Abstract:
Easterine Kire, one of the prominent literary voices from Nagaland has, in her numerous writings, undertaken the task of connecting to her identity as a Naga, and of distilling the essence of the life in the hills. Her works explore the taboos, customs and traditions and laws that are revered in the land. She has also taken pioneering efforts in preserving the oral history of Nagaland which remains with the last of the land’s storytellers. The text Walking the Roadless Road: Exploring the Tribes of Nagaland is yet another attempt by Kire to record a comprehensive history of the Naga tribes -their origins, early history, tribes, customs and religion and to link the written and unwritten pages of Naga history. The novels Bitter Wormwood and Sky is my Father: A Naga Village Remembered are personal narratives that delineate the political factors that shaped the history of Nagaland.
The present paper examines Easterine Kire’s novel Don't Run, My Love and how it presents a kaleidoscopic view of Nagaland’s past. Myths, customs and the life in the villages form the core of the text, embedded in the tale of two women. -Visenuo and Atuonuo. It proposes to do so by examining the narrative -the plot, the characters and the indigenous community life chronicled in the text. The article also attempts to study how the text locates itself in a pre -Christian era prior to the advent of the British and the ensuing evangelical missions. The paper will highlight the history of Nagaland and study the novel as an important historical document. The focus is also to understand how memory plays an important role in preserving and recreating the identity of a generation who have been traumatized by a violent past.
Key Words: Nagaland-history, tribes, agriculture, religion, culture, memory, identity
Introduction:
“Nagaland holds many stories in her, each with the need for telling.” (LongKumer 5)
Among the many aspects of the North -East that Anungla Zoe LongKumer discusses in the introduction to The Many That I Am: Writings from Nagaland, she poignantly states how the work was an attempt to connect to her roots. She goes on to state how the present acts as a catalyst to explore the “relevance of past values” (LongKumer,7). The writings, therefore, fuse the past and the present attempting to create meaning to the identity of being a Naga. Easterine Kire, one of the prominent literary voices from Nagaland, in her numerous writings undertakes the same task, of connecting to her identity as a Naga and of distilling the essence of life in the hills. Her works explore the taboos, customs and traditions and laws that are revered in the land.
Easterine Kire has taken pioneering efforts in preserving the oral tradition of Nagaland by collecting oral poems from her indigenous language Tenyidie, which is also her mother tongue and publishing it along with an English translation. She has to her credit various novels, poems and short stories.
Her works explore the myriads of ideas that fuse to form what Nagaland is -from violence to patriarchy, customary laws, the life in the villages and the practices that are hallowed in the land. She speaks about her state, Nagaland, which has been for decades neglected by the centre, yet considered ironically unique and often exotic. Her books are veins that criss -cross the body of Nagaland.
Analysis of the novel Don’t Run, My Love:
The plot of the novel centers around three central characters-Visenuo, Atuonuo and Kevi. Visenuo and Atuonuo live in the village of Kija. Kevi is introduced as a handsome youth who walks into the lives of Visenuo and her daughter Atuonuo while they were busy in their field. Kevi helps the women gather the harvest quickly before the rain pours down. Atunuo falls in love with the stranger gradually. Kevi visits them frequently and often leaves huge chunks of meat as a gift in their hut in the fields.
The villagers are suspicious of the ‘stranger’ and Visenuo’s relatives want her to find out if Kevi will marry Atuonuo. Atuonuo is not sure of Kevi’s love. Moreover, his self-assured attitude and mocking tone confuses her and she doubts his sincerity. She therefore rejects Kevi’s proposal for marriage. She later repents, and goes to the hut in the fields expecting to find Kevi there. To her horror she realizes that Kevi is a were-tiger. Atuonuo rushes back to her mother who advises her to seek help from the powerful and magical Village of the Seers. They are helped by Pfenuo who lived in the Village of Seers. Kevi follows them to the village but the duo manages to escape. They make their way through unknown paths until they reach a clearing and find the woodcutter Keyo. Kevi attacks Atuonuo in the form of a were-tiger but Keyo slays him with his axe and saves the mother and the daughter.
The novel helps the readers get an insight into the traditional lifestyle and customs of a rural Naga village.
