Literature is Political : A Political Polemical Study of India’s North Eastern Literature
Abstract :
India’s North East literature in English and translations is substantively a new literature which directly deals with the lives and livelihood of the region. The literature of this zone reflects as well as refracts the region’s history, geography, anthropology, myth, mythology, culture, customs and the region’s overall political scenario. It is a newly formed literature with a newly formed group of promising writers emerging out of the demanding ethos and ethics of the region to preserve and reserve the bases and the basics of their luminous pasts and positions so as to light up the present. The region’s literature and literary practices, however, with a distinct difference and divergence from the nation’s mainstream literature, have come into count after India’s Independence particularly amid the feverish moments of eighties and nineties. Prior to this period, there was a slow rise of localized literary outputs from pre-independence period, albeit mostly in regional languages which were dealing with the chores and folklores, trends and traditions, myths and mythologies of everyday lives. But after Independence the slow rise of panic politics and power procuring related ethnic disturbances combined with the certain entanglements with the government in time to time for autonomy or power protection or separatist ideology have generated a kind of tensions within the region that seem to be prevalent all the time in this peripheral zone called North East India. Besides, the continuous inflow of immigrants and outsiders from the mainland as well as from the porous neighboring nation borders has greatly disturbed the region’s unique identity and integrity, internal peace and progress. These scattered tensions helped to hatch several other radical rebel ethnic groups which grew more and more all over the region with time and space. In this juncture, the center’s step-motherly and passive response in anticipation of the region’s burning issues could not but made the matters messier only to double multiple the troubles. As a result, there erupt several ethnic clashes and conflicts among the various ethnic rebel groups and with the government demanding separate identities and administrations which ultimately create chaos in the region’s administrations and politics resulting the formation of new several states in time to times after much clashes, conflicts and crisis. These changes and challenges impacted greatly on the emerging writers and thinkers of the region that they took pen and papers in counteract and counter commute the existing insurgencies only to seek a way out from the impasse as a part of the conflict resolution. In this situation the onlookers turned writers or the artists of witness of this region can’t but depict the whole scenes and scenarios as well as the political turmoil in literature forms which narrates the soil’s narratives to express out their concerns and commitments for the region. In this short span of time, it seems to attain a legitimate and powerful voice by articulating their senses and sentiments and focusing on some of the core issues of the region. Hence literature is political in the case of India’s North East Literature. Manash Pratim Borah in this context writes, “The literature of Northeast India, which was achieved a lot of ascendency in the last few decades, has not only used violence and socio-political experiences as thematic interest but also foregrounded them as recurring motif.” (15).
Keywords: literature, political, North East India, violence, insurgency, independence.
Literature in any forms or in any languages is actually the representation of life. It is, however, not an exact replica of life but an interpretation of life and the existential nuances of life, its policies and politics. In this sense literature can be termed as ‘biopolitical’ as this Foucauldian term used in the concept of ‘biopower’ that bypass with the genealogical politics and that also persistently adheres to the notion to works for life or the politics for life. It could also be termed henceforth as ‘biocentric’ politics. However, North East Indian literature is ‘biopolitical’ in every sense as the writers of this peripheral zone always in favour of community living and encourage for cumulative workforce for the betterment and upliftment of life and livelihood that has been long neglected, negated and negotiated with the ‘thanatopolitics’ or the politics of death in contrast to ‘biopolitics’ or the politics of life as per the Foucauldian concept. Another Foucauldian concept ‘governmentality’ is applicable to the region in terms of governance and sovereignty that helps to shape the region’s overall power and politics either good or bad. Foucault defines ‘governmentality’ in Secutity, Territory, Population as allowing for a complex form of “power which has population as its target, political economy as its major form of knowledge, and apparatuses of security as its essential technical instrument” (qtd. in Mark Kelly). The security, territory and population of India’s North East are always remained a determinant factor of its governance, power and politics since its inception. They were and are also tremendously pivotal in shaping and reshaping the territory’s overall fate and features amid power-pacts program by several power mongered political-bureaucratic-militants nexus. Now it is very important to find out the relation between the existential policies of life and the external politics with life in view of the North East Indian political power practices and strategies. The polemical practitioners of this region opt for political writings by choice or circumstances (or both) to unfold the untold and other intricacies of its internal as well as external factors that have been all time pervasive in the region hampering in havoc on the peaceful co-existence of life and livelihood and breaking all the social normal structure thereby getting a derogatory nomenclature- ‘a trouble-torn zone’. Hence to diminish the derogatory tag and to promote the progressive mindset among the common masses including the secessionists, the intellectuals turned writers of this region continuously voicing for the human values and human rights through their literary ventures only “to find a common ground in chronicling their subjective realities and the predicament of their people.” (Ngangom & Nongkynrih xi). For “they feel they have an obligation to write about the crucial contemporary problems of their region. They write about terrorism, insurgency, human rights abuses, environmental and ecological concerns, erosion of tribal values, and the corrupt politician-businessman-bureaucrat nexus.”(Das 20).
