The North-East Blog
Know what leading academics, writers, poets, musicians, activists and journalists from the region have to say to develop an informed perspective on matters related to this part of India.I grew up amidst an atmosphere of ultra-nationalism generated by the Assam Movement of the late '70s and the early '80s. And then, there was the romance of insurgency, the fire of idealism that inspired an entire generation of Assamese youth. That fire, though dimmed to a great extent, was still burning when I left home in 1996: 'home' has always been equated with Assam - and Northeast India as a whole - in my vocabulary. And that was my first time away from home, away from everything held fanatically dear.
I was eighteen then and romanticism at age eighteen is permissible. With juvenile simplicity I wrote in a poem how 'after cradling me for nine months in her womb, my mother planted me a tiny seed in the soil of my birth'; very idealistically, I wrote of myself as the tree that...Read more...
This is not a formal review in the straightjacket of literary structures. But as a keen follower and fellow activist in the Manipur literature movement, I feel compelled to give air to what I felt after reading "Manipur Sahitya da Nupeegee Khonjen: An anthology of Womens writing(20th century) in Manipuri", edited by Memchoubi and published by Sahitya Akademi.
Memchoubi, a poet and a critic who emerged in the mid nineteen eighties, could effortlessly map the whole evolution of women's writing in Manipur. Existence of women's writing in Manipur is hardly 50 years old. In the introduction section, Memchoubi's mapping of women writers starts from what Amaibis (Shamans) sing or speak which is an old tradition connected with the celebration of local deities. She sees such songs or words as oral literature. Though this thought has not been brought out...Read more...
"I am glad I could do so much for Manipur, I can die in peace now..." - And those were Maharajkumari Binodini Devi's prophetic last lines as she ended her interview for a documentary which we were filming. That was in the year 2009. Two years later one of Manipur's iconic woman litterateur, poet, painter, sculptor and a social activist breathed her last. But not before she left behind an outstanding legacy that boasted a body of impressive literary works including numerous short stories, essays, plays and award winning screenplays.
It was an unusually bright and hot summer's day when we landed at the Imphal airport. My first time in a state which I had many personal connections with and one whose stories of insurgency and state misrule I had read, heard of and...Read more...
I have been writing in Assamese for periodicals in my home state Assam for a long time. I grew up in Guwahati, the biggest city in India's northeast. My early stories, the ones that I am now highly embarrassed by, were broadcast in the youth programmes of All India Radio, Guwahati India's public radio network when I was in secondary school. I need to mention this because, in 2004, when I moved to India's capital Delhi to attend college, I found myself producing a completely different kind of writing from what I had done before. A couple of incidents will perhaps help illustrate the mental shift that took place in the way I thought about myself and India's relationship with its northeastern region, including my state Assam.
On the first night in my hostel,...Read more...
It was sometime in 2007 in Delhi when Ashley Tellis, a friend, called me up and asked me to sing a few songs at a protest event at Swami Vivekananda Statue, Arts Faculty, Delhi University. The event was organised by People's Union for Democratic Rights and they were demanding the immediate release of Dr Binayak Sen who had been arrested by the Chhattisgarh Police without citing any reason. I was broke as usual but i managed to take an autorickshaw to the protest venue. All the performers at the event were performing in Hindi. They were singing songs of Safdar Hashmi and many other protest songs. I carried a few printed copies of my own poems that I had written for Dantewada after reading an editorial column of Hindustan Times. I should call it a collage of images of Dantewada rather than poetry because I had translated the...Read more...
I like to pay particular attention to what my daughter learns in her history class as a high school student. I am curious to know whose version of the story she is reading, how it is shaping her view of the world, whether it is biased. When I was her age growing up in Kohima, I remember studying fat formidable books of British history, also the Mughal empire.
I want to make sure she gets a far broader perspective of history. I would like her to understand the history of colonisation, the history of wars and conflict, the history of minorities and women and so on, across the globe - and understand the patterns of human behaviour and thoughts through history.
Thankfully, it looks like she is getting a far more expansive education in history than I did. I was reading a...Read more...
In a city such as Delhi, your air conditioners should be all-weather but not if you happen to be transferred to Cherrapunjee. You may not even need an AC there.