The opening chapter of Don’t Run My Love has a detailed description of the season, the harvest and the crucial role of the elements in the Naga cycle of life:
“Some weeks ago, the water in the terraces had dried up as the stocks of paddy stood in the sun and ripened in golden sheaves. The harvest in the village had been delayed by a week because the ‘liedepfu’ -the ritual initiator of the harvest had lain sick in her bed for a week. Precious days had been lost and now the race against time and elements that begun to bring in the harvest before unseasonal rain came and destroyed the hard work of several months.” (Kire 2).
The passage makes clear the crucial link between the Naga way of life and the cycle of seasons. The passage also hints at the Angami technique of irrigating the fields. A major part of India's North East region follows the practice of ‘jhumming’ or shifting cultivation .But “unlike the Northern Naga who follows ‘jhumming’ cultivation ,the Angami had developed an efficient system of terracing and irrigation well before the colonial times .Water is brought down from the upper streams to channels and bamboo pipes .Some fields are so terraced that water can be made to flow around a spur and back again to almost the same point from where it flowed into the fields. The Angamis have an elaborate system of water rights, water inheritance and ownership of water. Unlike in jhum fields, terraced fields are owned by individuals.” (Arya 25)
In the novel, Atuonuo’s mother owns the fields, but she is dependent on her daughter’s help for the work in the fields as she was a widow. Their life is closely bound to the earth that they depended for a living:
“In the first months of each new year they hired workers to help with the ploughing, breaking up hard clods of earth, and coaxing the soil to be more malleable for the seeds that would be sown after the rain had softened the earth. The early rain in the months of March and April was used for planting beans, pumpkins and any vegetable belonging to the gourd family. But work began in earnest only when the monsoon rains came to the ancient green valley, and farmers could flood their fields with sufficient water to plant rice. Harvest time made all their hard work worthwhile and no one missed a day’s work then.” (Kire 5).
The Naga rural life is still closely bound to the earth and agriculture remains the main occupation in the countryside. The book also mentions one of the central Institutions of any Naga society -the kichuki, the morung or the male dormitory:
“Since the thehou is the communal house where men spend their nights, thehou nuo means child of the thehou. The boys who have been brought up in that tradition learn things about our culture. They use it to guide them through life, and when people see them behaving in a certain way, people refer to them as thehou nuo. A girl can also earn such a title when people see that she knows the ways of the village.” (Kire18)
The Angamis refer to their morung as kichuki. Easterine Kire quotes Theologian Mark Pongener, in her book Walking the Roadless Road on the status of a morung: “the morung is a communal building which physically dominates the Naga villages. Usually constructed in a conspicuous place, it is resplendent with carvings representing hornbills, tigers, human heads and sometimes with projecting barge boards resembling wings or horns”. (Kire 31)
The morung is a key social institution and is usually spacious enough to accommodate all the young men and boys in the village. The members are divided on the basis of age groups into Sungpur, Tenapang, Tekumchet, Yhanga and Juzen in the order youngest to the oldest respectively. The morung also initiated its members into a unique and complex moral code termed as ‘sobaliba’. In the past members of the morung received training on tactics of warfare. It also trained it’s members for everyday life and also imparted skills in various crafts including house building. The morung also ensured that the values upheld by the tribe passed on to the next generation: “Naga oral traditions were kept alive in the morung and passed on from one generation to the next in the form of folk songs, dances and folk tales.” (Kire 32) The spread of Christianity has resulted in decreasing the importance of the morung as a cultural institution- “…the place of the church is central to new Naga society. It is in many ways, the new morung.” (Kire 205)
Don't Run, My Love can also be read as a parallel narrative on the religious beliefs pertaining to the indigenous communities inhabiting the region. The old religion was known as “kruna” (Arya 82) and it involved spirit worship. The traditional religion had at least one major deity. It also involved the worship of minor deities believed to dwell in water bodies, stones and in the jungle.
