ABSTRACT
Binodini Devi’s The Princess and the Political Agent is a Manipuri novel based on palace chronicles of the Manipur royal family to which the author belongs. It tells the story of Princess Sanatombi, an aunt of the author, who entered into a relationship with an Englishman named Maxwell, who was the British Political Agent placed in Manipur, with a part of Manipuri history woven in. The narrative is described as a novel but it reads like an authorized chronicle and the effort is to present the characters with their dignity intact as royal personages. The Meitis, to which group the royal family belongs, is the majority ethnic group in Manipur but the author sees ‘Manipur’ represented by the family (‘king is country’). Sanatombi needing to have her persona respected is a key motivation especially because of Manipur’s position in India as disturbed area with ongoing unrest. The Meitis are Hindus but they see their ethnic identity as more important and will not easily make common cause with India based on their religion. In the text, Binodini’s effort is to show Sanatombi’s position not as a concubine to Maxwell, which is the way the British would regard it, not even as wife (Maxwell had a family in England) but Maxwell as Sanatombi’s ‘consort’, placing him lower than her socially.