In fact the Voltas All Weather AC advertisement on television (featuring the much-transferred Murthy) doesn't paint the true picture of Cherrapunjee. Yes, it doesn't rain as much as it used to in Sohra (the local name for the place) but we Meghalayans don't take too kindly the portrayal of one of the state's most popular tourist destinations as a humid hell.
Eastern India may be more humid than the parched lands of North or Central India, but by no means Cherrapunjee is as sweaty as...Read more...
Catch a train from Guwahati in the evening and get down at Tinsukia early in the morning and jump on to a waiting SUV. by late evening you should be in China.
Yes, it is possible and that too with the present infrastructure linking Tinsukia and Rima, two large towns, the latter being much bigger and planned than the former.
Shocking for most but that is the reality. You climb into an SUV in Tinsukia, drive down the Parasuram-Kunda-Hailalyung-Walong-Kibithu route and finally reach Rima in Yunan province. It is a different matter that there is no immigration facility here to check your passport and that you would be stooped by the respective armies of the two countries. But the fact remains that there are very easy and good roads which go right up to...Read more...
Irom Sharmila is in love with somebody who has been communicating and sharing soul anguish with her in her confinement through letters. Report in the media declared this loudly a year ago. Nothing very strange about this, after all Sharmila is only 39, and living alone in a prison cell after having vowed to sacrifice eating to demand the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), for almost the last 12 years now. Her fast will complete 12 years on November 2 which is the day her family says her fast began, or November 5 when the newspapers first took notice of her fast and put it on record in the next day's edition.
The terrible privation she has inflicted upon herself and how she has been coping with it is next only to superhuman and...Read more...
What treaty that the whites have kept has the Red broken?/Not one./ What treaty that the white man ever made with us have they kept?/Not one.
- Native American Indian Chief, Hunkpapa of Lakota tribe, 1831-1890
I came across this quote a few summers back in the National Museum of the American Indian in New York. The words came back to me as I started penning my thoughts for my maiden article for IBNLive. Writing at a time when the work and memories of massive protests following the events that rocked India after the wrongful deaths of two young people from India's northeast in Bangalore and in Gurgaon in April 2012 are still fresh, many a questions were asked to us as to why this happened and solutions searched for an equitable and just India....Read more...
Uddipana Goswami
Jajabori Mon: Identity in exileI grew up amidst an atmosphere of ultra-nationalism generated by the Assam Movement of the late '70s and the early '80s. And then, there was the romance of insurgency,
Akhu Chingangbam
Please Don't Blame Imphal: My journey of protest and music - Part 1It was sometime in 2007 in Delhi when Ashley Tellis, a friend, called me up and asked me to sing a few songs at a protest event at Swami
Priyanjana Dutta
Manipur's Royal Legacy: Imasi Binodini Devi"I am glad I could do so much for Manipur, I can die in peace now..." - And those were Maharajkumari Binodini Devi's prophetic last lines as she ended
Aruni Kashyap
Where The Sun Rises: The peripheral imagination, writing the 'invisible' IndiaI have been writing in Assamese for periodicals in my home state Assam for a long time. I grew up in Guwahati, the biggest city in India's northeast. My
Senti Toy Threadgill
Polyphonic: The tellers of NagalandI like to pay particular attention to what my daughter learns in her history class as a high school student. I am curious to know whose version of the
Soumyadip Choudhury
Voltas AC ad gives Cherrapunjee a bad nameIn a city such as Delhi, your air conditioners should be all-weather but not if you happen to be transferred to Cherrapunjee. You may not even need an AC
Mrinal Talukdar
Beyond The Camera: From Tinsukia to Rima, a road to ChinaCatch a train from Guwahati in the evening and get down at Tinsukia early in the morning and jump on to a waiting SUV. by late evening you should
Pradip Phanjoubam
Hunter Gatherer: Irom Sharmila, loneliness of a long distance runnerIrom Sharmila is in love with somebody who has been communicating and sharing soul anguish with her in her confinement through letters. Report in the media declared this loudly
Binalakshmi Nepram
Northeast India Matters: The need to know and understandWhat treaty that the whites have kept has the Red broken?/Not one./ What treaty that the white man ever made with us have they kept?/Not one.
- Native American
