Reading Damphu: a novel by Rumi Laskar Bora
Kamrups (Assam) and Nepal find mention in the 4th century
(A.D).Samudragupta pillar edict. Although this edict is often quoted by
nationalist historians of Nepal to justify the term unification of Nepal by
Prithwi Narayan Shah as the source of historical information of Nepal's border
extending till Assam earlier but this edict only says that Nepal,
Kamrup alongwith others were the
kingdoms which pay obeIsance to Samudragupta.
Some tribes are co-inhabitants of both
Assam and Nepal. Bodos and Rajbanshi are
recognised as indigenous tribes of
both Nepal and Assam.
. After the unification of Nepal massive
internal migration took place in the first stage . This affected change of land
pattern and ownership of land uprooting indigenous peoples, disturbing local
habitats. Prior to unification many small states had communal land ownership
system or kipat system. Instead of individual ownership of land a particular
clan used to own specific track of land.
With the establishment of State of Nepal landownership pattern was changed from
communal ownership to state ownership. The primary right of the land was
transferred to the State. The system of communal ownership was terminated. An
individual could make use of the land only after obtaining State permission .
Many kipats were forcefully confiscated and
converted into ryot land and given to those people who were valuable
supporters of the State authority. This
resulted in many of clan members becoming landless. There was no tax under
Kipat system.But once it was under the State authority every landowner had to
pay tax. Tax was exempted only to Birta holder but birta land was granted only
to privileged few caste and classes. In
the absence of their livelihood these landless people were forced to leave
their place of origin and had to move
elsewhere for living. The
displacement ensued in this process forced
fairly substantial number of them to migrate to newer places and far off
their home and even country. Emigration
started happening initially in trickles but in course of time it facilitated
exodus. Court massacres (Kot parva) was also a factor which made people flee from their country. Later British army proved to be catalytic to
this departure from their country because of their recruitment drive for their
various battle fronts. In the two wars
lakhs of them were recruited as Gorkha soldiers, of whom thousands lost their lives and those who survived many
of them decided not to return to their home. Instead they thought best to build
their lives elsewhere far away from their place of birth. This novel
"Damphu : The Rhythms of Life" is the story of one of such soldier who survived the second
world war in Burma and didn't return home.
This is an Assamese language novel written
by Rumi Laskar Bora and translated into english by Dr. Sarita Sharma . The
translator informs that a NepalI rendition
is also ready for publication.
Ms. Rumi Laskar Bora is a young and a
popular writer from Assam. As on date
she has 14 publications to her credit. "Damphu" fetched her the
covetous literary award "Bishnu
Rabha Award" for the year 2014-15. She has also been conferred with "
Maya Media Award" for the year 2018. Besides being a prolific writer she
is an Anchor, actor, dancer, columnist
and social activist.
The story of this novel is based on a
gorkha soldier settled in Assam. The Indian State of Assam is the home of large number of nepalese settled
in India. But it may be clarified here that nepalI language speaking citizens
have been residing in Assam since 17th
century and there could be various
reasons which could have made them prefer this place for settlement.
These nepali speaking people have perfectly assimilated with the indigenous
population and their culture and now
they are an integral part of larger
Assamese cultural heritage. Nar alias
Junga was had become as Assamese as anyone from Assam. "He had become a
part of the land that he called his own. He had adopted the Assamese language
and culture as his own." (p- 221). Ms.Bora is right in her assertion that
"this is the first novel in Assamese which is based on the Nepalese
Community in Assam." (p-8) It is not only in Assamese language alone but in the entire non nepali writer in India
that this is the first ever novel based on Indian Nepali community ever
written. Though considerable populations are there in States like West Bengal,
Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand but no fiction or major
literary writings have ever been written in the dominant language of these
States. This novel is, therefore , a
milestone from this point of view.
The story begins from a remote mountainous
village of Nepal on a love affair between
one chettri boy Nar Bahadur and Tamang girl Radha. Radha's brother Birendra, a drunkard, doesn't like his
sister to marry Nar. She is forced to marry someone else from the same caste.
