SIBA K GOGOI

ASSAM’S literary land-scape is as diverse asNortheast India itself; Assamese literature has

drawn, to a significant extent, onthe cultural and historical legacy shared by the states ofthe region. Assamese, an Indo-Aryan lan-

guage, though, was a lingua fran-ca for many ethnic groups ofAryan and non-Aryan descent inundivided Assam. The languagesthat most ethnic communitiesspoke had no script. After freeingit from the shadow of Bengali, theBritish – and then the governmentof independent India – grantedAssamese official language sta-tus. Inevitably, people of the re-gion, tribal or non-tribal, were ed-ucated in Assamese. The geo-graphical boundaries of Assamwere, however, redrawn after itsfragmentation into seven states,including Arunachal Pradesh, alsoformerly known as North-EastFrontier Agency, or NEFA. State reorganisation, coupled

with the spread of English large-ly because of the missionaries,brought about a sea change onthe education scene in the North-east. Assamese, with its new ge-ographical periphery, graduallystopped being what it used to be– a shared language in an ethni-cally diverse region. Nonetheless,Assamese retained its charm fortribal people, particularly thosewho had studied in Assamese-medium institutions but latercome under separate political en-tities. They not only carried onthe legacy of education gainedthrough Assamese but also usedthe language to produce works ofcreative imagination; Assamese,in fact, became a mirror of thehopes and aspirations of the com-munities they belonged to.So, tribal writers educated in As-

samese – perhaps because theydid not have their own written

languages or literary traditions –continued to embrace the lan-guage as an outlet for their cre-ative talents to portray differentethnic societies and cultures.Assamese literature will be poor-

er minus the contribution tribalwriters have made to its growthand development. FromArunachal Pradesh specifically,the authors that have made theirmark on the Assamese literaryscene include Lummer Dai (1940-2002), Yeshe Dorjee Thongchi(1952-) and Kengsam Kenglang(1942-2012). Lummer Dai, of the Adi tribe,

and Yeshe Dorjee Thongchi, ofthe Sherdukpen tribe, deservespecial mention for their valu-able contribution to the repos-itory of Assamese literature.Kengsam Kenglang, from theTangsa community, mainlywrote children’s books.Lummer Dai, considered

Arunachal Pradesh’s literary pa-triarch, was a novelist, short sto-ry writer and journalist. YesheDorjee Thongchi writes of himthus: “Foremost among all writ-ers from Arunachal Pradesh islate Lummer Dai, who con-tributed the most to Assameseliterature. Today, even after hisdeath, he enjoys a special placeamongst the readers. This is ev-ident from the fact that his nov-el Prithibir Hanhi is still a mostsought-after book. He wrote onlyfive novels but the number is notimportant as far as their literaryvalue is concerned.”Born at Siluk village in East Siang

district, Lummer Dai studied inGuwahati and Shillong. Startinghis professional career as a part-timer with All India Radio, Di-brugarh, he went on to hold thepost of director, information andpublic relations, government ofArunachal Pradesh. Dai emergedas a creative writer in the Ramd-henu era of Assamese literature.His first novel, Paharor Xile Xile,was published in 1960. It was,

however, his second fictionalwork, Prithibir Hanhi (1962-63),which confirmed his place as anovelist in the history of Assameseliterature. He later published MonAru Mon (1965) and Koynar Mu-lyo (1975-76). He did not have thefortune to see in print his fifthnovel, Upor Mohol, as it appearedin an Assamese weekly in 2003. He has received various awards,

including Asom Sahitya Sabha’sKamala Devi and Sitanath Brah-machoudhury Awards in 1960and 1985 respectively. Anotheraward has been instituted by theSahitya Sabha in Dai’s name. Thehighest literary body of Assam hasalso established the Lummer DaiNorth East Centre for Language,Literature and Cultural Researchat Bihpuria in Assam’s Lakhim-pur district.Yeshe Dorjee Thongchi was

born into a poor family in Jigaon,a remote village in West Kameng

district. He did his schooling inJigaon and Bomdila, and receivedhigher education in Guwahati.After completing his studies,Thongchi joined ArunachalPradesh Civil Service and was lat-er elevated to Indian Adminis-trative Service. He held severaltop positions, such as tourismcommissioner and deputy com-missioner, in the ArunachalPradesh government. Thongchihad a busy life as a bureaucrat,but that never deterred the writerin him from pursuing his calling.He felt the urge to write duringhis school days, which was evi-dent from the poems he com-posed then, but he soon focusedon writing novels and short sto-ries that made him popular, es-pecially as a novelist, among As-samese readers. Thongchi has enriched As-

samese literature with some fineworks, novels of varied interest:

