the essays in his book Sahitya aru Prem (Literature and Love), that the authentic representation of a womans heart and nature in literature will remain elusive until the emergence of female writers with original talents. With the arrival of writers like Mamoni Raisom Goswami, this has become possible. If one reads Goswamis short stories and novels, one can get a clear picture of the nature of a womans heart. Male writers would not have been able to do what Goswami had done with

Folklorist and writer, Bhrigu Mohan Goswami, finds that reading Indira Goswamis short stories is like seeing the world in a grain of sand
a fresh perspective is one of the characteristics of Goswamis literary works. Sanskar is one of het most famous creations. She boldly wrote this story at a mature age, exposing the hypocrisies in orthodox Brahmin society. It revolves around the mysterious life story of a poor widow. Yatra highlights the effects of insurgency, floods, and so on in Assam. A Ramayana scholar of renown, Goswami lays bare the heart of woman in Ishwariya Sangshai aru Prem. It is the story of widow Ishwari and widower Dharmabahadur. It weds Ram bhakti with earthly love and is written from her experiences as a participant in discourses on the Ramayana in India and abroad. In Udong Bakas, the character of Taradoi has been very tragically depicted. The story is an attempt at building a classless society, free of the prevalent caste system. However, the author is not sure how the change will come. The story has an undertone of despair. Nangath Chahar is about the slum areas in Delhi. It shows the writers love for the Dalits. Parash Ratan is one of the best love stories authored by Goswami. In Riniki Riniki Dekhisu, the writer goes looking for love like a free bird, but ends up a caged parrot. Love should be spontaneous, unfettered, says Sananda, an important character in the story. The short stories of Mamoni Raisom Goswami are replete with her diverse experiences. She has eyes like the sun, the rays of which fall on everything. Thus, in her short stories and novels, we find many news things which we would otherwise fail to see with our own naked eyes. T SOURCE: Goswami, Bhrigu Mohan. 2010 (2006). Asamiya Sahitya Alochana. Guwahati: Jyoti Prakashan

Subhamoy Bhattacharjee

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NOT only did scholars of Ramayana and Vaishnavite traditions follow her academic writings avidly, they also sought her advice and guidance on translation and analytical works
paigned for preserving these invaluable bits of Assamese culture. However, her interests as a scholar were not limited to the epic alone. She also actively pursued research into Buddhist traditions of art and storytelling. Her anthology on the stories from the Jataka, titled Jataka Katha, is particularly influential among students of Buddhist Studies. As a professor of Modern Indian Languages and Linguistic Studies at Delhi University, her contribution to language studies is substantial and influential. Besides her numerous novels in Assamese, which were translated into English and which reflect on various aspects of Assamese society, she also worked on other languages. For instance, Kalam, a col-

lection of Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and Bengali short stories was co-translated by her into Assamese, bringing a lot of works otherwise not accessible to Assamese readers. In 1988, she marked another milestone in Assamese translation by bringing to readers Premchandar Suti Galpa, an anthology of the great Hindi writers best-known works. In 1978, she translated the Malayalam novel Arana Zika Neram into Assamese as Adha Ghanta Samay. Her reach was not just national: it went abroad too. Not only did scholars of Ramayana and Vaishnavite traditions follow her academic writings avidly, they also sought her advice and guidance on translation and analytical works. Meanwhile, as a language scholar, she also avidly followed international works, translating Shinji Tajima and Kang Hoo Hyons noted book Sarisnipar Sakalo into Assamese. She was also closely associated with the publication of Volumes VII and VIII of the definitive History of Indian Literature. The two volumes were published in 1991 and 1995 respectively by the Sahitya Akademi. In particular, her study and articles on Vaishnavite art and dance forms of Assam actually helped bring about awareness in the rest of the country and abroad about Assams deep traditions of Vishnu worship. Her articles, which she presented at forums and seminars in India and abroad, on contemporary and historical women writers of the country, have also been cited as comprehensive accounts combining both scholarly insight and a writers creative eye at understanding how female writing has evolved with the changing generations. T

Dasarath Deka

such brilliance. Goswami wrote Matri, Parashmoni, Sei Endhar Puhororu Adhik and Bijanu when she was a college student. Morning shows the day! We can see signs of classic writings in these stories which, though set in Assam, have a universal appeal. In Matri, childless teacher Madhu adopts an orphan, Soun, and puts him in the lap of his wife Padumi who has all the fine feelings of a woman. However, for a moment, she also loses her temper. Padumi says to Madhu, We dont know whose son he is. You have brought him straight home simply because you are a teacher. Do you know how much this little boy eats? His is not just a stomach; he is like a pot used for a feast. (p221). Such comments from Padumi make him think: These days human love has also lost its purity. How can you trust

others when you cant trust your own people? At this point in time, Padumi tells her husband that she has become pregnant. Madhu is worried again: Being the mother of her own child, perhaps she will ill treat Soun twice as much as she did before. The much awaited day arrives, but Padumi gives birth to a stillborn. Now she understands the meaning of motherhood. She says, Bring Soun to me. I just want to touch his body. Only once Nothing can better explain a mothers longing for her child. Goswami unravels the deep recesses of the mind of a woman and looks at conventions from a new viewpoint in Sei Endhar Puhororu Adhik. The traditional character of Damayanti in this short story believes that the greatest ornament of man is his personality. Treatment of tradition from

