Historicising Manipur's Social and Political Issues through the Poetry of Robin S Ngangom.

History is said to be the narration of significant event that have occurred somewhere in the past. Earlier, it was looked up to as an authentic document of certain period and its veracity was never questioned. The investigation regarding its genuineness is just recent when scholars realized that different historical versions of the same period were available. Each version spoke different stories, often contradictory, about the same period. Now the question arises, how far the history is authentic? Historians write history based on their personal agenda and biasness. Thus the investigation began and up to now the debate still lingers on which version to accept as real and which to discard as unreal. Besides history books, plethora of information about historical facts are available online, therefore, selecting the right version has become difficult. Surprisingly, details of authentic historical events have started reflecting in poetry. The function of poetry has changed drastically since the First World War. Certain sections of poets have become imbued with the reality and pressing issues of their surroundings. They have started representing the reality of the events as it is and this kind of poetry could be seen emerging from the Northeastern part of India. The present paper attempts to explore the historicity as reflected in the poems of Robin S Ngangom and to see how his poem plays a major role in bringing out the social and political issues of Manipur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]