It is a fact that politics, life and literature have been interconnected with the system since time immemorial. In ancient Greco-Roman period, life and society were determined and demonstrated in terms of political practice and praxis. The later Judeo-Christian culture, the religious reliability and relevancy relied, though indirectly, on certain politically set rules and regulations within the religious systems and circles. The ancient Vedic period was characterized by its politically linked life and society. The power possession politics and policies as well as categorization or customization of communities’ life were distinctly found in this age which is reflected in the then contemporary literatures. The great epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, however, among others are the examples of this tradition. So basically, it is found through the ages that life is shaped and reshaped what the then political practices put forth and corroborated it to accept. Again, the whole credo is significantly reflected in the then literature and literary cultures.
Thus, literature and politics go side by side with the human history through the ages. Literature is a vital record of political stance and aftermaths. On the other hand, politics is instrumental in forming literature with its various genres and literary devices. For instance, the World Wars and its havoc had a deep and moving impact on the writers across the world thereby producing great literatures in between. Most of the literatures produced were politically overshadowed and practical in nature and connection which had a very influential impact on the world leaders and policy makers. The literary productions of such dogged times depicted the direct and indirect aftermaths of the World Wars with every nicks and nuances of life and society specially those real aspects of life and society which politics generally tends to overlooked and remains oblivious if not reckoned and recorded in literatures. The excluded and worst victimized section thus have represented and found mentioned in literatures only to have showcase their pains and plights in public so that the general awareness and angers find a soil of their voice for the betterment and upliftment of the underprivileged and under-estimated sections of life and society which ultimately show the concerned political figures and policy makers, however, along with general section a new vista of progressive and peace-making path. It is through this path that the United Nations, human rights, peace-making and other such numerous organizations and platforms are set up which ultimately help to emerge out a ‘neo-liberal’ politics with a ‘neo-world-view’ in the world. Thus, literature helps necessitated the politics, voluntarily or involuntarily, to work for the persecuted. Italo Calvino’s statement from his seminal essay The Uses of Literature matches with the dictum. He writes:
Literature is necessary to politics above all when it gives a voice to the one who doesn’t have a voice, when it gives a name to the one who doesn’t have a name, and specially to all that political language excludes or tends to exclude….Literature is like a ear that can hear more than Politics; literature is like an eye that can perceive beyond the chromatic scale to which Politics is sensitive.(qtd. in Yong Jie).
But that does not seem to be last long as I mentioned here that due to the oblivious tendencies of the most political figures about the worst happenings of the pasts; the perverted politics cum imperialist, nihilist and capitalist agencies repeat the same for their political benefit and even always stand up one step ahead to transform the so called ‘cold wars’ into another devastating world war whatever cost and catastrophe it further brings. These tendencies are clearly find space in K Satchidanandan’s observation in his essay Reflections: Poetry against Violence. He pointed out the post-World War’s scattered violence and divisive political forces that were all time prevalent in nation-states:
“Violence in our time springs from so many sources. Indeed, there are the big and small wars often engineered by divisive forces and imperialist agencies. We have seen, from Vietnam to Iraq, how wars can be conjured up by hegemonic nation states.”(8/249).