The Nagas accept the parallel existence of the natural and the spiritual world. All the tribes believe in life after death and in co-existence of spirits with man. The Land of the Nagas contains detailed extracts on the relationship between man, the world of spirits and the tiger. According to a Naga myth, the three were brothers. The tiger was always a trouble maker. Once their mother, in order to settle their quarrel, decided to hold a race between the man and the tiger. It was decided that the winner would continue to live in the village and the other would have to leave for the jungle. It is said that man won the race with the help of the spirit and the tiger had to leave for the jungle. The Angamis, Chakhesang, Lotha, Sumi and Rengma Naga share the same myth relating to the tiger as an elder brother. However, the North and the North-western Naga do not acknowledge their kinship with the tiger.
A strong belief in lycanthropy exists in all the Naga tribes. It is believed that some individuals possessed dual souls- of that of a human and an animal, often a tiger or a leopard. Tekhu-rho is considered as the mythical lord of the tigers. Men who have their familiars as tigers are said to suffer the same injuries and pain inflicted on the animal. The Nagas never hunt tigers for sport except when the villagers believe a ‘familiar’ is haunting their village. “The conversion to Christianity of Naga tiger -men and tiger-women has brought down the rate of lycanthropic activities.” (Kire153)
The central character of the novel is said to be a ‘tekhumevi’, as discovered by Atunuo. Each Naga group has a different dialect and therefore different terms are used to refer to the phenomenon of spirit tigers. “These spirit tigers are called tekhu-mevi in Angami which literally means ‘to turn into tiger’; the Sumi Naga call them anghu -kuhulhomi which means tiger form; the Ao term is tanela -ki meaning ‘tiger soul’; the Yimchungru call them khuzu -mae-ru, literally ‘tiger spirit people’; the Khiamniungan term is khao -un i.e., ‘tiger soul’. The belief in were- tigers is common in the land. “Spirit sightings are common even among Christians. Weretigers or tiger men -the practice of some men becoming dual -souled with the tiger -are part of the recent Naga past.” (Kire 46)
The novel shares an instance when Keyo, the woodcutter, talks about Kevi’s father’s death: “It was an odd thing. He had been sick for some days and when he died and they were washing his body, they found a wound in his back that had been caused by a spear. But he had not been anywhere in the weeks before his death.” (Kire 58). Kevi obviously inherited the ‘legacy’ of being a tekhumevi from his father. “Whenever a tiger is killed, invariably someone is reported to die either on the same day or a few days later after the appearance of mysterious bullet wounds on his or her body.” (Kire 63)
Don't Run, My Love shares an instance where Pfenuo from the Village of Seers speaks of how men, and sometimes women, become a Tekhu-rho:
“It is the fact that he has crossed a line, and that crossing gives some access to the spiritual world. When they seek to become were -tigers they abandon their places in the human world. The man becomes the tiger. And we call them tekhumevimia. The crossing they make into the spirit world gives them the power to predict who will be victorious in war, and other such things. When they are consulted by relatives of a sick person, they can tell what was the particular spiritual cause of the sickness in that person, and recommend the cure.
For a person who voluntarily seeks to become a tekhumevi, the condition is a gift. But some men receive it as a legacy from their fathers. If such a man fights being a tekhumevi, it is a curse for him. Those who treat it as a gift make themselves available to more power.” (Kire 102)
The book also details how one could turn into a tekhumevi against one's will:
“I won’t become a female tekhumevi, will I? Atunuo asked fearfully. ‘He clawed me and I bled.’ It doesn’t happen like that’. Pfenuo chuckled. ‘If you have eaten certain foods together, like chicken liver and country ginger, you could become a tekhumevi against your will. But you most certainly won’t turn into one just because a tekhumevi attacked you.” (Kire 103)
Atunuo’s mother decides to seek help from the powerful seers of her husband’s village, when she finds out that Kevi was a were tiger. The geographical location of the Village of Seers is also unique description as the distance to the village depended on the intensity of one's need.
“Many people suspected that the village of Seers moved location on a regular basis. Men got into endless arguments over its geographical location …Men would crouch on earthen floors, draw maps and almost come to blows over what they thought was the exact location of the Village of Seers. Each man had a completely different idea of where the village stood…What was the truth? No human could tell …because it was inarguably the most powerful village, the village that held answers for all the problems that man could counter in his physical existence. And by virtue of that power, the village was quite capable of shifting location as it pleased.” (Kire 82)
The text also gives glimpses of life as lived in the villages. There is a description which describes Atunuo and Visenuo returning from the fields:
“Happy that they would reach their destination before dark, they continued on the path and soon entered the village gate.…As they came in, they saw some people out on the dahou, the circular sitting place at the entrance to the village. The hard stone seats were shiny from constant use. The small assembly of people called out greetings to which the women gave the appropriate response. Most of the company were men sitting with their tall horns of brew, watching the field -goers coming home.
