The Quest for Identity: The Assam Poetry Festival – Season 1

Mac Haque

Nothing makes me more home sick, more nostalgic than the thought of visiting Assam. Trapped as it is by a providence of birth in Bangladesh (in 1957), born to proud Assamese Muslim parents who immigrated in 1952 to East Pakistan from Borholla and Jorhat, my life has been an endless limbo when it came to the question of identity.

I was born a citizen of Pakistan and after 1971 by default became a citizen of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh, yet I was raised as an innocent Assamese child by my parents with a ‘cursed sense of simplicity’, with strict regimen in the practice of the Assamese language at home, and appreciation of its rich culture and heritage, with songs and Bihu festivities and its observance within the tight knit communities in Bangladesh from ujoni Asom or upper Assam. I had every reason to hold my head high with pride. The greatest gift that I have inherited from my parents is an ability to speak the purest of Assamese in the Sibsagar-Jorhat dialect which leaves many, especially in Assam awe-struck!

Yet in my impressionable childhood when it came to visiting Assam they were rare and in-between occurrences and would happen during my winter vacations from school or during the weddings of any of my maternal uncles or aunts – who were in the dozens! In Assam my earliest recollections is getting thoroughly spoilt with gifts that were heaped on me, playing mischievous games and pranks with my cousins who were over fifty in number, the visit to my parental Gorajan Tea Estate in Borholla on a horse driven buggy, and the incessant travels to Jorhat Town, Dibrugarh Tezpur, Guwahati, Furkating, and several more. The greatest treat in my visit to Assam would be the family picnics or the shikars or hunts organized by my uncles. It was with a sense of pride that I would hold in my hand the array of family owned 12 bore shotguns, the .22 bore rifles and of course the ‘pride of the aristocracy’ the Browning Citori double barreled guns. My parents never permitted me to shoot a gun without an elder overseeing me – nor did they permit me to shoot and kill animals, so my joining the shikars  was mainly for the fun of it all and overnight camping and the occasional pigeon that I would defy my Dad’s instruction and shoot anyway. 

However two things about Assam continued to attract me like a magnet and perhaps still does, its natural beauty and its people – who I have no hesitation to state are perhaps the finest, gentle, humorous  and polite folks I have met anywhere in the world.

That said, to come back to present times and the reason for this piece, my return to Assam on the 3^rd of November 2017 ostensibly for the Assam Poetry Festival, Season 1, has a background that would be a shame not mentioning.

Being a recluse by choice, the isolation in my life took a three sixty degree shift in 1996 with the advent of the Internet and in 2007 with me joining Facebook. While I connected with a lot of new friends and many fans given my chequered musical career and public intellectual life in Bangladesh as a poet, as well as a radical columnist of nearly forty years, the chance to catch up with many Assamese in Assam proper as well as the vast diaspora made me more and more interested into the political events in Assam as they were unfolding with devastating consequences back ‘home’.

Being a lifelong pacifist the spectre of violence as Assam asserted its right to equality, democracy and freedom and fair play in the dealing with the Republic of India, did NOT leave me a mute spectator. I consumed as much information’s on the tragedy that saw thousands of my brothers and sisters being killed, hundred raped and houses and property destroyed and found it no different to the catastrophe Bangladesh faced during its Liberation War in 1971. What I found most shocking was the Indian Republic and its Army the benefactors of Bangladesh in its Liberation War, were pursuing the same policies of atrocities on its own people in Assam as did our barbarous Pakistani enemy.

At the press briefing held at the central office of United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) in Guwahati, Assam

Left to living in a country so close yet far from ‘home’ I had to deal with devastating mental trauma, shock and streams of tears. And not unsurprisingly by the spring of 1993 I extended in private my moral and intellectual support to the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) who were spearheading the independence of Assam both through its armed and political wings. There were many names in the struggle that ensued and one that enamored me the most was that of Shri Aurobindo Rajkhowa the Chairman of ULFA for his communiqués which I monitored and circulated in various websites that were in curt, terse and very impeccable English.  In 2016 I added Mrs. Kaberi Kochari Rajkonwar on Facebook for I instantly recognized from many profile pictures was the spouse of Shri.Rajkhowa. Therein began a relationship between the two of us bordering on respect and mutual admiration as she became more and aware of my poetic talents having

With Shri Anup Chetia the General Secretary of United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) at the central office in Guwahati, Assam
monitored many of my academic and poetic events in Bangladesh as well as books publications online.

And then it was towards the end of December 2016 that she sent me a message and wanted to know if I and another Bangladesh poet would be interested to join in the Assam Poetry Festival – Season 1 - a grand union of poets from Assam and the region which is scheduled to be held sometime early October 2017. I couldn’t miss the chance to visit Assam again and readily agreed. What followed were several telephone conversations and many names from Bangladesh were shared – eventually by mid-July we agreed on the eminent English language Poet Nadeem Rahman to accompany me to the festival, this being his first ever trip to Assam. However the devastating floods in Assam of August meant the festivals were postponed until November 4^th, 5^th and 6^th 2017 and both of us readied ourselves for the occasion.

Arriving in Guwahati we were received by an enthusiastic bunch of poetry lovers and organizers of the festival who escorted us to the hotel. Within half an hour we checked in to our rooms and awaited the arrival of Mrs. Rajkonwar. Within the hours several more poets from Kolkata and elsewhere arrived and we exchanged pleasantries. Soon Mrs.Rajkonwar arrived and in her own demure ways extended us a warm welcome to the festival. After an hour of discussions about the festival and our role in the same – she left promising that the next day i.e. the 4^th of November would be a fun filled event, with very positive vibes from all attendees and the gathering.

