Balaram Sougaijamba: The forgotten General of Manipur

There are no monuments or institutions or streets named after him in Manipur today and many of the younger generation of the Manipuri people have heard of him.

- YAMBEM LABA

The state government has not also held any function to honour him. Yes, one is talking of General Balaram Sougaijamba, who played a vital role in the shaping of Manipur and fixing of the present political entity of Manipur. Born sometime in 1805 to Sougaijam Hari Singh of Moirangkhom, Imphal, his family was one of the thousands that had to endure the wrath of the Burmese forces in 1819.

The Burmese had invaded Manipur with a vengeful motive of inflicting a fatal blow to the body and psyche of the Manipuri in retaliation for the sufferings inflicted on them at the hands of the Manipuri rulers earlier.

And long before Adolf Hitler had perfected the art of mass extermination of Jews through poison gassing in specifically built chambers, the Burmese had devised a similar method in Manipur then. They would herd Manipuri families inside their houses and shut the doors. And since poison gases were yet to be invented then the Burmese occupational forces hit upon the idea of burning basketfuls of dried chillies inside the houses where the Manipuris were entrapped.

The emitting smoke of the burning chillies with no escape vents would simply choke the Manipuris to death. Then they also herded thousands to Burma as captives, not chained but simply by stabbing a hole through the palms of their hands and inserting a long vine through which it was held on both ends by a Burmese captor.