Autobiograph And The Art Of Indenting

A Reading Of Hiren Gohain´S Iman Tita Sagarar Pani (2011)

Abstract

Historians get their information about past from different sources.  Sources provide them facts to support their argument and draw conclusion. In search of facts, historians often attempt to shape and mould with different types of sources of information. Autobiography is one such literary genre which makes use of historical sources.   A.Marwick’s Nature of History (1970) stands as a fine example of this kind. 

                    Tough of western origin, as a form, Autobiography has become a popular genre in India and is quite popular in Assamese literature right from the beginning of nineteenth century.  Autobiographies in Assamese literature are predominantly written by some prominent personalities who have excelled themselves in their respective fields, capturing the culture, peoples and geographical locale of Assam. 

                     In this paper, I intend to deal with Dr Hiren Gohain’s Iman Tita Sagarar Pani, an Assamese autobiography by a prominent literary personality.   My attempt here is to examine how Autobiography as a form examines the post-independence history of Assam. 

                     The paper is divided into two sections.  In the first section, an attempt is made to define what is an autobiography and the motifs behind writing an Autobiography and its relation to History.  In the second part, Hiren Gohain’s  Iman Tita Sagarar Pani, is taken up as a case study to examine how history is used in an Autobiography.