Literatures from Northeast India

Beyond the Centre–Periphery Debate

K M Baharul Islam

• Publisher: Routledge India
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9781032225302
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000578102
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Regional Studies
• Index: Literature

This book showcases the diverse literary traditions from India's Northeast and their shared connections and lineages. It critically analyses a selection of literary works from authors and poets from this region and the hegemonies of language, ethnicity and politics that have framed these voices.

As a region with rich cultural and ethnolinguistic diversity, Northeast India's literature is representative of varied histories, languages, socio-cultural and religious practices. The book highlights the distinct use of language, forms, cultural symbols and metaphors which articulates the unique experiences of conflict, beauty and culture in this area. Focussing on the translingual and transcultural aspects of these literary works it examines the dynamics between literature, language and their socio-cultural influences. The book pays attention to themes of representation, identity and power to showcase voices and perspectives of dissent, criticism and introspection. It explores contemporary critical approaches to literature from the Northeast, by re-examining the idea of the centre and the periphery and the position of subaltern literary voices.

This book will be of interest to students and researchers of literature, language, cultural studies, postcolonial studies and South Asian studies.

Part I Literature from Northeast India

1 Love in the Conflict Zone Negotiating Spaces in Davidson’s Gay Short Stories

Himadri Roy

DOI: 10.4324/9781003272946-3

I. Introduction

Literature from Northeast India documents structural violence and routine social relations that underwent a phenomenal change after the imposition of Armed Forces (Special Power) Act (AFSPA). This structural change that took place exerted its essence of transmogrification in the local atmosphere, through the immediate situations, exigencies of institutional power, leading to irreplaceable consequences, like death and disease. Amidst all these, the literature negotiates the existential spaces of local people as against the armed forces. The literature tries to explore the interrelations of narrative and political discourses of militarism and war and recognise the politico-cultural intersections, systematic violence disfiguring the whole idea of social power, for instance, nationalism, religious identity, caste, ethnicity, gender and sexuality. Probably, the gruesome depictions of such paradigmatic structural changes are vivid and accurate. Although facts are fictionalised in many cases in literature, when it comes to the portrayal of non-normative sexuality and its cultural, social and political essence, hardly any writer of Northeast India comes forward with myopic representations of the vulnerabilities of victimhood and recognising the emotional violation of such non-normative individuals. This chapter tries to delve into these non-normative individuals, especially gay men, to bring out the existential crisis of such people in a conflict zone. Three short stories of Kumam Davidson—“Imphal Express Blue”, “An Army and a Young Boy Who Runs a Shop in Manipur” and “Cruising in Imphal”—are taken into consideration to explain the nuances of the survival of these gay men.

II. