Writing in English in India’s Northeast: Relevance, Importance, and Place

Writings in English coming out of India’s Northeast are now considered to constitute a sub-genre in themselves. And there are a few unique and intriguing features about these writings. Even though the seven states that make up this region are very diverse in all other ways, there is a threading together of them through this cord of writing in a tongue that was originally brought in by those who colonized this land, and then left.

It is indeed surprising that this should be so. For the seven states differ so greatly from each other linguistically, culturally, ethnically, sartorially, and cuisine-wise, that it seems strange that there should be this term “Writings in English from India’s Northeast” at all. When one comes across this term, people living and working with words here are taken aback. Is this yet another example of how people living beyond the ‘chicken’s neck’ tend to lump the entire region together? How is it that they are not aware of the vast diversity of this region, how is it that they can even imagine that the literature can be talked about in the same breath at all? Even if the language used in both cases is English, how can a writer living in a land of vast rivers, of Sattras and Borgeets, be lumped together with another, whose work is infused with the myths rooted in the rolling, misty hills of his native land?

The political splitting apart into different states of this region, happening over a period of time several decades ago, took place for a reason. These areas, these parts, were never, historically, part of a single political entity. It was only for ease of administration that the British put large tracts of the hills and plains together in the first place. They were not interested in whether this large state could “hang together” through homogeneity of culture and language and ways of life. After Independence, it was inevitable that the areas gradually moved away, politically, from each other. Indeed, in some states, we are still witnessing examples of this drifting apart again, with the centrifugal force spinning these entities awaynot being a spent force yet.

Coming as it does from this background, the term “English Writings from India’s Northeast” appears, in some ways, to be yet another example of a sweeping generalisation with which we have to live, willy-nilly. There are about 420 languages and dialects of different language families to be found here, and the resultant complexities are mind boggling, a complex and wide-ranging ethno- and socio-linguistic configuration. All seven states are different, so why exactly do we have to be referred to in one breath? Is it just a convenience, again? Not administrative, this time around of course, but more of a way of dealing with these seven states quickly, without having to spend too much time on any single state? A time saver, in a way? A symptom, yet again, of the way very few outside the area actually understand this region?

Certainly there can be no denying the differences. One of the most fundamental differences in the literatures of the different languages of the region lies in the medium of transmission. Some states have a heritage of a rich oral literature, while others, notably Manipur and Assam, have, in addition, written literatures as well. The use of the Word in its written form certainly makes the literature of a particular language different. There are compulsions that a person using the Word in this way cannot ignore. On the other hand, oral literatures also employ certain techniques – such as chants, melodies, rhythms and so on as aids to memories as well as drama elements – which immeasurably enrich the telling of it.

Another fundamental difference lies in the experience and culture being delineated. A literature reflects the colour of the culture from which it springs. It goes without saying that each tribe, each group of peoples of the hills, valleys and plains of this region, has its own rich culture, deeply rooted in their unique customs and traditions. These are important reasons for the very apparent differences in the literatures of the various peoples of this region.

So where, and how, does English come into this mosaic? Does the English language, used across the heterogeneous writings of these states, homogenize everything? Is it a case of “Read one author of the Northeast, and you’ve read them all…”?

The immediate response to this is - No, of course not. Every author and poet working from this region in English has a distinctive vision. Besides, each person has shaped the language itself in his or her own unique way. This is because of the demands of the material that he or she is working with. The diverse experiences of Mamang Dai and TemsulaAo, and the cultures they write from, inevitably shape the vocabulary, the cadences, even the sentence structures of their work, because of the different languages that they call their Mother Tongues. At a broad level, therefore, one can say that there are several “Englishes” being forged in the work of writers of English in this region today.

And yet there are several important commonalities to be found here, among those who write in English, as well.

As with many other important areas of life in this part of the country, English obviously came into the region with the British colonizers. But it was not the soldiers or administrators who were really responsible for planting the seeds of the language here, in such a way that it has now grown into a flourishing tree. It was the Christian missionaries who were actually the people who worked for the spread of English, and its teaching in the many missionary schools and colleges that they set up across the land. And indeed, it is here that we come to one of the common threads in the fabric of English writing in the region. For the most part, contemporary writers in English have had their education in English medium schools. This means that even though they have their own individual mother tongues, their first language is English. For it is seen that writers usually use the First Language rather than the mother tongue when they write.

This use of a language other than the mother tongue for creative writing is especially important in this region. In some areas where the written literatures came in at a comparatively later date, this use of English became path breaking in several ways. One was the use of the language, English, itself, in narration.

Secondly was the “penning” of these stories, of “imprisoning”, as it were, characters and incidents and giving them shape within a plot, and thus making them unchanging, absolute and immutable, forever. By moving from the oral to the written, they gave the literatures of their land a permanence that is different from the more fluid narrations of the oral traditions. So the writers who came from an oral tradition of literature and then wrote, not in their mother tongues, but in English, were taking some radical steps. In addition, those who came from places which already had a strong history of written literature, by writing in English, also took some drastic steps. They refused to be intimidated by the weight of their own languages, and written literatures, and instead, forged an often lonely path in writing in English from their own cultures and points of view.