These political phenomena, however, presents the documentaries to the writers to evolve out their ideas and concepts into revolutionary thoughts and practices in literature. Hence the relation between literature and politics stands by in relativity term. John D Lindberg in his essay Literature and Politics rightly states saying that,
The relationship between literature and politics is a multilane freeway with traffic flowing freely in both directions: Any work of literature is in part a product of sociological and political factors, to the extent that the writer’s personality has been shaped by the sociological and political environment of his time. Conversely, important works of literature or wholly literary movements have had profound effects on society by setting up or destroying taboos, conventions, and social prejudices, thus containing to changes in values which in turn have brought about social and political change. (163).
Every individual follows certain theories or dogmas that certainly match with certain political powers either directly or indirectly. So basically, more or less everyone is the follower of certain politics or political policies knowingly or unknowingly because all are the citizens of some parts of the world including writers and thinkers. Even a person who thinks himself and declares apolitical is actually political as he follows some of his set rules and theories in his daily life which eventually fall under the set rules and theories of certain political entities. So systematically one cannot deny his or her liaison with certain political thoughts and theories directly or indirectly by default of his or her citizenship or social liability of being a citizen of parts of the world. So, a writer and thinker, too, being the citizen of parts of the world, has certain worldviews and ideas which ultimately fuse with certain political views helping him to mould his writings and write accordingly. Moreover, being a social creature, the creativity that a writer produces reflects the society and societal hierarchy he or she lives in and engaged with which indicates contemporary political provincial reflection, either good or bad, through his or her literary creations thereby calling them ‘political’ literature. While talking of the very essence of North East India’s practical cum ‘political’ literature, Manjeet Baruah rightly says in her seminal essay- Towards an Appreciative Paradigm for Literatures of the Northeast:
“The emergent genre of ‘political’ literature, however, is not the only genre or even the predominant genre of literature in the contemporary times. It exists as one of the significant and popular genres among others. . .. these different genres coexist and interact with each other. Possibly it also indicates the nature of thought processes operating in the society in a given historical period, that multiple voices or thought systems have come to exist simultaneously, some as result of political developments over time while others through political engineering.” (36).
Literature is discovery and insight into the truth. It depicts the truth and reality in prose or poetry or in other arts forms through the myriad literary devices and discoveries- be it satire, banter, burlesque, irony, caricature, fantasy, magic realism, oblique narrative, fable and so on. The writers-artists regularly explore them in their creations to exhibit the human behavior and to verify the moral virtual validity through the conscious sub-conscious mind of the reader in respect to psychological and social perplexities of the present. Thus, literature has at bottom, a moral purpose dedicated to life and society and the writers have a moral concern in this regard. A writer is conscious of the high responsibilities of literature that he undertakes to represent life and society. Any injustice, insecurity, irrationality that partakes in life and society must take refuse in readiness to literature to relocate things and reverberate the ideas. The North East Indian poet writer Robin S Ngangom’s statement from his autobiographical essay Poetry in a Time of Terror is worth mentioning:
“Literature that is not the breath of contemporary society, that dares not transmit the pains and fears of that society, that does not warn in time against threatening moral and social dangers; such literature does not deserve the name of literature; it is only a façade, claims Alexander Solzhenitsyn.” (427).
