Nationalism and Ethnic Consciousness in the Select Poems of Monalisa Changkija

Abstract

Though Northeast India is distinct from the mainland India as a home of diverse tribal communities and their variegated life-styles, cultures, languages, food-habits and religions, “the nuances of the regional and local histories of Northeast India are of no interest to the political formations associated with Hindu majoritarianism” (Baruah 49). Considering the lack of devotion for the Indian nation in Northeasterners and naming them as the “Mongolian fringe” (Caroe), the national mainstream becomes a force to teach them the Indian value system and to impose it over their ethnic distinctiveness. Under the threat of nationalism – “an inclusive and liberating force” that “broke down the various localisms of region, dialect, custom and clan …” (Smith 1) the Northeasterners are now facing tremendous challenges to protect their ethnic identity. In this context, this paper attempts to examine how Monalisa Changkija as an Ao-Naga poet, through her poems from Weapon of Words on Pages of Pain (1993) and Monsoon Mourning (2007), explores the crisis of the Naga communities under the assimilative compulsion with mainstream and their ethnic consciousness to voice against this statesponsored force. Changkija’s search for “strength / in the sweet assurances / of strangers” from alien lands or her experience of how their “dreams” become “the nightmare now” makes the readers conscious to realize the threat to their localism and customs. At the same time, her voice to “stop this endless nightmare”, her command to not waste time advising them “guidelines / on how to conduct” their life and “to attain total integration / into the country’s mainstream” reveal their ethnic consciousness as well as a strong question over the so called concern of the nation towards Northeasterners.