Me and the world of militants

MAMONI RAISOM GOSWAMI

Y first visit to the ULFA camp was in 1993 when I visited one of their transit camps in Darrang district in the north bank of the Brahmaputra. The boys often came to me to borrow the book Mamore Dhora Toruwal (The Rusted Sword). This book had nothing to do with or about their mission. It is one of a series of novels in which I dealt with migratory labourers in private companies in the early seventies... In 1993, I was invited by some students to address a meeting of a great tribal icon, Bishnu Rabha, in the Darrang district of Assam. I accepted their invitation since I had a great regard for Rabha. When I was a student of Cotton College he used to visit our house. I had no idea that the meeting was arranged by the ULFA cadres. During the meeting, I could sense that there was something afoot. One of the boys came up to the stage and requested me, Baideo, would you like to come to our base camp. I said, Yes. Thus began one of the most memorable rides of my life. Throughout the road I heard the sound of army trucks. 1993 was the peak of army operations against the outfit. The car took a strange wild path. When I enquired how they would navigate without lights, they said that they knew the way even in the dark. The car halted in front of a house. A family came out from the house and took me inside with great respect. They told me that they were doing welfare work: like providing food to the poor, helping them claim many government positions, building roads, libraries, etc. I ate with

Subhamoy Bhattacharjee

them and tried my best to know their mindset. Finally, when they drove me back, it was nine in the night. After a few years, I heard that almost all the boys had been shot dead. The sole survivor wrote to me on 8 April 1997: One of my colleagues was nabbed and got killed in an encounter with the army on February 2nd, 1997. They tried to do the same with me, but the people of Darrang pressurised the Chief Minister against it. I am indebted to the people for saving my life. My experience in prison was a unique one in my life.

I developed a soul relationship with my fellow prisoners. Throughout the state today, there is the fear and the stench of death. Prior to this letter, he wrote in another letter on January 16th, 1996 about the various activities he was involved with in the village. He was not yet arrested then. I was surprised to read in the letter that they had built a library for the villagers. Some of the books that were stocked in the library included those on the Cuban revolutionary hero, Che Guevara. He also quoted Guevara

in the letter: though a gun can change the world, I am convinced that it actually cannot. The man behind the gun is more important When I received the Jnanpith Award, Paresh Barua, the Commander-in-Chief of the ULFA, telephoned to congratulate me on my success. More than that, he said, he felt happy that Assamese literature had become more known outside Assam. He said that the people outside Assam should come to know more about Assamese culture and literature. Paresh Barua had been a

superb football player. I visited his house in Jeraigaon and felt the agony of his mother who had lost one of her worthy sons, Pareshs brother, Dinesh Barua, in an encounter. In the interior village of Jeraigaon in Tinsukia district, I learnt that there was someone in the ULFA from almost every household. I had met and seen many of these families and was moved by the heart-wrenching tales of their agony. When I met the Commander-in-Chiefs mother in Jeraigaon, in the same room where we were sitting, I saw

the portrait of his younger brother who was killed by the army. I saw his photographs on the wall. He too had been a great football player. A citation given by the villagers was also hanging there. It read: We forward this citation to you on behalf of the village in honour of your contribution to the field of sports in Assam. We are proud of you. The mother of the Commander-in-Chief wept before me. I assured her saying that I would try to do something. I can only try.

I left the family with a heavy heart. In my telephonic conversations with the ULFA Commander-in-Chief Barua, he used to say that he loved his mother. He told me that she hailed from the family of a Maujadar (landlord). He even said that he loved poetry poetry of the Assamese poetess, the late Nalini Bala Devi, Jatin Duara, and so on. He also loved Iqbals poetry. I told him that I had been to Iqbals house in Lahore. I also told him that I was inspired by Iqbal. While I was doing my research on the Ramayana, I found Iqbal wrote several poems on Rama. The Commander-in-Chief laughed and told me that he loved Iqbals revolutionary poems only. I had also visited the village of Arabinda Rajkonwar, the chairman of the ULFA. In their house, I saw the portrait of Arabindas elder brother, who had been killed in the violence. I met his father, Uma Rajkonwar, who was of the royal Ahom lineage. He had been a great freedom fighter. I also met his grief-stricken mother. The family gave me a rousing welcome. Both his parents were over a hundred years old, and it was really heartening to see them sitting next to each other. They lived in an old Assamese house with a sprawling open field in the front. In one of the memoirs of Uma Rajkonwar, he wrote that he started his political career when he was 15 years of age. From 1933 to 1935, he was busy spreading the message of the Congress. He was associated with the spread of weaving among the rural people I asked Uma Rajkonwar many things that day, including if he too wanted an independent Assam like his son. He replied that unlike his son, he did not believe in the idea of an independent Assam. But he admitted that some of the demands made by the boys were valid. I liked the warmth of the house I saw

the portrait of their son, Dimba Rajkonwar, who had been killed some years ago. I left with a heavy heart and with the thought of how much the family longed for their lost son. I was overwhelmed to visit some of the welfare organisations in both lower and upper Assam. On January 6th, 2005, I visited Saraipani and was overwhelmed to see the activities in that place. There I met Jugal Bhuyan, who had been an active member of the ULFA for thirteen years before he left the organisation. He was in charge of the Political Education unit of the organisation and at present is one of the founder members of Pragyalaya, an NGO doing great work in that place When I asked him why he had taken the path of the gun, he said that he was tired of being jobless, and that it was the rich who got all the favours. He had begun to feel like a waste and took to the path of the gun as a means to redeem the situation. I have visited more than a hundred families in South Kamrup, Nalbari, Darrang, and Tinsukia and was overwhelmed to see how violence has shattered the lives of the people. The Bible speaks of The cry of the innocent blood. I could hear the cry, especially in parts of South Kamrup. After the incident in Dhemaji on August 15th, 2004, I decided to appeal to the Honourable Prime Minister of India for restoration of peace in Assam, and invite the militants for peace talks. I knew that I was appealing as a writer and a common person. I considered it my democratic right to raise the issue publicly I believe in peace. ... And that is all. T SOURCE: Muse India, Issue 20: Jul-Aug 2008