A number of young mothers were also standing at the dahou, which was also a popular viewing point as it offered a panoramic view of the fields in the horizon. Carrying their babies on their backs with the straps tied in front, they walked back and forth on the elevated platform singing lullabies…These men and women would return home and inform their families how late or early the harvesters had come home, and if they thought they were carrying heavy or medium loads. It was just the kind of small talk that was common when a community lived in such close quarters.” (Kire 25)
The drink mentioned in the text is obviously zu or suzen -the rich flavorful rice beer. This is a very common drink among the Nagas and is made with fermented rice. Only the men are allowed to drink it from Mithun horns and the women usually use a bamboo mug.
The gates to the Naga villages are not just entry points to any village. They are also a meeting point where news is exchanged and a place where the ‘elders’ had an overall view of the things happening in the village. The village gates were also decorated with symbols and relief carvings representing prosperity, courage and fertility:
“They serve not only their primary function of security in restricting entry into the village, but are also symbols of clan and village cohesion and their achievements in head taking raids. Villages have a main gate and clan gates. When these gates are closed for any celebration or rituals such as those for births and deaths, no outsider is permitted entry. There are elaborate rituals when the gate is replaced…a sacred stone, kipuchie, is placed near the gate signifying the importance of the gate. The thick, wooden one -door gates cannot be battered down easily and are part of the extensive village defences consisting of stone walls, ditches and panjis. Lookout towers near the gates provide early warning of any danger. The gates are carved in high relief with symbolic figures, each village having its own style of representation. A number of gates are now being made of stone instead of wood and are painted instead of being carved.” (Arya 108)
A common feature in all Naga villages is the presence of a great number of monoliths. Many of the monoliths are erected to mark feasts of Merit -a community feat -conducted by rich men in the past. From the small lucky stones kept in granaries to promote the wealth of the family and the charms used to attract wealth or women or prowess in war, to huge monoliths that require a whole clan to drag and erect, Naga culture perpetuates its existence through these memorials in stone.” (Kire 36)
Visenuo remembers how powerful her husband’s family was and how her father-in-law had hosted four feasts of merit. “Your grandfather was the wealthiest man in the village. He and his wife hosted four feasts of merit. …’The four monoliths erected after each feast of merit were set up on the way to the fields. People passed them every day when they went to the fields. They rested at the foot of the monoliths and recounted the feasts of Kezharuokuo, using those moments to recall the great man’s name.” (Kire 49). The community feasts are, at present, held only as part of marriages or Christian celebrations like Christmas.
The text also has several details regarding one of the important ceremonies relating to the harvest season-the Vatenyi or the Harvest festival which marked the close of the agricultural year. “It is observed when the harvest has been brought into the village. On the first day, the woman of the house abstains from eating rice. The women eat only lentils and sweet potatoes, as it is taboo for them to eat rice until sundown. This taboo, also called vakete, is observed so that the harvest will be protected from waste, and food will be provided for the household for a longtime.” (Kire 67).