Thus, the political stance that is absolute and tyrannical creates chaos and conflict leading the society in a state of tension and terror. The malpractices of political policies rise political turmoil and crisis that tends to evoke revolutionary activities among the general masses including writers and artists against the states and the arbitrations. The writer artists using the weapons of their creative mind and narrative power render revolution by narrating truth and ground reality of the times through literatures. In the process of depicting the truth and reality through literature, the writer’s artists most of the times, however, fall under the angst and animosity of the state and the statesman that they are eventually being imposed censorship, exile, imprisonment, death threat only to succumb to the system. But the literature of witness never surrenders or makes compromise with the malpractices or the corrupt socio-political systems, history proves it. Rather it flourishes with flooded themes and motifs under such oppressive situation. “James Joyce once said of writers, ‘squeeze us, we are olives’ meaning writers yield their best under oppressive environments.” (qtd. in Satchidanandan). North East Indian writers and the literatures they produce perfectly seem to follow the Joycean proposition. The literary practitioners from this trouble-torn zone have mastered in the ‘art of witness’. The oppressive environment entrusted in their literary productions in such a way that it seems to be identical in essentializing their existential imminency. Again, the literature of this border-locked land cannot be sorted out as a separate entity for it is inextricably intermingled with their thoughts and throngs. It is homogenous amidst heterogeneous elements. In short, the literature output from North East India is altogether the literature of survival and the literature of revival against the backdrop of abnormal and obnoxious. While differentiating the North East Indian literature with the mainland literature, the poet Robin S Ngangom says in his autobiographical essay Poetry in a Time of Terror:
The writer from the Northeast, differs from his counterpart in the mainland in a significant way. While it may not make him a better writer, living in the menace of the gun he cannot merely indulge in verbal wizardry and woolly aesthetics but must perforce master the art of witness…… We have witnessed growing ethnic aggressiveness, secessionist ventures, cultural and religious bigotry, the marginalization of minorities and the poor, profit and power struggles in government, and as a natural aftermath to these, the banality of corruption and the banality of terror. Further, the uneasy coexistence of paradoxical worlds such as the folk and the Westernised, virgin forests and car-choked streets, ethnic cleansers and the parasites of democracy, ancestral values and flagrant materialism, resurgent nativism and the sensitive outsider’s predicament, make the picturesque Northeast especially vulnerable to tragedy. (426).
It is a reality that literature against the agonizing violence and corrupt political-bureaucratic-militants nexus make the writer endangered as well as vulnerable towards the paths of sufferings, insults, banishment, camp life and such other tragedies. In their “Introduction” part from the Dancing Earth: An Anthology of Poetry from North-East India, Ngangom and Nongkynrih write: “To be a tenacious witness of the agonizing political violence without sensationalizing it, is also a risk that a north eastern poet has to undertake often.” (xii). But it is also true that the various forms of oppression and suppression work as a booster for the genuine writers thereby helping them to produce great literary works beyond potentialities. Along with the Northeast writers, we have seen world writers produce great literatures in time to time amidst pressurize positions. Thus, we have political polemics- George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Salman Rushdie; existentialists- Jean Paul Satre, Albert Camus, Franz Kafka; hard-end modernists- Lorca, Neruda, Darwish, Emichai and many more in the list who ignoring the state oppressive apparatuses continue their writings with genuineness. K. Satchidanandan thus writes: “It is almost impossible for the genuine writer today to ignore the violence that threatens to drown our beautiful world.” (8/249).
North East India, the beautiful sister states of India’s North Eastern part and the counterpart of rich diversities in multiethnic, multilingual, multicultural people likely produces some great and genuine son of the soil writers who by heart and soul dedicated themselves for the upliftment and upholding of their communities irrespectively from periphery to priority. The prominent among them are Mamang Dai, Yamlam Tana, Robin S Ngangom, R K Madhubir, Kynpham S Nongkynrih, Desmond L Kharmawplang, Temsula Ao, Esterine Kire, Mitra Phukan, Dhruba Hazarika, Harekrishna Deka, Mona Jote, Thangjam Ibopishak, Anjum Hasan, Ananya S Guha, Chandrakanta Murasingh, Navakanta Barua, Rajendra Bhandari and many more. They produce great and genuine literature in all genres depicting the truth and turbulence of the region. The long-termed negligence, negation and deprivation from the centre towards the peripheral north east region and the state sponsored terrorism, militancy, bloodshed and insurgency, counter insurgency make them staunch sensitive and sentimental for the region’s traditional