Sonam (1981), Lingjhik (1983),Mouna Onth Mukhor Hridoy(2001), Xo Kota Manuh (2004),and Bix Konyar Dexot (2006). Hisoeuvre also comprises PaporPukhuri (2000) and Banh PhularGundh (2005), both collections ofshort stories, and Kameng Xi-mantor Xadhu (1972), a book offolktales. He has won, among oth-ers, the Sahitya Akademi Award2005 and Asom Sahitya Sabha’sBishnu Rabha Award 2001.Kengsam Kenglang, from Old

Changlang village in Changlangdistrict, retired from governmentservice as director, District Artand Culture Centre, Changlang.He authored seven books, pri-marily for children. Among themare Longkai Aru Thaknang,Tangsa Janajatir Xadhu, Teeli,Jene Kukur Tene Tangon and Aair Xoman Hobo Kon. In2011 Asom Sahitya Sabha con-ferred the Phulchand Khandel-wal Award on Kenglang, the sec-ond Arunachalee writer, afterYeshe Dorjee Thongchi, to be so honoured. In their novels and short stories,

Lummer Dai and Yeshe DorjeeThongchi, who belong to the firstgeneration of intellectual elite orwriters in Arunachal Pradesh, de-

pict with conviction the customs,behaviour and longings of different communities of native Arunachalees, such asAdis, Sherdukpens, Monpas and Nishis. Lummer Dai was the first au-

thor from Arunachal Pradesh tointroduce the Assamese readingpublic to the variegated worldof the tribal groups, especiallythe Adis, in the ‘Land of the Ris-ing Sun’. Prithibir Hanhi, for in-stance, gives readers captivat-ing insights into the lifestyle, cul-tural traditions and belief sys-tem of the Adi people. Dai wrotehis stories with a reformist agen-da; he dug up the rot in tradi-tional institutions like the ‘ke-bang’. Some of the key themesin the novels of Yeshe DorjeeThongchi are conflict betweenmodernity and tradition; devel-opment with regard for tradi-tional values; an awakening ofthe individual self, which is alsoevident in Dai’s works; sharpcriticism of social evils and su-perstitious beliefs. Both Dai and Thongchi use the

Assamese language lacing it withan ethnic punch, albeit contrast-ingly. Critic Tilottoma Misrawrites:“Thongchi makes liberal

use of this form of speech (pid-gin Asamiya) in the novel (MounaOnth Mukhor Xridoy), unlike Daiwho rarely uses it. Dai experi-ments with other interesting de-vices, including ‘translation’ oftribal speech into different vari-eties of Asamiya and even at-tempts to blend the lexicon of onelanguage with the phonemics ofanother (as in the speech style of the village idiot Libo in Prithibir Hanhi).”These tribal authors achieved

something highly significant asstorytellers: they served asbridges between ArunachalPradesh and Assam, and what ismore they redefined the fron-tiers of Assamese literature.Although Assamese was replaced

by Hindi as the medium of in-struction in NEFA, Dai andThongchi continued to write lit-erary fiction in the language thathad not only brought them edu-cation but also served as a pre-ferred mode of communication,in the form of Nefamese, or pid-gin Assamese, between the peo-ple from Arunachal Pradesh andBrahmaputra Valley. The decisionof the government of independentIndia to impose Hindi on NEFA –at the expense of the linguistic orethnic identities of the nativegroups – was part of its strategy tointegrate the tribes of the regioninto the Indian nation. Ironically,in later years, Meghalaya, Naga-land and Arunachal Pradesh de-clared English their official lan-guages. It was significant that sec-tions of the tribal people who wereeither educated in English or con-sidered it an important driver offuture development of their com-munities had backed the languageas the medium of instruction inthese states. While the various trib-al communities did not get theplatform for assertion of their iden-tities as they were drawn into theso-called process of nation-build-ing, removal of Assamese from theschools in NEFA initially caused alot of heartburn for Arunachaleesand people of Assam, for they hadlong cherished their relationsfounded on a shared language, his-tory and cultural heritage. The Arunachal Pradesh gov-