This breaks the heart of Nar Bahadur and decides to join the British army and
becomes a Gorkha soldier. Soon he is in
the thick of battle deep in the jungle of Burma. He is under the troop
commanded by British General Robert. They were badly outnumbered and surrounded
by Japanese invader. The general decides to retreat for safety and regroup with
his allied troops. They were fifty in total. But the retreat was also hazardous
as there was constant fear of being spotted by Japanese fighter plane and bombard
them. They had to continuously walk through the inhospitable terrain without
adequate food and water. Most of them get killed on the way. Nar Bahadur and
his friend Dhan survive and reach Manipur, India. After recovery from there
they proceed to Guwahati by train. Dhan pursued Nar to go with him but he
disagrees to go further with him.
Nar now changes his name and assumes a new
identity. He becomes Jung Bahadur Thapa. With this name he starts working as
cowherd under Madan Mahajan a local
Assamese landlord and owner of cattle
herd.
Madan Mahajan turns out to be a tyrant,
usurer and rapist. He was a very bad master. After serving him for some years
he buys some cows and develop his own cattle herd. He becomes successful in his venture. Marries
a beautiful girl named Janaki. Soon he is gifted with two sons and a daughter.
His wife and children love him deeply. But all these do not make him happier as
his heart remains in that distant village Daman In Nepal where his love Radha
resides. Finally he makes up his mind to go to his village and meet her.
On reaching his village he learns that
Radha had left the place long time back and is somewhere in Terai area or in
Dharan. He heads to Dharan where he meets her.
Radha is now an old, sick and in her death
bed. She is no longer a beautiful
woman that once she used to when he had
left her. Everything has changed beyond
recognition. Now his motherland, the country of his origin is now strange to
him, and that too is beyond his recognition.
Damphu: the Rhythm of Life is a beautifully
designed fiction with many layers of meanings. As the reading gets subtler one
sees the different levels of structure within it. On a basic level it is a
story of a simple semi literate village boy who grows up to become a brave Gorkha soldier and a successful entrepreneur
later in his life. But within this tale Nar's lover Radha, his desertion and
departure from his country can be seen in the resonance of Radha Krishna immortal love story. Nar
couldn't marry Radha and had to
leave his village Daman just as Krishna didn't marry Radha and left Brindavan
for good. So it is a rewriting of mythical Radha Krishna story. Rumi has also
described Nepal and Assam as two mothers of Nar. "Nepal was his biological
mother, no doubt, just like Krishna's mother Daibaki. Nepal was his birth place
but Assam was, like Krishna's Jasoda, his foster mother." (p-221). This
metaphor of Krishna's two mother can in fact be applied to all Indian nepalese
of the generation who came from Nepal and settled in different regions of
India..
Govind Prasad Sharma in the Foreword to
this book has written about on another level of aspect this novel touches on. He writes that "
throughout history that no race of people has permanently stayed in one place
forever. The story of human civilization is the story of human movement from
one place to another."(p- 3). This idea of human movement from one place
to another for food or for any other purposes equally applies here in the case
of Nar also. He is transplanted from one specific culture or tradition of life
to completely different tradition. The issue of impermanence of human
settlement in any geographically identified
place puts into question the idea of motherland. This debunks the theory
of indigenous-ness and uniqueness of
culture.
This relationship of human to his place of
residence as inalienable right or ownership has come into question time and
again. Former Prime Minister of Britain Mrs. Margaret Thatcher had said that
the humans are only tenants on this earth and not the owner. Jawahar Lall in
Discovery of India delineates the land from the people in the definition of
motherland. He said that the slogan Victory to Mother India is actually meant
to victory to the people. Bharatmata is in fact represent the people residing
here and not the land. This complicates the question of culture identified with
the land. People mean all the people
irrespective of their differences in ethnicity, colour, race or belief system.
This idea brings to the fore the concept of unity in diversity or acceptance of
the differences. This is exactly what has been achieved in this novel by Rumi.
The Assamese will now mean even the nepalese residing there and not
doesn’t exclude them.
Rumi has therefore subscribed to higher
ideal of humanity in this fiction by applying the metaphor of Krishna's two
mother and considering Nar as her own also. If her ideology is to seen in
comparison to two Nobel Laureates announced in 2019 , Peter Handke and Olga
Tokarczuk, Rumi comes closer to Olga.