past, the present, its history, geography, ecology, the people and the politics. They are vocal over the issues that tend to violate human rights and righteousness. Their writings thus revolve round all in all with the issues of identities and alienations that they are experiencing in their daily survival. They are also showing their concerns by raising voices against the misuse of the region’s rich natural and cultural discourses, resources and reservoirs. To protect their unique identities and their ancestral heritage from hegemonic and imperialistic invasion, they consistently protest and fight against the system and the situation since pre and post-independence period with pen and paper to show their love, unity and solidarity for their soil and to stop further exploitation from external ominous forces. To covers and uncovers all the daily nuances and the ‘new normal’ truths of the region, their literature automatically undertones political polemics. Ngangom in his essay ‘Poetry in a Time of Terror’ says:
“I think the task that literature of the Northeast must address is what Albert Camus called the double challenge of truth and liberty. Truth because what can the writer hope to accomplish now except to tell the truth? When the unspeakable is out there, being enacted and quickly consign to oblivion, when cruel things are done but never undone, and when media machines are busy feeding the world one-sided lies, the writer can only tell the truth about what he knows.” (427)
North East India is an umbrella term that is coined for convenience by the rest of the nation to refer to the eight states of India’s North Eastern parts which were once a region of the entire South East Asia. Later the region was divided and demarcated with the passage of time in such a way that geographically it becomes an almost 98% border-locked land with the already cartographed South East Asian nations like Bhutan, Bangladesh, China, Myanmar, Nepal and Tibet and it remains a small portion of almost 2% land possession with hills, plains, plateaus, rivers, lush green forests with ecological balance of flora and fauna. The region is characterized by its ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity with mixed people having a connection with the mainland India with only a 22 kms narrow corridor through Siliguri termed as ‘Chicken Necked Corridor’. Hence Bengal’s Siliguri is called the ‘Gateway of the Northeast’. Hazarika says in “Introduction” from Strangers of the Mist: “India’s Northeast is a misshapen strip of land linked to the rest of the country by a narrow corridor just twenty kms wide at its slimmest which is referred to as the Chicken’s Neck.” (Hazarika xvi).
The eight states that are formed with increased population and time’s demand since pre independence to post independence period are Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. Since the eight states of the region hugely vary from each other in terms of everything from ethnicity to language, from religion to cultural credo except the common ‘North East’ tag and its rich heritage, it might seem to be an injustice to homogenize the whole region into a single body. Satpathy says describing the Northeast as - “- - - -homogeniz(ing) a location where no homogeneity can ever be imagined.”(Satpathy, Museindia). However, inspite of multiplicity and heterogeneity, the whole North East zone irrespectively and unanimously seems to be putting forth the message of peace and progress through the restoration and reviving process of their lost cultures and collections which are reflected in their literature very distinctively and nostalgically as well. Hazarika says in the Preface from the “Writing on the Wall “:
The North East. . . is an extraordinarily rich and diverse region in natural resources and beauty in its peoples and their rich social and cultural inheritance, in the resonance of its complex and post-border ethnicities. But the place is also extraordinarily tragic in the range of the violence it has suffered and the blood that has been shed in the name of presenting national unity and upholding India’s security. (ix).
It cannot be denied that some parts of the North East region are plagued by socio- political violence, insurgency and ethnic clashes among its peoples and with outsiders. It is because that the North East India is a home of many tribes and sub-tribes each having their own tales and traditions, cultures and customs, myths and memories, legends and languages and having a distinct identity and individuality. The long-termed porous policies from the central government along with the nonchalance attitude towards the tribal peoples and their problems seemed to aggravate the socio-political problems for infinite time as in the meantime, the daily immigrants pressure, demographic change, unemployment, uncertain future altogether helped to breed a sort of intolerance that came out in the forms of violence, unrest, insurgencies and unfaith among the tribal. The tribal conglomeration and diversity of the region can be assumed by the fact that it is home to over two hundred ethnic groups which constitute 42% of the entire tribal population of the country. Mamang Dai states:
“The image of North East region of the country is that It is a mosaic of tribal culture. That is very remote. That it is full of trees and mountains and that it is a troubled place with lots of insurgency and army, and counter insurgency operations. All of this is true.” (Dai, museindia).
