Student bodies in Manipur on August 12 burnt a copy of Amar Chitra Katha’s latest edition of comic book ‘Tribal Leaders of Freedom Struggle’ in protest against portraying a war hero of Manipur as a tribal freedom fighter of India’s freedom struggle.
The student organizations are against the Amar Chitra Katha publisher for relating a freedom fighter of Manipur with India’s Independence movement.
In the comic book, Paona Brajabashi who led the then Manipur kingdom’s last battle of independence fought against the British is included among the tribal leaders of the India’s freedom struggle.
Condemning the “wrong portrayal” of the war hero of the then kingdom of Manipur, activists of Joint Students’ Co-ordination Committee (JSCC) staged a protest at the head office campus of KSA at Khoyathong in Imphal.
JSCC is an apex body of students’ bodies – AMSU, MSF, KSA and SUK.
While burning down the copy of the comic book, the JSCC also declared a ban on the selling of the comic book and other books published by the Amar Chitra Katha Pvt. Ltd.
The comic book was published by Amar Chitra Katha to commemorate the 75th year of India’s Independence.
JSCC expressed strong resentment over the “wrong portrayal” of the war hero of Manipur while asserting that Manipur was ruled by the king independently before the British invasion.
Talking to reporters, JSCC convener S Bidyananda said that Paona Brajabashi was a war hero of Manipur who laid down his life in the Anglo-Manipur War of 1891 and his patriotic act was not related with the freedom movement of India.
The JSCC convener sought an apology from the publishing house of the comic book and the writer to the people of Manipur while announcing that the ban on selling the comic book and other books published by the Amar Chitra Katha publishing house will continue until a positive response is received from the publishing house.
He further asked all book stores across the state not to sell the books published by Amar Chitra Katha.