An interesting custom related to the harvest festival is also mentioned where Atuonuo recollects the practice of sending children to catch hibernating frogs: “Khonuo would tell them that it was important for their parents to eat those frogs in particular. Since the frogs slept for months without food, they were taken as a symbol that foods in the house would last very long. In this way, the Harvest festival had its own list of taboos, each intended to propitiate the spirits and prevent the destruction of the grain that had been brought into the granaries. For instance, there was a taboo on eating grasshoppers and dragonflies as these were insects that destroyed the crops -it would not do to anger them.” (Kire 52)
The passage where Atuonuo cooks food in her hut gives the readers a clear picture of the food, the types of spices used to flavor food and the utensils preferred:
“The meat was cut up into smaller pieces, mixed with dried red chilli, and left to simmer in a little water…They used an earthen pot…. Visenuo insisted on using it as meat cooked in an earthen pot tasted far better than food cooked in an aluminium pot…. Atuonuo had dug up some country ginger from their backyard. She thoroughly cleaned off the soil, washed it several times and pounded it for the pot. They grew spices such as basil, chilli, garlic and ginger for their kitchen in their backyard…. In one corner was a large patch of japan nha, Crofton weed. They had not uprooted it because it was said to be effective against malaria and stomach aches. Everyday household had a small garden space similar to theirs to supply their kitchen needs.” (Kire 27)
The world of the spirits and the world of humans intermingle in the narrative. The spiritual and the human merge together creating kaleidoscopic images of a Naga rural life. The book skillfully weaves traditions, customs, village life, food and festivals into a vivid and panoramic narrative of Naga landscape. The narrative can also be seen as a literary engagement to revive and preserve the age-old Naga way of life, customs and beliefs in the contemporary times which bears the scars of a turbulent past, rigorous militarization, and the effects of the advent of modernity.
Though the plot centers around Visenuo, Atenuo and Kevi, the book helps one to understand the Naga way of life in the villages, the structure of the houses, the importance of agriculture and its centrality in the lives of the tribes, the food and customs, the spirit world and the beliefs that pertain to this particular geographic location. The narrative of the book is clearly located in a pre-Christian past where the Nagas lived in harmony with nature, bound by the patriarchal norms and cultural values. The description of the different agrarian festivals and the belief in lycanthropy and tiger spirits, point to a past which was coded within the Naga traditional religion.
Nagaland -An overview
“Contemporary Nagas inhabit a tri-border geographic area bounded on the north by China, southwest by India and east by Myanmar. A transnational Indigenous People, Nagas consist of about 40 different tribes numbering approximately three million people. Known as the Naga Hills during the British rule, today their ancestral homeland comprises a number of colonially segmented regions within India and Myanmar. The Nagas in India alone live in four different states, namely, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Nagaland. In Myanmar, they inhabit the provinces of Sagiang and Kachin. With the exception of Nagaland, where the Nagas are the predominant majority, the Naga population in all other states and provinces remains a marginalized minority.” (Thong 3)
Nagaland is a hilly terrain and Mount Saramati is the highest peak. The hills are covered by dense forests which are often cleared for cultivation. Developmental activities have greatly reduced these forests. “… timber -getting and development in villages have scarred this ancient landscape and reduced its forests to less than half Nagaland’s landmass.” (Sanyü 9). Nagaland has a monsoonal climate. The tropical and sub-tropical forests harbor a wide variety of plants, animals and birds. The state bird is Blyth’s Tragopan and the Mithun is the state animal. The state’s population is divided on the basis of different tribes. “The geographical area of Nagaland is shared by the following sixteen tribes: Angami, Ao, Chang, Chakhesang, (made up of the Chokri and Kuzhami), Dimasa Kachari, Khiamniungan, Konyak, Kuki, Lotha, Phom, Pochury, Rengma, Sangtam, Sumi, Yimchunger, and Zeliang.” (Kire12)
The British inroads into the Naga territory started after the treaty of Yandabo signed between the East India Company and the King of Ava in 1826. According to the terms of the treaty, Assam, Manipur were ceded to the British. The Naga territory lay between these two kingdoms and it became imperative for the imperial forces to chart out a connecting route through the Naga hills. Captain F. Jenkins and Captain R.B Pemberton made the first attempt to open a connecting land route …and they met fierce resistance from the Nagas.” (Kire 237). The British considered Nagas as a barbaric headhunting tribe who were in need of discipline. The Nagas, on the other hand, resented the British attitude and the taxes enforced on them. This led to intermittent clashes between the tribes often resulting in violence, bloodshed and casualties on both sides.
The British troops were withdrawn in 1857 due to the continuing violence. Thereafter, the British government tried to follow a policy of non-intervention. But since the Nagas continued to raid and attack the British troops, this policy was abandoned and the British started punishing the raiders and the villagers. In 1874, The British administrative unit created the province of Assam. The British, for administrative reasons, created the Naga Hills District and it was considered part of the Assamese territory. The dispute regarding the ‘ancestral ‘Naga territory, which according to the Nagas were ceded to Assam in 1963, is still the cause of dispute and violence.
