Time to Open a New Page

Compiled by: Lalkrosmawia 

Team Silhouette is listing out four books that speak close to the hearts of the Northeast people and that sure promise good company.

Being Mizo: Identity and

Belonging in Northeast India

Author(s): Joy L.K. Pachuau
Publisher: Oxford University Press

            T h e monograph examines issues of ethnicity and identity with specific reference to a particular ethnic group from India’s Northeast, namely the Mizos. In doing so it investigates not only how the idea of the ‘other’ informs identity making, but also investigates, historically, how social patterns and practice contribute to the making of Mizo identity.

            Joy L.K. Pachuau teaches at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Besides working on the socio-cultural history of Northeast India, her research interest includes European expansion in Asia in the six teenth and seventeenth centuries. A common thread in both these areas is the history of Christianity, which also forms the core of her interest.

Northeast Migrants in Delhi
Author: Duncan Mc Duie-Ra
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press

            N o r t h e a s t Migrants in Delhi: Race, Refuge and Retail is an ethnographic study of migrants from India’s north-east border region living and working in Delhi, the nation’s capital. Northeast India borders China, the Himalayas, and Southeast Asia. Despite burgeoning interest in the region, little attention is given to the thousands of migrants leaving the region for Indian cities for refuge, work, and study. The stories of Northeast migrants reveal an everyday Northeast India rarely captured elsewhere and offer an alternative view of contemporary India. Northeast migrants covet the employment opportunities created by India’s embrace of globalization; shopping malls, restaurants, and call centres. Yet Northeast migrants also experience high levels of racism, harassment, and violence. Far from simply victims of the city, Northeast migrants have created, their own ‘map’ of Delhi, enabling a sense of belonging, albeit an uneasy one. Interdisciplinary in nature, this book will appeal to scholars of anthropology, urban studies, geography, migration, and Asian Studies.

These Hills Called Home: Stories

From A War Zone

Author: Temsula Ao Zubaan
Publisher: Penguin India 

            EIGHT years of ceasefire has made Nagaland a haven of peace in the

Northeast. But this cannot o b l i t e r a t e memories of the harrowing times the state went through for much of the post- Independence period. While the rest of India celebrated Independence, the Nagas sought their own independence. This anthology of short stories “from a war zone” is eloquent proof that the violent phase in Naga life will remain etched in their collective memory. In ‘An Old Man Remembers,’ Sashi who remained reticent all his life about his days in the jungle when he fought against the Indian Army, breaks down when he is prodded by his grandson Moalemba to tell his story. For anybody who wants to understand a bit about Naga life, away from the headlines in the Press, Temsula Ao’s collection is an ideal destination. Proof mistakes are the least a reader expects when the book has the imprint of two major publishing houses –Zubaan and Penguin.

Emerging Literatures from

Northeast India

The Dynamics of Culture, Society and Identity.

Edited by: Margaret Ch Zama
Publisher: Sage Publications

            E m e r g i n g Literatures from Northeast India is an amalgam of c r i t i c a l perceptions on w r i t i n g s emanating from the region on issues of identity construct, on hidden colonial burdens that refuse to leave and on the key role that oral traditions continue to play and will do so for some time in any study of the region.

            Within the ambit of ‘emerging’ literatures, this book takes into consideration not only the new writings in English and the vernacular being generated from the region, but also the already existing works in the form of translations, thereby making such works accessible for the first time to the rest of mthe world. Moreover, the book, in critiquing and calling attention to the emerging literatures of the region, is also playing the larger role of providing access to and facilitating the opening up of the region through the academia.




*This article was published in the campus monthly newsletter Silhouette Vol-III, Issue No 3