Gitchandra Tongbra (6 February 1916 – 3 June 1996), popularly known as G. C. Tongbra, was an Indian satirist, poet, playwright and art academic from

Imphal Imphal ( Meitei pronunciation: /im.pʰal/; English pronunciation: ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Manipur. The metropolitan centre of the city contains the ruins of Kangla Palace (also known as Kangla Fort), the royal seat of the fo ...

. Born on 6 February 1913 in the Indian state of

Manipur Manipur () ( mni, Kangleipak) is a state in Northeast India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. It is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west. It also borders two regions of Myanm ...

, Tongbra was known for his socio-realistic plays such as ''Mani Manou'' (1962), '' Matric Pass'' (1964) and ''Upu Baksi'' (1972). The

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

awarded him the fourth highest Indian civilian award of

Padma Shri Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, ...

in 1975. Four years later, he received the

Sahitya Akademi Award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...

for his play, ''Ngabongkhao'', in 1978. The

Ministry of Culture Ministry of Culture may refer to: *Ministry of Tourism, Cultural Affairs, Youth and Sports (Albania) *Ministry of Culture (Algeria) *Ministry of Culture (Argentina) * Minister for the Arts (Australia) *Ministry of Culture (Azerbaijan) * Ministry of ...

, Government of India, honoured his memories by staging a ''Tongbra Drama Festival'' under the aegis of Ougri Theatre Repertory Manipur on 24 April 2015 which consisted of four selected plays of the dramatist.

References

Recipients of the Padma Shri in arts 1913 births 1996 deaths Poets from Manipur Indian satirists 20th-century Indian poets Indian male dramatists and playwrights Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Meitei People from Imphal Indian male poets 20th-century Indian male writers {{India-writer-stub