The Battle of Khonoma fought between the British and the Nagas in 1879, is a historical event which marked a transition in the lives of the Nagas. The treaty between the British government and the elders of Khonoma in 1880, established British rule over Naga villages. Shortly after the treaty, the Christian missionaries started on their evangelical missions aimed to convert the Nagas to a ‘peaceful’ religion. The American Baptists were the first missionaries to establish its centre in the Naga hills. Rev.E. D Clark and his wife were the first to establish themselves. But the new religion took a long time to convince and convert the Nagas especially because of the strict prohibitions imposed on ritual activities and on habits like drinking rice beer. Moreover, the missionaries considered the Naga religion as pagan and the people as barbaric. But the missionary activity resulted in the transcription of the oral Naga language. They also established schools imparting western education and greatly aided in developing the medical facilities.
The two world wars had a great influence in shaping the political destiny of Nagaland. “During World War I, 2,000 Nagas were sent to France as members of the British Army. They saw the enormous cost of war and, additionally, the might of the empire. These Nagas returned and formed the Naga Club in 1918. Some historians maintain that this marked the first awakenings of political consciousness among the Nagas.” (Kire 238).
In 1935, The Government of India Act was passed which demarcated the Naga territory as ‘Excluded Areas’ and the Assam Legislature had no power to politically interfere in the area. Soon the British became involved in the activities related to World War II.
The Second World War too had a great impact in awakening the spirit of identity in the Nagas. A bitter battle was fought between the British troops (Allied forces) stationed at Kohima and the Japanese forces in April 1944 which caused heavy casualties on both sides. The Nagas helped the British in the fight by serving as runners and messengers and the invading Japanese withdrew by June. The Nagas witnessed the gruesome war, the war tactics and the importance of power and political force.
The Naga Hills District Tribal Council (NHDTC) was formed after the second world war to unify the different Naga groups and for better understanding among the Nagas. The NNC (Naga Nationalist Council) was born in 1946 when the NHDTC decided to change its name. The Nagas did not want to be part of the Indian Union after 1947. Their desire was “to be located outside India and not within it… It was prompted also by a determination to protect what they perceived to be a traditional way of life based on customary laws that were not codified.” (Kire 239) The Nagas were disheartened with the attitude of the different leaders towards the cause of Nagaland’s freedom. This frustration led Phizo, the president of NNC, to declare Nagaland’s independence on 14th August1947, a day before India declared its independence. The Nagas also boycotted the first general election of India held in 1952.
The 1950s and 60s was a violent period in Naga history. In 1956, the NNC declared an open conflict with the Indian Government. In 1956, Phizo established the Naga Central Government. The group later changed its name as Federal Government of Nagaland (FGN). This group was referred to as the ‘Underground Nagas’ by the Government of India. The 1950’s and 60’s were a violent period in the history of Nagaland. The Indian government used brute force to deal with the ‘underground Nagas’. The underground Nagas retaliated by attacking the soldiers of the Indian army. The army set fire to villages and killed the villagers who were suspected of helping the Naga underground forces. There were reports of rape and gruesome murders. Some moderates of the NNC came ‘overground’ in 1956 and formed the Naga People’s Convention (NPC). They began negotiations with the Government of India. The 16 -Point Agreement was decided in1960, which contained the details according to which Nagaland would be governed. On 1st December 1963, the state of Nagaland was carved out of Assam. “Nagaland, comprising the areas earlier known as the Naga Hills-Tuensang Area, became the sixteenth state of India.” (Kire 245). It was expected that this step would give more autonomy to the Naga people. But the Nagas felt that Nagaland would have been a larger state if all the ‘ancestral’ land had been merged to Nagaland. The Assam -Nagaland border violence is still an unresolved dilemma.
