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Twist in last verse as Phukan letter opened
GUWAHATI: A letter, in a sealed envelope, written by one of Assam’s most-celebrated poets, which when opened on Friday was expected to disclose conspirators who accused him of plagiarism nearly five decades ago, turned out to be anti climatic. It did not reveal any names, but it did expose deep fissures in Assamese literary and intellectual circles.
In the letter, opened by journalist-and-author Nitya Bora in front of journalists in Guwahati, Jnanpith Award winner Nilamani Phukan, who died last month, took names of people who believed his creations were original, and those who failed to acknowledge his innocence.
It also revealed the emotional pain that Phukan went through following the accusations, and the hurt that nearly put an end to his creativity half-a-century before his death. But it stopped short of naming those who laid out what seemed to be an elaborate plan over several years to discredit him and his creations.
“Now after three decades, what would be the benefit of knowing who they were? They should ask themselves, what reproach and drunk in what excitement led them to do this evil-deed. How did it benefit Assamese society, literature, the poet’s poems and those conspiring villains?” Phukan’s letter, written in March 2005, 31 years after the allegations of plagiarism surfaced, stated.
In April 1974, an Assamese magazine Aamar Pratinidhi which was edited by eminent Assamese singer, composer, song writer and filmmaker Bhupen Hazarika, published a letter written by someone named Mridupaban Barua. The letter alleged that Phukan’s poem “Tuponitu teu muk khedi phurisil” (He haunted me even when I was asleep) was just a translation into Assamese of an old Spanish poem called “Nightmare”.
The letter said “Nightmare” was written by a poet called Leon Felipe Camino in 1834, and in support of these claims, submitted a copy of an English magazine called Echo, ostensibly brought out from erstwhile Cochin, and published at a press in Vijaywada. The letter said that, in 1961, Echo had carried an article called “A Galaxy of International Poets”, which contained the poem Nightmare written by Camino.
For the next few months, with rumours flying around, Phukan went around trying to prove his innocence, taking apart piece by piece the letter that accused him of the literary felony. He was successful for the most part, but refused to divulge one final
detail: who had set him up.
The letter
In the four-page letter by the poet to Nitya Bora (after the latter wrote a piece on the controversy in the June 25, 2004 edition of Asomiya Pratidin, an Assamese daily) Phukan requested him not to open the envelope till his death and allowed him to publish its contents, if he wished.
The letter, which promised to expose the perpetrators of the alleged conspiracy, instead reveals Phukan’s state of mind and despair at the allegations.
“It (the allegation of plagiarism) is an unprecedented incident in Assamese literature. As far as I know, even in world literature no one has done any such thing,” he wrote mentioning how several of his well-wishers had asked him not to pay heed to the article.
“The allegation by Mridupaban Baruah against me is serious. It dealt with my ethics, sincerity, conscience and truthfulness. For an author, truthfulness and conscience are not small things... I couldn’t silently tolerate the ‘Aamar Pratinidhi’ episode. Tolerating it would have been terribly painful for me;
LETTER WAS MEANT TO EXPOSE DETRACTORS: HT reported on January 30 on the case that has haunted literary circles in Assam for close to five decades
poetry would have ended and at the end, life would have become a live piece of wood. That’s why I chose the path of protest,” he wrote in the letter.
Friends and foes
He also spoke of those who kept on inspiring him to write despite the questions on his creativity including eminent Assamese personalities such as poet Bhaben Barua, writer-scholar Satyendranath Sharma, Jnanpith Award winner Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya, and national award winning filmmaker Bhabendra Nath Saikia.
Phukan said that despite proving the charges against him to be fake, doubts continued to be raised on his creations.
In 1996, for example, in a book on history of Assamese literature, which was edited by author, journalist and Sahitya Academy Award winner Homen Borgohain, an article “Twenty years of Assamese Poetry” written by Pradip Acharya said that the Phukan poem was influenced by Spanish poet Camino.
“Listening to slander and unnatural behaviour of some broke me emotionally and physically. But I had self-confidence and my friends constantly reminded me to keep my mental strength intact,” Phukan wrote.
He further mentioned that he received letters accusing him, and one even threatening to put him in jail. There was another long letter to an editor written in April 1975 in an Assamese paper questioning the legitimacy of his creations, and also a parody play was written about him using pseudonyms.
“The writers of the play and the letter may have assumed that I would burn and turn to ashes in the flames of their hatred, false propaganda and anger. Though they used fake identities, but even with their assumed names, I felt I knew both of them,” Phukan wrote, giving a clue that he knew or had an inkling about the perpetrators of the conspiracy against him.
Borah, who was once a protégé of Phukan, and also associated with Aamar Pratinidhi at the time when the allegations against the poet were published in the magazine, mentioned that during investigations carried out by Phukan along with famed cop KPS Gill, it was revealed that three copies of Echo (a non-existent magazine) were printed in a press in Assam using old newsprint and kept for few years before labelling the allegations.
“It was later proved that the conspirators had in fact translated Phukan’s poem in English and alleged that it was copied from the original poem called Nightmare in Spanish,” said Bora, while defending his decision to disclose the contents of the letter despite reservations by some since Phukan, and most people named in his letter, were already dead. The only secret that remained unresolved was if the veteran writer knew who exactly had tried to set him up, and whether he deemed the names too insignificant to spell out.