The protagonist Nar is a hindu nepali but
his lover Radha is from Tamang community and is
ethnically different. Because of dissimilarity in two different cultures
it becomes difficult to get into the spirits of these varied nuances. Therefore
efforts in building up characters and
weaving details of their lives are quite challenging. This require extensive
research work from authentic sources. . Rumi has taken care to remain as
faithful as they are in their real life scenario.
Some nepalI fictions have been written on
second war fought in Burma with Gorkha soldiers as protagonists. "Dak
Bangla" of Shiv Kumar Rai and a short story by I. B. Rai "Jaymaya
aafu matra lekhapani aaipugi" are two popular ones. But what has been
achieved here in this novel is just amazing in terms of its details and
coverage and also the vivid picturisation of terrains of Burma, the difficult
journey and the travails the regiment had to endure.
War and love are two opposite terms. War is
death and destruction and love is life and happiness. Love is what makes lives
possible . Rumi inserts a love scene even in this critical time of most dangerous war and in
the midst of uncertainties of life and death. The General of the Commanding
troop falls in love with the beautiful nurse accompanying them. They had taken rest in a cave where the two are found making
love. It may sound strange but it is the imaginativeness of the author that
this encounter breaks the monotony of
the narrative and tickles the reader.
Portrayal of Nar as Gorkha soldier is
presented here as an ideal hero. Bravery, devotion, faithfulness and
discipline, he seems to be a paragon of all these virtues. Soldiers are
sometime presented as cruel and inhuman. Such a character can be seen in Suyogbir
of Shirishko Phul a classic from Parijat. Suyogbir was an ex soldier of second
world war fighting in Burma. But more than killing his enemies he rapes and
kills innocent women in Burma. He shows no remorse of his actions rather he
gloats of his immoral exploits. In a sharp contrast to Suyogbir, Nar is
chivalrous, a saviour of women's modesty, and prepared to risk his life to save
to do so. While they were retreating Nar and his fellow soldiers hear sounds of
cry. They become alert and try to find out the source of commotion. Some
Burmese revolutionaries or bandits were molesting young women. Nar with his
friends Dhan, Mungri and Birendra try to save the girls. They kill the
molestors but couldn't save the girls.
Two of his friends Mungri and Birendra also die. Subject matter of the two
novels are of course entirely different. For Parijat angst, womanhood,
existence was of primary concern in Shirisko Phul but for Rumi Laskar the life
of Gorkha soldier and his ideal were more important in Damphu.
Burma and India were both colonies of
Britain till middle half of 20th century and both the countries were fighting
for independence. Rumi brings into light the lessor known part of history of
Burma of war. During 1940s Britain was
deeply involved in the second world war. While in India, the Indian freedom
fighters agreed to support Britain, subject to the condition that they leave
India after the war, in its fight
against axis forces, the Burmese revolutionaries supported the Japanese to defeat British forces.
The history of Indian and other settlers
have also been thrown light upon. Britishers brought people from India to work
in Burma. Many of these Indian businessman were shrewd and they were able to
amass much property and wealth at the
expense of local people. This was disliked by local Burmese people and so there
was revolt against these prosperous Indians. For the revolutionaries these
immigrant businessmen were also enemies to be targeted.
The character Gyan Bahadur who is a freedom
fighter here can be identified with the freedom fighter from Assam late
Chabilall Upadhaya. Sahitya Academy Award winning author Geeta Upadhyay is his grand daughter. Late
Chabilall Upadhaya had played a prominent role in the freedom struggle of India
from Assam. Assam had substantial muslim population since pre independence
period. When the issue of partition came up the Muslims of Assam demanded they
be merged with territory of Pakistan in East Bengal. Gopinath Bordoloi who was
the most important figure of freedom struggle from Assam became alarmed.
Amongst many other he asked Late Chabilall Upadhyay to mention all the Nepali
population of Assam as Hindus. He made sure that the entire Nepali community to
enroll as Hindu to show solidarity with majority hindu community and also to
save Assam from being merged with Pakistan. With this effort Gopinath was able
to show that Assam had more hindu population than muslim and Assam was able to
remain within India. Gopinath Bordoloi became the first chief minister of Assam
after independence. This incident supports the claim that the Indian nepalese
had played memorable role in the national
integration of India and their patriotism or devotion to India is beyond
question.