Conclusion:
“One lingering result of colonialism and its aftermath is that the colonized become so numb over a couple of centuries of oppression that they internalize the narrative created by their colonial conquerors as their own narrative once the oral traditions begin to fade under the light of printed (colonizer) text…The colonizer histories persistently miscast Nagas and other Indigenous Peoples through a device that Seneca scholar Barbara Mann calls ‘euro-forming’” (Thong viii)
Sanjib Baruah also refers to this same practice in his article A New Politics of Race: India and its North-east. He quotes the example of the writer Bell Hooks who never used capital letters to write her name. Hooks was thus creating a resistance to the ‘regime of visuality’. The visual regime of the stereotypical Naga as a brutal and violent tribe, rebels, insurgents and headhunters are often hyped via films and other media. This image intensifies in the stories of the soldiers from the mainland who speak of “‘treacherous’ rebels hiding behind bamboo groves and jungles”. (Baruah 167)
Easterine Kire reiterates the same idea in an interview, where she talks about the limiting parameters of North-East Indian literature and how readers from the mainland associate the literary works of this region with the common tropes of political violence and unrest : “…They have their own definition of a North -East that is always violent and bloodthirsty ,a “North -East is burning” stereotypical image fed by the national media…their imaginations, if they have any ,are limited to the stereotypical images that their TV screens feed them, and they should not be allowed to define what writing from North-East India is like or should be like!”(Longkumer 398).
The novel Don't Run, My Love, can therefore be viewed as an effort on the part of the writer in ‘rewriting’ the written records /hyped images of her land. Kire is trying to highlight the strong foundations of tradition and culture on which her society is rooted. The book offers a glimpse of the spiritual world of the Naga society located in a pre -Christian era. The book does not pose any political dilemma or the challenges of the present-day Naga society. It is rather an answer to the dilemmas, complexities and the present political crisis. The writer seems to suggest through her work that the answer to the present lies in the past. As Kire herself stated in an interview “I feel quite done with the political dialogues. There is so much of the spiritual and supernatural to be explored and we have that in our culture. One only has to go deep inside oneself, back into childhood or young adulthood and draw out all those wonderful stories …we not only have these spirit stories that are so marvellous, we are also a people who draw life lessons from the spirit world a lot…There are spiritual lessons we need to heed because they help us build a better world ,and we become wiser persons with an opened up consciousness that is much more able to deal with crises than when we just try to meet it in the ‘flesh’ , as it were.” (Longkumer 397)
Dr. Tezenlo Thong shares an instance in his book Progress and its Impact on the Nagas which delineates the importance of ‘recording’ the memory preserved in the last of the land’s storytellers. His mother being a traditional story teller, he once asks her to narrate a story from her childhood memory. But she failed to recollect many instances and couldn’t recollect the story in its entirety. This happened all over again when he invited a group of elders who were in their 80’s and asked them to narrate the stories related to their culture. He states that “the entire group struggled to remember and share the cultural practices and stories they grew up with.” (Thong 1). He goes on to describe the importance of storytelling and orality in a non-literate culture: “…unlike in a literate culture, stories, myths and traditional knowledge and wisdom are retained in the memories of the people and then passed on to the succeeding generations. These traditional treasures are not written down in books or recorded with modern technology. As a result, failure to rehash and retell over a long period of time causes the memory to fail to recollect and preserve.” (Thong 1). Easterine Kire too vocalizes the same idea when she says: “In a society like Naga society where written literature is so young, I felt the need to chronicle history – all that the people have gone through, historical events that shaped the community and produced the socio – cultural changes that we see now in place …” (Longkumer 396).
Don't Run My Love is thus a powerful narrative which is a marker of several different meanings. On the primary level, the narrative recreates the Naga spiritual world and revives the ancient customs and traditions revered in the land. It is also a clear insight into the life lived in the rural past before the advent to Christianity. It also ‘records’ this world and empowers the ‘memory’ of a generation with the written word. The novel can thus be considered as a framework where the contours of the past light up the path for the present generation. It is the memory of a generation of Nagas whose identity have been trampled over and infringed upon by the British, the missionaries and later on by the Indian government. The narrative thus becomes an important historical document that remediates the erasure of a history-an ‘unrecorded’ history preserved in the memory of the Naga elders. It is an attempt at resurrecting the identity of a Naga population, who for years have borne the brunt of a violent history and political turmoil scarring the psyche of a generation.
Works Cited
- Arya, A., & Joshi, V. (2004). The Land of the Nagas. Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing.
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