ernment’s recent announcementof Assamese as the third officiallanguage of the state – a recogni-tion for the Arunachalee authorswriting in Assamese – has, how-ever, raised hopes of renewed so-cio-cultural, literary links betweenthe two states. This is expected totake the works of Dai, Thongchiand Kenglang to a wider reader-ship in Arunachal Pradesh, theirown people. �

POSTscriptJ U L Y 2 9 , 2 0 1 2

SEVEN SISTERS

NELit review2

FIFTH WALLUDDIPANA GOSWAMI

Literary Editor

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Although Assamese was replaced by Hindi as the medium of instruction in NEFA, Dai andThongchi continued to write literary fiction in the language that had not only brought themeducation but also served as a preferred mode of communication between Arunachal Pradesh and Brahmaputra Valley

From the hills to the valley

FRONTIS PIECELummer Dai Yeshe Dorjee Thongchi Kengsam Kenglang

AS ethnic clashes rage once againin western Assam, it is time per-haps to take stock of the com-

monalities between our various com-munities rather than continue count-ing the dead and the displaced. It is in-evitable that where there are so manydistinctive groups of people living to-gether, there will be differences thatcrop up every now and then. What ismoot, however, is how we deal withthese differences. Do we kill each oth-er because we don’t like the way theother person dresses, or because wecannot stand the smell of their food?Or do we try to accommodate their‘otherness’ and familiarise ourselveswith it? Because if we do the latter, wecan all survive – and in a healthy at-

mosphere at that. If the former, soon-er or later, we will all perish.For long now, the states of the North-

east have been embroiled in politicalconflict with each other over the de-marcation of their state boundaries.These conflicts have also often takena violent turn in the border areas.Sometimes, whole insurgent armieshave been involved as have govern-ment officials. Once in a while, thecivilian population has also turnedperpetrator and participant in acts ofviolence. An unfortunate state of af-fairs given that there are so manythings in common, especially in theborder areas, between people livingon either side of the boundary line. Inany case, these are arbitrary linesdrawn by people sitting in distant pow-er centres without much regard forthe human population living there. Toallow these lines to divide kith from

kin is to play right into the hands ofthe people who drew them in the firstplace and perpetuate their self-serv-ing agendas. It is equally self-defeating for peo-

ple everywhere else – further inlandfrom the margins – to not recognisethe games these people play in turn-ing them against each other. Thegames those at the helm of affairs playare always at the expense of the onesat the grassroots. It is, therefore, thesepeople who need to understand thefutility of conflicts – ethnic or other-wise. And one way in which they canunderstand is through reading eachother’s literatures, and learning abouteach other’s cultures.In the Northeast, given our shared

history and political destiny (amongother areas of commonality), we havehad literature produced from onestate that reflects life and reality in

the neighbouring state(s). Sometimes– though not very often – it has evenbeen done in the language of the oth-er state(s). This issue of NELit reviewshowcases the literature of ArunachalPradesh written in Axamiya and cel-ebrated in Assam.Geo-politically speaking, Assam has

been at the heart of the northeast-ern region for long. On the one hand,this has inspired the elite of the saidstate to try and dominate over mostof the other states, even to the extentof imposing its language and cultureon them. This is a terrible historicalblunder for which the constituentsof the region continue to view eachother with suspicion. But, on the oth-er hand, the centrality of Assam andthe Axamiya has also meant that thislinguistically and culturally multi-farious region once had a lingua fran-ca which they used freely to com-

municate with each other. Often, asin the case of Nagamese and Ne-famese, they even adapted it to suittheir own requirements, much thesame way as English has been mould-ed in many parts of the erstwhileBritish Empire. Had it not been forthe divisive politics played by the In-dian State – of introducing Hindi andthe Devnagari script among the eth-nic communities of the region whohad hitherto been educated in Ax-amiya – the people of the other statesmight still have had their momentsof schadenfreude in transmogrifyingthe language while at the same time,being bound together by a commonmedium of communication. The Ax-amiya language and its practitionersalso, in their turn, would perhapsthen have learnt some humility andinclusiveness, much like the Englishlanguage has. �

