It is a whodunit that has haunted Assam’s literary circles for close to five decades. In April 1974, one of the state’s tallest poets, Nilamani Phukan, was accused of plagiarism. For the next few months, the Jnanpith Award winner went around proving his innocence, rebutting the letter that had 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.
On January 19 this year, the 89-year-old Phukan died of age-related complications in Guwahati. Days after his death, his once protégé is set to reveal the contents of a sealed letter that Phukan authored, a letter allegedly with names of those who betrayed him, a letter that he asked to be only opened after his death.
“This is likely among the longest kept secrets of contemporary Indian literature,” said Manoj Kumar Goswami, editor-in-chief of Aamar Asom, an Assamese daily. “Everyone is now waiting with baited breath on what the contents of the envelope will reveal.”
Beginnings of a scandal
In April 1974, an Assamese magazine called Aamar Pratinidhi, which had eminent Assamese singer, composer, songwriter and filmmaker Bhupen Hazarika as editor, carried 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 the poem was written by Leon Felipe Camino in 1834. In support of these claims, the letter writer submitted a copy of an English magazine called Echo, ostensibly brought out from Kochi 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. Barua accused Phukan of simply copying the Spanish poem from the magazine.
By this time, Phukan was 41 years old and already an established name in Assam’s literary circles.
“Phukan’s contribution to Assamese poetry is immense. He was a sensitive man who delved deep into culture, and his use of imagery was outstanding. Each of his poems was akin to a painting,” said Arcchana Puzari, a poet and retired professor of Assamese at Arya Vidyapeeth College, Guwahati.
The letter caused a storm.
There were those who backed the allegations and raised questions on Phukan’s integrity. Others dismissed the accusations and called Barua a fake, an assumed identity, created only to smear Phukan’s image. “In the 1960s and 1970s, Phukan’s poems had created quite a stir and took Assamese poetry to greater heights. Some people got jealous of this and conspired to tarnish his image. That is how the conspiracy started,” said Goswami, who won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 2022 for his book Bhool Satya.
Efforts to counter the allegations
A distraught Phukan began an investigation into the allegations, desperate to clear his name. In September 1974, he published a piece in Dainik Asom, an Assamese daily, where he wrote extensively on the cracks that had appeared in the accusations.
There was no magazine called Echo that was published from Kochi and there was no press called Raghavan in Vijaywada, where the magazine was said to be printed, Phukan said. Although there was an anti-fascist Spanish poet called León Felipe Camino Galicia, he had not authored a poem called Nightmare, he found.
“Phukan collected these details from JM Cohen, the editor of the Penguin Book of Spanish Verse, and other experts, including from the Spanish language department of Jawaharlal Nehru University and embassies of Spain and Mexico in New Delhi,” said Nitya Borah, a journalist and an author.
“Among those who helped Phukan was the famed police officer KPS Gill, who was superintendent of police in Kamrup in 1974,” Borah said.
“Gill helped Phukan gather details about Echo, the publishers and printers, or their non-existence, from his police colleagues in Kerala.”
The investigation also revealed that Echo was likely to have been printed in Assam several years prior to the letter appearing in Aamar Pratinidhi.
“The person, or group of people, went to great lengths to lend credence to their allegations. But they were not successful,” said Goswami.
But, the one thing that Phukan did not disclose in his article was the names of the people who wrongfully accused him.
The sealed envelope
In 2004, Borah wrote a piece about the controversy in another Assamese daily called Asomiya Pratidin. An admirer and former student of Phukan, Borah was associated with Aamar Pratinidhi.
“Soon after the article appeared, I got a letter and a sealed envelope from Phukan. The letter said that the envelope carried the names of the person, or people, who made the false allegations. There were clear instructions not to open it till his death,” Borah said.
Phukan’s family and close friends confirmed that they were aware of such a letter.
With Phukan passing away on January 19, Borah said he would open the sealed envelope on January 24 in front of a select group of journalists and put an end to a saga that had captured imaginations in Assam, and had tried to sully the name of the state’s third ever person to win the literary Jnanpith Award in 2021.
Borah, however, has postponed the big reveal for a few days. “I have got a letter from Phukan’s family requesting me not to open the envelope till the shradh ceremony was completed. The rituals will be over on January 31 and I will open the sealed envelope two or three days after that,” Borah said.
The contents of the letter a complete mystery, Assam now waits with bated breath.
“It could be that Phukan hasn’t taken any names. But going by the state of his mind during the 1970s, he may have chosen to disclose them,” Goswami said. “We will only find out when the envelope is opened.”