Thirdly, by writing in a global language, they were taking the “culture” and “life” and “ways of thinking” of this region, and placing it directly before a global readership, without the intervention of a translator. Much that is written about today in the fictions and poetry in English coming out of the Northeast, has never been placed through this language, before an “English reading public”, before. This accessing of a new readership is certainly very important.

Fourthly, they were moulding this language, English, to suit the literary needs of writers and poets from this region. These are ties that bind all writers who use English as their chosen medium of literary expression in this region.

An important feature that binds writers in English from this region, as opposed to those who write in their mother tongues, is the fact of “reach”. Whether we like it or not, English is a language that has a much larger reach than any other language of the world. Therefore those who write in English are always conscious that their writings are likely to reach a readership outside their own communities. This also brings in its wake certain practical issues. The culture, traditions, ways of living that are embedded within the writings, are often incomprehensible to readers outside the area. Therefore, things need to be explained. Yet there is the danger of a work of literature becoming an anthropological treatise if too many explanations are sought to be given. The writer in English from this region therefore always has to walk a tightrope. She has to take the narrative, the poem, forward, while at the same time doing it in such a way that it is intelligible to all those who read English, around the world. This “balance” is something that binds together all those who write in English from this region. Perhaps, in due course, as more works from here move out to the rest of the country, many things about these varied states will be common knowledge, and then, perhaps, there will be less of this “balancing act” to be gone through. One hopes that this need to keep “explaining” to an imaginary audience even as one goes through the process of telling the story or evoking the images of the poem, will not be required, at least to such an extent, in the future.

In any case, those who write in English from the Northeast have to make all kinds of decisions that possibly other writers or story tellers in their communities never have to. On the one hand is the challenge of setting out stories without the help of oral props. On the other hand – which writers from Manipur and Assam have to routinely face – is the question, “Why don’t you write in your mother tongue?” Though this question is losing relevance in other regions of the country, it is still important here. In Assam, at any rate, writers who work in English are often looked upon as being elitist. They are ignored, at best, jibed at, at worst, because it is assumed that their works do not deal with topics of local relevance. This is of course not true at all. In any case, as mentioned before, language is a medium only… but working in different mediums certainly brings its own challenges, which writers are overcoming in their own ways.

One of the aspects of this writing in English from the Northeast of India is its strong rootedness in the land. This is seen firstly in the physical descriptions of the land in the works of the writers, whether they are poets or fiction writers. The works of poets of course are full of evocative descriptions of their land. Their works speak of these beautiful hills and valleys, these vast rivers, these misty winters and the furious rains that pelt the land. The flowers and forests, the unique sights and sounds are described with a fine suggestivity that reflects their love for it. This is in some ways unique to the writings in English from this region, for much of the other English writings in India today are decidedly urban. Descriptions of an unspoilt natural beauty, of a region that is still connected to the land in many ways, can only rarely be found in these other writings. Those are more centred on cities, and the concerns of cities are what are dealt with. Even when the hills and valleys and plains of this region are not specifically described in fiction, they are always a presence, through such devices as metaphors and similes. Therefore, the gold of the mustard fields of Assam or the cold winds of winter in the hills – for instance – can be seen and felt as an underlying, definite presence even when they are not explicitly articulated.

Another common feature of the writings from this land is the strong political bedrock on which many of the works are based. This is, of course inevitable, because of the turbulent times that these states are going through, or have gone through in the recent past. The strong reflection of this turbulence comes out in the fictions as well as the poetry of the land. The emotions of sadness and anger therefore, are very apparent, in different degrees, in these writings. The conflicts that are portrayed range from the horrors of the many insurgencies that stalk the land, to the loss of the customs and mores of a rapidly changing community to an often bewildering present.There is a knitting together of the past and present in many of these works, reaching across the states of the region. These stories and poems talk with the voice of humanism, and plead for understanding and a humanistic way of going forward.

Another very strong element that joins these writings in English is the presence of myths and legends from a past that is still within touching distance of the present, as it were. These add a different dimension to these works. Indeed, we must also look at English translations of original works to get a full flavour of this rich legacy of legends and myths that still live even today.

In addition are the customs and traditions that inevitably come into the works of people who write from within a region, about the region. The fact is that most works written in English in the rest of the country do not have these strong linkages with a customary past any more. Urban concerns (of course valid in themselves) and urban lives are played out in those other works. Here, the works in English of the Northeast appear to be closer to translations into English from the languages of the soil. This is because they all have a very strong local flavour. Indeed, even the vocabulary is liberally sprinkled with words from the local languages. The many relationship words “Deuta”, “Ima” and so on, for instance, are now read with comprehension in English. Similarly, the names of festivals that come from this region, and indeed much else, have stepped into the language, softly. Undoubtedly though, this will become a strong current in the near future, with ever newer writers using English as their language of choice for their literary works.

The important thing to note here is that writings in English from this region, in spite of being so much “of this land”, also have universal appeal. This is the reason why so many names are now becoming well known outside the region, even though English language writing here does not have a very long history. It is probably also true that this phase of “rootedness” to the land is not going to last for ever. The writings are already getting increasingly urbanized, even, to coin a word, “metro-ized”. Even then, the unique gaze of writers in English from this part of the world will continue to enrich the world of letters.