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<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2018}}<br />
{{Use Indian English|date=July 2018}}<br />
{{citation style|date=April 2013}}<br />
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'''Literature from North East India'''({{lang-as|উত্তৰ-পূৱ ভাৰতৰ সাহিত্য}}) refers to literature in the languages of North East India and the body of work by English-language writers from this region. [[North-East India]] is an under-represented region in many ways.<ref>[http://www.thesouthasian.org/archives/2008/strength_and_public_presence_o.html Strength and Public Presence of Women in Northeast India]</ref> The troubled political climate, the beautiful landscape and the confluence of various ethnic groups perhaps have given rise to a body of writing that is completely different from [[Indian English Literature]].<ref>[http://www.confluence.org.uk/2008/12/13/political-literature-of-india-north-east-frontier/ ‘Political’ Literature of India’s North East Frontier, by Manjeet Barua]</ref> [[North-East India]] was a colonial construct and continues to be one by virtue of having a historically difficult relationship with the [[India]]n nation state.<ref>‘Political’ Literature of India’s North East Frontier' by Manjeet Barua</ref><br />
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==Debates surrounding the term North East==<br />
However, there is no single definition of the phrase '''Literature from North East India''' as the diversity of this region defies easy definition. Broadly, this phrase refers mostly to English writing but may also include [[Assamese literature]] and writings in the [[Meitei language]], that have long traditions of writing and stand on their own with a glorious legacy.<br />
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Many writers such as [[Harekrishna Deka]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://myxofura.blogspot.com/2008/09/indias-north-east-imperial-look.html|title=Blogger|publisher=|accessdate=22 March 2015}}</ref> and [[Temsula Ao]] have expressed discomfit with the term North-East India and North Eastern writers, respectively.<ref>[http://www.sentinelassam.com/sunday/melange_feature_2.php?sec=31&subsec=0&id=150&dtP=2009-10-25&ppr=2#150 Voices from North East, ''Sentinel'']</ref> A section also strongly argue that the term is colonial and hence, an artificial construct. There is nothing called a "north-easterner" and the concept is purely geographical; it tends to homogenise an extremely heterogeneous cluster of people as there exists no common history and heritage of the people in North-East India<ref>[http://www.assamtimes.orgblog/3588.html "Northeast" Identity: an Artificial Construct]</ref> though formerly the current states of [[Arunachal Pradesh]], [[Mizoram]] and [[Meghalaya]] used to be constituent states of former British [[Assam]].<br />
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==Recent interest==<br />
Since 2008, national magazines and journals have taken unprecedented amount of interest in writings from this region. Several national news magazines have featured special issues on writers from North East.<ref>[http://www.tehelka.com/story_main42.asp?filename=hub120909singing_in.asp Singing in the Dark Times, ''Tehelka'', North East Writers special issue] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.is/20120912014929/http://www.tehelka.com/story_main42.asp?filename=hub120909singing_in.asp |date=2012-09-12 }}</ref><ref>[http://pratilipi.in/2009/03/voices-from-the-north-east/ Voices from North-East, ''Pratilipi'']</ref> The profusion of literature from North East has also generated immense interest within and outside the nation.<br />
