Homegrown: Anthology of New Writings From Nagaland

Who am I?

Where did I come from?

Where do I belong? (Youth Culture)

There follows explorations of this theme in different and varied ways as key milestones in Naga history are revisited through stories that bear witness to the repercussions of one of the ‘longest standing conflicts’ in the world. Similarly, narrative events that are shaped by unresolved existential inter- generational traumas; personal narratives articulating the meaning and idea of home, homeland and nation; articles debating language loss and language death; heartfelt expositions into the painful realities of present day Nagaland and poignant reflections of love, friendship, history, family and self— all find their way into the pages of this anthology emphasising a specific subjectivity and the continuation of oral traditions. It must be pointed out that subject matter and concerns presented in the collection do not focus primarily on confrontation, conflict and alienation, but also dwell upon survival and continuance and the possibility of healing from the wounds of history.

That Nagas are still making a transition from oral to written literatures and that imaginative writing marks an important phase in their society’s transition from orality to the literary should be recognised. Naga writers are still attempting to find a voice as well as to discover a sense of what their own voices represent. The term 'transition' does not mean that oral traditions are left behind or lost in the discovery of written ones. Rather, it suggests the continued influence of the past which changes the arena into which it moves and should be seen as a process in which new ways of seeing are possible. In this anthology, factual experiences and accounts are moulded by time within the framework of the present, bridging the gap between the old and the new. In considering the connections between literature and lived experience, the editors of Homegrown have created a narrative space that allows these writers to tell stories of everyday experiences (social, cultural, political) and the tribal worldview they associate with. They are encouraged to tell their stories in their own ways, showing readers the beauty, the humour,  the pain, the joy, the romance, the growing pains — and the pride of where they’re from, who they and their charactersare and what they’re longing for. And because these narratives incorporate other literary forms such as songs, tales, myths and origin stories, they also provide an opportunity to study forms, functions, unique linguistic registers, stylistic devices and techniques characteristic of Naga indigenous literature.

Although Homegrown is not the first anthology to be published on Naga indigenous writings in English, perhaps it is the first to showcase the voices and perspectives of the younger emerging writers of the state from whose writings we can deduce an idea of the evolution of Nagaland’s literary growth and its present milieu. More so because their writings display a definite “shift in focus” in the themes and subject matter from the writings of the previous generations. The collection is therefore a significant marker of the literary development of Naga writing. It also demonstrates that anthologies have a role to play in indigenous writing because they emphasise community voices over individual work and a view of life and reality that is different from mainstream reality. As such, the words of the authors in this anthology should challenger readers to confront and break down all the stereotypical beliefs they might hold about indigenous Nagas and their communities. In a place and time when indigenous people often have to contend with representations that marginalise or devalue their intellectual and cultural heritage, this book is a testament to the resilience and creativity of Nagaland’s by.m‘homegrown’ writers.

Perhaps it would not be too out of context to consider here the place of anthologies and their use as a part of the process of canon formation. In contemplating the notion of anthologies, a wide questioning of their place and role in the constitution of literary corpuses or on the impact they have on societies, would show that their role has always been central in the birth of literature. Anthologies are to be found in any written tradition and are probably one of the most ancient forms of literary criticism: either texts have been deemed acceptable or representative and so have entered an anthology; or have failed to do so, constituting their demise. The focus here is only to highlight the fact that essentially, good anthologies must have a clear purpose: their most important function being, to hand down literature from one generation to another in order to preserve it from oblivion and secondly, to widen the readers’ horizons. Consequently too, anthologies have been used to endorse causes, highlight ideas and attitudes, illustrate particular literary movements, accentuate places and regions, acquaint readerswithmeaningful encounters with literary texts and more. Most of these objectives appear to be part of the editorial methodology of Homegrown.

It is significant that in India, Indian writers found a legitimate place in the literary canon and an original take on English, as the term Indian Writing in English increasingly came into vogue and contributed to the core of Commonwealth and Anglophone literatures. As the notion of postcolonial India was being written by powerful and influential writers with access to multinational publishers, the position of the North-east as peripheral to the nation became reinforced. Literature from this region is often missing from the usual sites of literary canonisation, such as syllabi of Indian writingand is rarely promoted by booksellers. This tendency has also, until recently, been compounded by the minimal representation of our own indigenous writers in the curricula, literature and academic environments of our educational  institutions. The absence of North-Eastern, and by extension, Naga voices, points to the systemic exclusion and erasure of this region from the national imagination. In such a scenario, anthologies in general, have power and status within the dominant culture and can be used effectively as a tool by the margin to challenge and re-formulate views of 'otherness' maintained by the canon and often reflected in certain representations of national identity. Thus specialised anthologies such as Homegrown can signify by their very production, the gaps that exist in mainstream anthology by intentionally including works specifically aimed at redressing the problems of exclusion. Further, they can destabilise and interrogate the values which construct a mainstream canon by creating and generating work that challenges and negotiates the 'representative' nature that the mainstream values. Keeping this in mind, writings from Nagaland, both old and new, by Naga writers writing in English must be received as voices that are involved in developing and contributing to a larger literary consciousness that needs to be recognised and interrogated. When all is said and done, they are not just attempts at writing back to the mainstream from the margins, more importantly, they are a means of writing into the consciousness of a nation.

Written with generalist readers in mind (both indigenous and non- indigenous), but addressing issues of interest to specialists in the field, Homegrown: Anthology of New Writings from Nagaland welcomes new audiences to Naga indigenous literary studies. A well presented volume that is unreservedly recommended for both communityand academiclibrary collections and supplemental reading lists, this seminal work should be on our shelves, our reading lists or our syllabus — or better still, on all three.

Edited by Sentinaro and Vizovono Elizabeth @penthrill

Reviewed by Kevileno Sakhrie