It is due to the heterogeneity and multiplicity of beliefs and belongings that the several occurrences of ethnic violence and tribal clashes make the region vulnerable and sensitive to unrests and insurgencies. It may be also due to the possession of power and politics and superiority for the same over the others that all set to lead the region to a state of tension and turbulence all the time. These problems not only hinder the development of the region but destabilize the daily lives of the common man. Besides, tension between the government and various mushrooming insurgency groups in neighboring states and neighboring countries, problem of immigrants, issues of representation of the North East(political or otherwise) in the nationalist discourse etc are some of the burning issues in the North East region which by default find expression in North East writer’s literary creations thereby making the literature political.
This tradition of politicizing India’s North East region has been coming through from pre independence to post independence period. During the British colonialism the whole north east region was a shared zone with South Asia and South East Asian nations with shared boundaries, cultures and customs. The British without giving importance to the region’s demographic diversities, drew partition lines in betweens and their colonial political expediency led to the entire region being yoked together with India transforming the region into a periphery from the centre. After the independence the troubles became double with the Naga separatist movements which was followed by Mizo insurgencies. Then a series of armed rebellion and secessionist insurgencies consecutively set loose for the demands of the establishment of sovereign territories or councils and identity assertion in the erstwhile consolidated Assam and the princely states of Manipur, Tripura. It is because the nation state leaders could not able to read the reality of the region thereby could not find suitable solutions to meet the regions demands and expectations. They failed to tackle the problem either politically or practically. Hence the region’s anguish and aspirations remained unsolved which bred more separatist groups and insurgencies among the masses with the passage of time that all set to make the region a hotspot of trouble zone. To analyze the root cause of insurgency in north east India, J B Bhattacharjee in his Roots of Insurgency in Northeast India writes:
“North East India has been passing through insurgencies and militancy of various types for almost fifty years. Beginning in the Naga hills in 1950s, an insurgent situation gradually spread to various other parts of the region. The number of outfits multiplied over the years, each one with own agenda. The originals broke into new outfits adding to the number, and in course of time, the splinters outnumbered the parent groups.”(3).
Literature seems to be playing a very crucial role in this juncture. It serves as the spokesperson of the ground reality and the gravity. When no mainstream columnists or media seem to be bothering about the problem and the political crisis of North East India, literature seems to be taking over the responsibility of depicting truth and reality presenting an overall political and psychological scenario of the region to the rests. Manash Pratim Borah in contextualizing the literary output of the North East has said in his essay Narratives of Violence and Northeastern Socio-political Experiences: A Reading of Select Fictional Writings from Northeast India:
The literature written in this region is internally fertile with rich varieties of genres, style, tenor and context. Writers from multifarious contexts and background with multicoloured experiences and temperament have sought to capitalize their creative energy in textualizing the region incorporating its all-embracing features and situations in a way that the region itself becomes chronotopes against the cosmology of cultures, knowledge, actions and experiences. (28).
It is amidst the prevailing violence and unrests that the writers from this region try to seek the surface or the root causes behind all the divisive forces that play decisive role for all the disturbances and disruptions. To say with Borah, “Writers from all the seven states have studied the mentioned motif and themes from different perspectives and framework and in turn have reckoned the root of all sorts of violence and socio-political unrest as more or less same- identity assertion, forced assimilation, migration, economic unrest, negligence from the centre and underdevelopment.”(ibid 29). Therefore, along with the recurrent dreadful images of violence and socio-political experiences, the writers from the region very consciously try to weld the whole region into a single thread by presenting the collective concerns and by reminiscing of their past hoary traditions and unique myths in their literary creations. Every lines from their poetry or prose undertone the sad declining of their ancestral legacy and legitimacy. They are desperate to go back to their rootedness and hence write impulsively so as to arouse a strong sense of emotion and bonding among the common masses including the radicals for their motherland. They are at pains to see the promising youths of their beloved land going astray and being spoilt at the hands of political-militants-extremists nexus fuelling the separatist activities and insurgencies counter insurgencies that lead the region into a situation of deadlocked dreadful. The writers of the region, thus, tend to focus to the root causes of the insurgencies through their writings so as to bring forth the realities in toto. In fact, most of the literature from this region reflects the experience of change and the response to it. Identity, ethnicity, violence, marginalization, and life lived amidst this volatility are, understandably, the content of creative and critical writings from the region. Urbashi Butalia of ‘Zubaan’ Publishing House, talking of creative writers and writings from the region, observes: “When publishing writers from the North East it is difficult not to look at the political nature of that writing. Virtually everyone writing from there is somehow or the other rooted and involved in the politics of the region.”(qtd. in Borpujari).