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[[Mitra Phukan]], [[Bhabananda Deka]], [[Dhruba Hazarika]], [[Temsula Ao]], [[Mamang Dai]], Arnab Jan Deka, [[Jahnavi Barua]], [[Anjum Hasan]], [[Siddhartha Deb]], Robin S Ngangom, Kynpham Sing Nongkymrih, Desmond L Kharmawphlang, Nabina Das, Uddipana Goswami, Nitoo Das, Manash Pratim Borah, [[Prodyut Kumar Deka]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/at.asp?id=sep2517/Page11|title=Magical Discovery}}</ref> and Ananya S Guha are some English-language writers from North East. [[Assamese people|Assamese]] writers and Indian top literary award Jnanpith winners Dr [[Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya]], who was also President of India's top literary body [[Sahitya Academy]], and Dr [[Indira Goswami]] alias [[Mamoni Raisom Goswami]] were the most famous literary figures to emerge from this region. 'NELive' selected Dr Mamoni Raisom Goswami together with Homen Borgohain, Nirupama Borgohain, Mitra Phukan and Arnab Jan Deka as the '5 Contemporary Writers from Assam who made it big outside the state' and also illustrated their individual literary credentials.<ref name=NELive>{{cite web|last1=Ghosh|first1=Arnab|title=Top 5 Contemporary Writers from Assam|url=http://www.nelive.in/assam/entertainment/top-5-contemporary-writers-assam|publisher=NE Live|accessdate=15 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160131145548/http://www.nelive.in/assam/entertainment/top-5-contemporary-writers-assam|archive-date=31 January 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref><br />
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==Critical responses==<br />
The younger generation of English-language writers From North-East India include [[Jahnavi Barua]],<ref>[http://www.penguinbooksindia.com/Authordetail.aspx?AuthID=795 Author Profile, Penguin India]</ref> Arnab Jan Deka,<ref name="NELive"/><ref name="The Assam Tribune">{{cite news|work=The Assam Tribune|title=Poetry by the Banks|url=http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/showpage.asp?id=dec2714%2C11%2C1083%2C162%2C330%2C1995|accessdate=29 December 2014|issue=352|date=27 Dec 2014|volume=76|ref=Arindam Barooah}}</ref><ref name="Tess Joyce">{{cite web|website=The Art of Living Guide|title=Poetry and the Brahmaputra: Flowing Back to Nature|url=http://artoflivingguide.org/messages-mother-earth/poetry-and-brahmaputra-flowing-back-nature|accessdate=24 December 2014}}</ref> [[Siddhartha Sarma]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://utpalborpujari.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/|title=14 - November - 2009 - Utpal Borpujari|publisher=|accessdate=22 March 2015}}</ref> Nitoo Das,<ref>[http://international.poetryinternationalweb.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/index.php?obj_id=12945 Poetry International]</ref> Janice Pariat, Nabanita Kanungo, Mona Zote, [[Ankush Saikia]]<ref>[[Ankush Saikia]]</ref>{{Circular reference|date=July 2019}}, Bijoya Sawian and Uddipana Goswami.<ref>[http://www.museindia.com/showauth7.asp?id=529 Muse India]</ref> These writers express strong political awareness by addressing issues such as identity and ethnicity; a few hailing from Assam interrogate the violence that has ravaged their home state Assam due to the tussle between the secessionist militant group [[ULFA]] and the Indian government in complex ways. Some of them like Arnab Jan Deka delved deep into the spiritual and intellectual heritage along the Brahmaputra valley, and also highlighted its environmental fragility.<ref name="Tess Joyce"/><ref>{{cite news|last1=Tribune |first1=The Assam |title=The Connecting Link |url=http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/showpage.asp?id=apr1815,13,978,153,444,1575 |accessdate=23 April 2015 |publisher=Assam Tribune Private Limited |date=18 April 2015 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150418220018/http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/showpage.asp?id=apr1815%2C13%2C978%2C153%2C444%2C1575 |archivedate=18 April 2015 }}</ref><ref name="Anwesha Roy Choudhury">{{cite web|last=Choudhury|first=Anwesha Roy|title=New generation of storytellers|url=http://www.nelive.in/north-east/art-culture/new-generation-storytellers|publisher=NE Live|accessdate=15 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150614033644/http://www.nelive.in/north-east/art-culture/new-generation-storytellers|archive-date=14 June 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>[http://www.tehelka.com/story_main42.asp?filename=hub120909younger_writers.asp ‘Younger Writers Have A Pan-Indian Sensibility But Return To Their Roots’, Interview with Jahnavi Barua, ''Tehelka'']</ref><br />