Another point which Rumi makes in this
fiction is the contribution of these settlers in clearing the vast track of
dense forest in and around Brahmaputra valley and developing them into fertile
agricultural land. They reared large cattle herd and were pioneer in white
revolution in Assam. Gyan Bahadur, Jang Bahadur and others became successful
farmers by way of agriculture and dairy farming.
Dasai and tyohar are the two most important
festival of a hindu nepali community. It is
exhilarating to find the beautiful narration of the celebration of
tyohar here with the details of rituals followed and the happiness and the
thrill felt by them observing it. The details is of prime importance as this novel is primarily for non nepali
readers. It is sheer creativity that
makes it so enlightening and heart
throbbing and that every line evokes emotions
capable of lifting spirit transporting the reader to the very centre of
festivity. Her art of weaving words into emotion is perfectly exhibited in this
chapter.
The author makes comparison to her own
culture Bihu festival with this tyohar
festival and finds similarities which
establishes the fact that these two
communities namely Assamese and Nepalese are not different at all. Even
if there are some minor differences this
has only enriched larger Assamese culture making it more colourful.
The canvas of this novel spreads over from
Nepal, Burma to Assam and the time covered is from 1940s to 1990s. While
reading one actually feel the passage of time, the transformations that have
taken places of people the landscape and the inevitable decay of things that
one can only mourn about. The narrative has a closure and the circle is
completed that of life and the desires of life. Nar began his life from a high
mountainous remote village of Nepal. He comes far away, had a turbulent but
satisfying life.
His last journey to his home in Nepal turns
out bitter for him as it was no longer
like he had left in his early life. Nepal is now very different from the one he knew and had in his imagination.
He feels like an stranger. With this Rumi has been able to mark an
important point successfully in regard
to emotional rupture of an Indian Nepalese about Nepal. India is his home and
he belongs to where he is now residing and not where his ancestors lived. The
change of name and assumption of new identity by Nar after arrival in Guwahati
from the war also points to this rupture of his memory of his home.
It is interesting to talk about the
character Arun, a Bangladeshi, living in Assam and now working as Taxi driver
from Siliguri, West Bengal. He has been to places around including Gangtok
Sikkim, remote villages in Nepal
ferrying passengers and well versed in multiple
local languages. Nar alias Jung hires him for his journey to Daman from
Kakarvitta. When Arun learns that his passenger is from Assam he gets excited
and pleased. It is through him that Nar was finally able to locate Radha in a
decrepit two roomed house in Dharan, Nepal.
Radha's religious conversion from Buddhism to Christianism is
indicative of spead of christianity in Nepal. Nepal was predominantly hindu
country and its constitution mentioned hindu as the State religion. Any
religious conversion was strictly prohibited and any such activity invited
severe punishment or banishment as per the provisions of the constitution. But still many different
community did manage to adopt new religion. It is reported that many members
from tribal tamang community did convert to christianity by the lure of better
lives and also of orthodoxy of its age old practices some of which are taxing
for economically weaker section. Radha is one such tamang family here who
converted into Christianity.
But after the revolution Nepal adopted a
new constitution declaring the state as secular and now all religious practices
have been permitted.
Noted Poet and story writer Adon Rongong
was in Nepal for more than thirty years. His memorable biography written by Kamal B.N. outlines his
extensive evangelical activities in
Nepal. He was a pioneer and largely credited for the spread of christianity.
Rumi has written this novel with great
compassion, love and knowledge. This can be seen from the character she
develops in Jung Bahadur. Jung is a passionate lover, a brave Gorkha soldier,
saviour of women in distress, hard worker, farmer, loving husband, caring
father, a pioneer in the development of
his village, a patriot and a social worker.
The theme of this novel is a counter
narrative to what is usually claimed by Indian Nepalese of identity crisis in
India. Rumi says here that the Nepalese of Assam are Assamese in every sense.
She maintains that they have made contributions to every Assamese causes and
they are not considered as different or an outsider. To go back to the metaphor
of Krishna, for Krishna there was no difference between Devki, who gave birth
to him, and Jashoda who looked after him. Jashoda also never thought that
Krishna wasn’t her son. In the same Rumi maintains Assam has never thought Assamese Nepalese as
someone else.
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