However, the reality that finds space in North East literature is all pervasive. The troubles and turbulences that resorted unrests and political crisis in the region and that gradually mars the vast mosaic and myriad nomenclature of the region’s rich heritage and heredity vehemently find expression in literature of all types seeking to wipe out the ominous hostility in one hand and to restore and recover all the past halcyon days on the other thereby making the literature of this zone a therapeutic remedies. Observing the condition, Tilottoma Mishra in the “Introduction” from his Anthology, says: “An intense sense of awareness of the cultural loss and recovery that came with the negotiation with ‘other’ cultures is a recurrent feature of the literatures of the seven north-eastern states.” (xiv).
The writers of the North East India are always in the haunt for a sort of ceasefire and permanent solution from the existing troubles and turbulences that they are facing in their everyday life. They are at a loss to find “Within two decades of Independence, the northeast Indian hills were transformed from a paradise for anthropologists to a hotbed of politics” (Chaube 237). With the same declining ratio, they have seen how violence breeds more violence and insurgencies bring counter insurgencies. These all takes place only with an intention to take the control of the power and the politics of the region. But here practicality differs from the intention. The power mongers cum policy makers seem to have forgotten that to solve a problem, the foremost need is to be cordial and collaborative so as to treat things with sympathy and empathy. But in the North East case, no one in power seems to be so as the powerholders/stakeholders seem to be in poles apart distance in opinions and choosing options. As a result, the disorder remains durable becoming dreadful day by day. Only the civil societies and the writers-thinkers seem to be cordial for troubleshooting and seeking permanent solution. But they neither have decision making power nor are divisive force changer. So, violence and other catastrophes prevail and the writers engrossed in their writings and committed for a change. They invest their woes and worries, pangs and pains in their writings so as to make them reach at the national and international level beyond the North East. Their writings are marked by a strong sense of social and political overtones. The literature of the North East is always written in the context of what is(was) happening in the various states of the region, in the forms of violence, ethnic clashes, extremists’ movements, social unrest, political crisis and corruption, nepotism and so on. These writers cannot shoulder off from the practicalities and realities. So, their literary output becomes increasingly referential. The points of reference, thus, centre round with the prevalent political preference and related powerhouse pandemonium.
The writers from the North East India are extremely situational. They are influenced by the contemporary regional socio-political events and emergence. The co-existence of paradoxical world and the parasitic politics find their expression in their literary creations. To quote with Sanjib Baruah, “Deaths, injuries and humiliations resulting from ‘insurgencies’ and ‘counter insurgency operations’, as well as the hidden hurt that citizens quietly endure have become a part of the texture of everyday life in the region.” (3). Thus, an extreme sense of political affinity and affiliations automatically get into their literary textures only to be identical in the castaway political programming of everyday life. So, literature and politics from India’s peripheral North East zone is inter-related. To conclude with Manjeet Baruah’s broadly spectrum observational consolidation that she finds in her essay “An Emerging Genre of ‘Political’ Literature in India’s Frontier”:
Literature and politics have been historically closely related. The relations can be seen not only in terms of ideology that inspires or influences literature (such as writings of authors like Maxim Gorky), but also in textual structures that are employed to practice literature (such as writings of authors like Gabriel Marquez). In other words, the relation between literature and politics cannot be seen merely as either ideological or textual/aesthetic in nature. The meaning of the relation lies in the dual relation that the two shares with each other. (28). She further narrates: “If we concentrate only on the last two decades (for reasons of space), one can see an emerging and growing genre of ‘political’ based precisely on the issue of frontier.” (ibid 30).
Bibliography
Masoom Islam, Lalit Narayan Mithila University, Darbhanga, Bihar. Email: masoomudislam@gmail.com