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Discussing the work of the new generation of writers from North East, Preeti Gill says, "Many younger writers continue to grapple with these issues. Having grown up in the shadow of the gun, their desire to analyse the common people’s reaction to insurgency is as strong as ever."<br />
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Literary journal ''Pratilipi'' adumbrates the issues that concern writers from North East India in its special feature, "It is tragic that the long-running unrest, violence and terrorism in the North-East has remained a mere digression in the mainstream of the Indian nation-state – ironically, even in the mainstream arts that otherwise come across as very charged and political. The poems by Uddipana Goswami and six poets translated by Tarun Bhartiya, along with stories by [[Mitra Phukan]] and [[Srutimala Duara]] serve as a reminder that the "North-East" is not a geographical, political unit, but a place of many languages and cultures.".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://pratilipi.in/2009/03/voices-from-the-north-east/|title=Pratilipi" फीचर्स / Features " उत्तर-पूर्व की आवाज़ / Voices From the North-East|publisher=|accessdate=22 March 2015}}</ref><br />
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The internationally acclaimed iconic journal ''Art of Living Guide'' edited by Spain-based novelist, screenwriter and philanthropist Claire Elizabeth Terry, which carries regular columns by several Nobel laureates like Mikhail Gorbachev, Dalai Lama and Camilo Jose Sela, published a special essay of popular British poet and environmentalist Tess Joyce on the aesthetics of philosophical realms and lifestyle on the Banks of Brahmaputra in Assam by highlighting Arnab Jan Deka's book of poetry ''A Stanza of Sunlight on the Banks of Brahmaputra'', which says, "Written during his high school years, Arnab’s poems plunged the reader into further depths – into the midst of the universe itself and the riverine landscapes only served to increase the levels of complexity the narrator saw; we are left to realise that no-one is big enough to hold the universe and so: ''"Yet with no empty space left on the boat/the Universe sat quietly beside the reeds."'' Imbibed with a sense of awe, the narrator’s desires for explanations disappeared – it was the poetry that satisfied him, hence: ''"On the bald head of the dusty earth/Ashwaklanta bestowed a stanza of sunlight."''<ref name="Tess Joyce"/> A more extensive version of this literary masterpiece on literature from North East India also found a place of pride in the London-based research journal ''Luit to Thames''.<ref name="Luit to Thames">{{cite journal|last1=Joyce|first1=Tess|title=Poetry & the Brahmaputra : Flowing Back to Nature|journal=Luit to Thames|date=February 2014|volume=14|issue=February 2014}}</ref> In the prestigious Delhi-based journal ''The Book Review'', critic and poet N Kalyani admires Arnab Jan Deka's poetry from the same book, "And in ''These Small Thoughts'' Deka reveals what Umananda is, 'A tiny river island amidst the mighty river Brahmaputra near the prehistoric city of Pragjyotishpur, known by its modern name Guwahati now,' in a way that brings the image so alive: ''The tiny rivulet reflect a myriad of colour/The distant Umananda--a majestic aloof lily pad/The blackish riverbank with flowing wind/The cities dreaming of fleeced nomad/Besides the tidal marina''."<ref name="The Book Review">{{cite journal|last1=Kalyani|first1=N.|title=Poetry for Rhyme and Reason|journal=The Book Review|date=April 2014|volume=XXXVIII|issue=4|url=http://www.thebookreviewindia.org/author/arnab-jan-deka/2957.html|accessdate=29 December 2014|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150626110401/http://www.thebookreviewindia.org/author/arnab-jan-deka/2957.html|archivedate=26 June 2015}}</ref><br />
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==List of writers from North-East India==<br />
* [[Ananda Chandra Agarwala]]<br />
* [[Ananda Chandra Barua]]<br />
* [[Ananda Ram Baruah]]<br />
* [[Ankush Saikia]]<br />
* [[Anuradha Sharma Pujari]]<br />
* [[Arupa Kalita Patangia]]<br />
* [[Arup Kumar Dutta]]<br />
* [[Amulya Barua]]<br />
* [[Atul Chandra Hazarika]]<br />
