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A harmonium slung over his shoulder, Hemanta Jamatia would wander from village to village in Tripura, singing revolutionary songs to woo youth to join an armed rebellion.
That was in 1979. Jamatia, then in his mid-20s, was a member of the outlawed Tripura National Volunteers, a rebel group that was fighting for an independent tribal homeland.
Today, Jamatia sings a different tune: to woo back the rebels that he once inspired to go underground.
From wielding a gun to rendering folk songs on stage, life for Jamatia, who is now 47, has turned a full circle. He is now considered the sole custodian of Tripura's dying folk music - and has a national award to show for it.
He was until 1983, the chief weapons instructor for TNV and commanded a "battalion" of the outfit from his hideout in the thickly forested Chittagong Hill Tracts in adjoining Bangladesh.
"I was described as a good instructor and was adept in handling all kinds of weapons," Jamatia told IANS in Tripura's capital Agartala. "I was with the TNV for five years before I surrendered in 1983."
Once he laid down arms, Jamatia was a reformed man, working full-time to promote Tripura's traditional folk music. That won him the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1996 for his single-handed efforts in preserving and popularizing a dying tradition - Tripura's folk music.
"I have penned about 200 songs, besides scoring the music," Jamatia said.
"During my early days in the underground, my revolutionary songs inspired people in their hundreds to support the TNV," he said.
Today Jamatia shuttles between studios in Agartala, recording for All India Radio and Doordarshan or rendering his voice for locally produced audio cassettes.
"Singing has been my passion and I want to continue with it until my last breath," Jamatia, a father of three children, said.
Recounting his days in the jungles, the soft-spoken Jamatia says life underground was tortuous. "You didn't have a roof overhead at night, tigers and elephants were encountered every single day and to top it all, there was no food to eat for days together.
"But even then, I use to motivate the cadres by singing revolutionary songs," he said.
Jamatia now says armed insurgency is nothing but futility. "Nothing can be achieved through violence and armed struggle. Sooner or later, this realisation will dawn on the militants who are now in the jungles," he said.
"My last wish is to be remembered by the people of Tripura as a singer and not as a rebel leader," Jamatia said.
Indo-Asian News Service
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