"Dear Comrade”: Assamese poet challenges power through poetry

Guwahati: Dear Comrade, a new collection of 55 poems by promising young poet Rashmiriya Gogoi, announces the arrival of a politically alert and emotionally charged poetic voice in contemporary Assamese literature.

The title poem, Dear Comrade, stands out as the thematic core of the collection. Addressed to an imagined revolutionary figure, the poem weaves personal anguish with collective historical memory, reflecting on the unfulfilled promises of freedom. Revolution appears momentarily as hope, only to dissolve into illusion, mirroring a broader disillusionment with political ideals in the present time. A recurring motif of “wakefulness” runs through the poem, emerging as a powerful symbol of resistance, moral conscience, and the refusal to forget in an age marked by fear and silence.

Rich in stark and unsettling imagery—dying rivers, blackened blood, fascist violence, and a “naked civilization”—the poem offers a sharp critique of authoritarianism and moral decay. The contrast between the red flag of freedom and the suffering of the homeless exposes the human cost hidden beneath grand ideological claims. Urgent, dense, and emotionally intense, Dear Comrade reads like a restless poem of protest—angry, alert, and unmistakably contemporary.

Endorsing the collection, noted Assamese poet Bipuljyoti Saikia observes that Rashmiriya consistently speaks of the people and the society around her. Even when she describes herself as an “illusion,” Saikia notes, she places herself firmly among the masses. He cites the lines:
“I am not alone in the cremation ground,
Even among hundreds, I too am an illusion.”
Reflecting on the craft of poetry, Saikia adds that thought in poetry flows through language, and that poetry, in essence, is the art of language itself—expressing the hope that the poet will remain mindful of this truth.

Assamese literary critic Arindam Borkataki, in his assessment, highlights Rashmiriya Gogoi’s deep faith in words as instruments of change. He notes that her poetry brings into focus the terrors of globalization and the free-market economic system with clarity and confidence. According to Borkataki, the poet raises these concerns without hesitation or inner conflict, avoiding ambiguity or uncertainty. This clarity of thought, he argues, forms the core strength of her poetry, which emerges not as passive observation but as a compelling cry of truth, without sacrificing poetic sensibility.

Published by Guwahati-based Barna, the book was released recently by eminent Assamese poet Nilim Kumar. Praising Rashmiriya Gogoi, Kumar highlighted the strong sense of social consciousness that permeates her poetry, marking Dear Comrade as a significant and timely contribution to contemporary Assamese verse.