* [[Banikanta Kakati]]<br />
* [[Bhabananda Deka]]<br />
* [[Bhabendra Nath Saikia]]<br />
* [[Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya]]<br />
* [[Birinchi Kumar Barua]]<br />
* [[Brajanath Sarma]]<br />
* [[Chandra Kumar Agarwala]]<br />
* [[Daisy Hasan]]<br />
* [[Dhrubajyoti Bora]]<br />
* [[Dhruba Hazarika]]<br />
* [[Easterine Kire]]<br />
* [[Dimbeswar Neog]]<br />
* [[Harekrishna Deka]]<br />
* [[Hem Chandra Barua]]<br />
* [[Hem Chandra Goswami]]<br />
* [[Hem Barua]]<br />
* [[Hem Barua (Tyagbir)]]<br />
* [[Homen Borgohain]]<br />
* [[Irom Chanu Sharmila]]<br />
* [[Jahnavi Barua]]<br />
* [[Janice Pariat]]<br />
* [[Jogesh Das]]<br />
* [[Jyoti Prasad Agarwala]]<br />
* [[Kaliram Medhi]]<br />
* [[Kamalakanta Bhattacharya (Assam)|Kamalakanta Bhattacharya]]<br />
* [[Krishna Kanta Handique]]<br />
* [[Kochery C Shibu]][http://menanddreamsinthedhauladhar.com/indian-writers-in-english-literature-and-their-works.php]<br />
* [[Laksminath Bezbarua]]<br />
* [[M. K. Binodini Devi|Maharaj Kumari Binodini Devi]]<br />
* [[Malsawmi Jacob]]<br />
* [[Mamang Dai]]<br />
* [[Mamoni Raisom Goswami]]<br />
* [[Mithinga Daimary]]<br />
* [[Mitra Phukan]]<br />
* [[Nalini Bala Devi]]<br />
* [[Nalini Prava Deka]]<br />
* [[Navakanta Barua]]<br />
* [[Nirmal Prabha Bordoloi]]<br />
* [[Padmanath Gohain Baruah]]<br />
* [[Phani Sarma]]<br />
* [[Prodyut Kumar Deka]]<br />
* [[Raghunath Choudhari]]<br />
* [[Rita Chowdhury]]<br />
* [[Rongbong Terang]]<br />
* [[Saurabh Kumar Chaliha]]<br />
* [[Siddhartha Sarma]]<br />
* [[Srutimala Duara]]<br />
* [[Surya Kumar Bhuyan]]<br />
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==See also==<br />
* [[Assamese literature]]<br />
* [[Indian English literature]]<br />
* [[Indian literature]]<br />
* [[Insurgency in Northeast India]]<br />
* [[Mizo literature]]<br />
* The Land of Early Nightfall: Glimpses of the Literature of Northeast India<br />
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==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
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==External links==<br />
* [https://archive.is/20120912014929/http://www.tehelka.com/story_main42.asp?filename=hub120909singing_in.asp Singing in the Dark Times, in ''Tehelka'', by Preeti Gill]<br />
* [http://artoflivingguide.org/messages-mother-earth/poetry-and-brahmaputra-flowing-back-nature Poetry and the Brahmaputra : Flowing Back to Nature, in ''Art of Living Guide'', by Tess Joyce]<br />
* [http://www.livemint.com/2009/11/05193357/Songs-of-the-hills.html Songs of the Hills, in ''Mint Lounge'', by Anindita Ghose ]<br />
* [http://www.confluence.org.uk/2008/12/13/political-literature-of-india-north-east-frontier/ Political Literature from India's North East, by Manjeet Barua]<br />
* [http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/showpage.asp?id=dec2714%2C11%2C1083%2C162%2C330%2C1995 Poetry by the Banks, in ''The Assam Tribune'', by Arindam Barooah]<br />
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150626110401/http://www.thebookreviewindia.org/author/arnab-jan-deka/2957.html Poetry For Rhyme And Reason, in ''The Book Review'', by N. Kalyani]<br />
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160131145548/http://www.nelive.in/assam/entertainment/top-5-contemporary-writers-assam Top 5 Contemporary Writers from Assam, in ''NELive'', by Arnab Ghosh]<br />
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160304002845/http://www.nelive.in/north-east/art-culture/new-generation-storytellers New generation of storytellers, by Anwesha Roy Choudhury]<br />
* [http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100409/jsp/northeast/story_12320117.jsp North-East India on Facebook]<br />
* [http://www.arjunchoudhuri.com Arjun Choudhuri's Blog]<br />
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20181017163910/http://www.assamkart.com/ ebooks of North-East India]<br />
* [http://www.manashpratim.blogspot.in Manash Pratim Borah's Blog]<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Literature From North East India}}<br />
[[Category:Northeast India]]<br />
[[Category:Indian literature in English| ]]<br />
[[Category:Writers from Northeast India]]</div>->Curb Safe Charmer