Poster of my band Maqsood O' dHAKA's concert organised by Rupantor and Asom Jatiyo Nyas two sister organisations of ULFA together with Friends of Bangladesh, Assam Chapter

On the 4^th of November 2017, Poet Nadeem Rahman left for the festival ahead of me as I had to go to the ULFA office for a press briefing preceding a concert that my band Maqsood O’ dHAKA was going to be performing in Guwahati on the 7^th of November 2017. 

About the ULFA; with regards to the future of Assam, they are now split into two main bodies, one an open political platform, with the political wing under Chairman Shri. Aurobindo Rajkhowa and General Secretary Shri. Anup Chetia given the leaderships decision after its release from Bangladeshi jails and custody, to enter peace talks with Delhi, which the armed wing led by Commander in Chief of ULFA Shri. Paresh Asom has refused to join. In their current setup it now appears that ULFA is pursuing a ‘carrot and stick’ policy with the armed wing acting as a strong deterrent against the ongoing Indian Government policy of repression and atrocities as well as economic subjugation and will pursue the same as avowed until total Independence for Assam is achieved. Within this complex makeup Assam edges along in its glorious struggle and bid for freedom from the yoke of Indian oppression.

At the Assam Poetry Festival - Season 1 at Guwahati, Assam Front Seat Left to Right: Shri Aurobindo Rajkhowa Chairman of ULFA, S hri Anup Chetia, General Secretary of ULFA and Self, Rear Standing : Mrs. Kaberi Kochari Rajkonwar and extreme right K. Sarma, Academic and Author from Guwahati

I arrived at the Poetry Festival venue by mid-afternoon and was warmly received by Mrs. Rajkonwar, with gifts of traditional Assamese japi, gamusa and paper flowers (so as not to destroy natural flowers - an environment friendly decision and one we should replicate in Bangladesh) and already the poetry sessions were on. What interspersed and was very obvious to the gathering and participants was the spirit of Independence that the Assamese intelligentsia, civil society and the general masses of Assam aspired for.

At the closing ceremony of the Assam Poetry Festival - Season one - I am on extreme right with Shri Aurobindo Rajkhowa, Chairman ULFA and General Secretary Shri Anup Chetia

What in its long battles of over three decades of guerrilla warfare against the Indian  establishment the ULFA had not being able to gain – the poetry festival and the concert with me and my band were show cases of how the ‘new ULFA’ aims at capitalizing on the power and strength of its new strategy - cultural warfare. On its agenda are peoples-to-peoples contact, interactions with neighbors -even with Bangladesh- as all the while the vexed question of Bangladeshi migrants and the National Registration of Citizens (report due on 31^st December 2017) hangs as a Damocles sword on its future; the intensity and the passions exhibited in the deliberations simply could not be overlooked. Like I mentioned in my presentation –‘winning the war is going to take long – yet winning the peace will take much longer, we have a clear example of that in Bangladesh’. I am sure no one in the gatherings disagreed for I presented the perfect model of what ‘crisis of identity’ can bring about.

When it comes to the question of identity – I have one too many to contend with. For instance, as if born a Pakistani, later becoming a Bangladeshi with Assamese roots was not enough – in modern Bangladesh I have to today contend politically with being a ‘Bengali’ i.e. a supporter of the ruling Awami League or ‘Bangladeshi’ a  citizen aligned to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party- Jamaat E Islami right wing Islamist fundamentalist nexus. Making things worse was my decision to give up on my Islamic ‘Muslim’ identity in 1988 and relating to the agnostic teaching and philosophies of the Sage Fakir Lalon Shah of Seuria, Kushtia in Bangladesh and ‘reverting’ to the Baul belief system and way of life !

The deliberations on 5^th of November 2017 was intense with poets from West Bengal, Bangladesh and Assam reciting poetry and making fiery speech on freedom of expression, democracy, and Independence of Assam. I joined in making my points and insisting that while illegal migration from Bangladesh to Assam has happened in the past; over the last ten given with the economic boom that Bangladesh has witnessed there is now absolutely no question of Bangladeshis migrating to Assam or for that matter anywhere else in India. Also in its current foreign policy Bangladesh discourages both migration and infiltration as has been witnessed in its resistance to the influx of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar in recent days. My points seem to have touched a nerve in many well meaning people in Assam.

The concluding day of the festival on 6^th November 2017 was a red letter day for me, because for the very first time I was to meet the Chairman of ULFA Shri. Aurobindo Rajkhowa. He not only recognized me instantly but gave me a warm hug and felicitated me for my contribution in Bangladesh to ULFA and the Independence of Assam. Later we shared the same stage at the festival where he spoke in length about the Assamese peoples struggle for self determination and Independence of Assam, breaking into a song by Dr. Bhupen Hazarika which mesmerized the audience. When it was time for Anup Chetia to speak, he mentioned briefly about meeting me while in hiding in Bangladesh in 1996 and regretted that because of our contacts I was jailed in Bangladesh in the winter of 1999 and that we met at the Dhaka Central Jail. I was touched by his simple gesture of gratitude for my role in supporting the ULFA and its fight for Independence, 

Life can have many tragedies, but the tragedy that beguiles all is the tragedy of identity. Assam is no exception to the rule, and until true Independence is achieved, the conflicts will continue. The only healing balm is Culture with all its positive connotations – the harbingers of change, of bounties and importantly PEACE that has eluded Assam for centuries!

PEACE is not an absence of war, but an end to threats of war, to conditions that make war inevitable. Those conditions are far from being mended in Assam.

Joi Ai Asom! 

Dhaka 21^st November 2017

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