Sister tongue

Lummer Dai, Yeshe DorjeeThongchi and Kengsam

Kenglang served as bridgesbetween Arunachal Pradesh

and Assam, and what is morethey redefined the frontiers of

Assamese literature

NEW PRINTSMAHAPURUSH SRIMANTA SANKARADEVABimal PhukanSaidul Islam (trans) Kaziranga Books, 2012`180, 154 pagesHardcover/Non-fiction

Awell-informed book on the genius ofVaishnava saint Sankardeva. It highlights,

particularly for the people outside Assam, themultifarious life and achievements of the 14thcentury social, religious reformer.

BHIWANI JUNCTIONThe Untold Story of Boxing in IndiaShamya Dasgupta Harper Sport, 2012` 250, 200 pagesPaperback/Non-fiction

From Vijender Singh to Mary Kom:will Indian boxing remain a force to

reckon with in the next few years orwill it go the hockey way? And whenit comes to the women, will someonestart by taking them seriously for a change?

UNTHAT TIL THAKA DHUNIACHUWALI EJANIBipul Sarmah Laipulia Gosthi (Pratima Devi), 2012` 60, 56 pagesHardcover/Fiction

Ateacher and journalist knows lovecan be futile most of the time. Yet,

he cannot help but express his feel-ings for someone he loves; to him,love stops a man from being a beast;it’s a driver of creativity. Here are 35poems for those who love reading.

BARNABASBombay's First Private DetectiveSangeeta Nambiar Westland, 2012` 250, 234 pagesPaperback/Fiction

The son of a cook takes up the job oftracing a British woman who goes

missing from the leafy lanes of Wode-house Road, Bombay in the summer of1942. His search for her leads him toGirgaum where he finds a murder tosolve. Family secrets and the machina-tions of an evil mind are all there forhim to unveil!

BIXOY BIXOYANTARJyoti Prasad Saikia Natun Asam, 2011`150, 141 pagesHardcover/Non-fiction

Tarun Gogoi vs Tarun Gogoi, the co-operative movement

under Sarat Chandra Sinha, why ministers blabber and some more interesting topics. It’s a collection of personal essays on a host of issues concerning contemporary public life.

BARBED WIRE FENCENirmal Kanti Bhattacharjee (ed)Dipendu Das (ed)Niyogi Books, 2012` 250, 186 pagesPaperback/Fiction

An anthology of 17 short stories deal-ing with the immigrant experience

of people from present-day Bangladesh,who were forced to leave their nativeland during and after India’s indepen-dence and to settle, amongst otherplaces, in the Barak Valley of Assam

BOOK ABLENews: Talk on John le Carré

Bal Sahitya Akademi Award winner, Sid-dhartha Sarma, delivered a talk on John leCarré on 21 July in Guwahati. The talk is thefirst in a series planned by the North EastWriters’ Forum (NEWF) on noted writers andtheir literary influences. Sarma spoke passion-ately of his introduction to and involvementwith the writings of the master spy novelistwho has been creating literary masterpiecesfor nearly five decades now. In his reply to anaudience query, Sarma maintained that leCarré has influenced the way he looks at life,not however on how or what he himselfwrites about the world.

Invitation/CFP: Muse Indialiterary journal

Journal: Muse India (www.museindia.com)Theme: Dalit/marginal literature of eastern and northeastern IndiaIssue: Nov-Dec 2012 What to submit: Articles/essays, book reviews, life-narratives, short stories, stories for children, interviews and poetry Contact: [email protected]: 30 September 2012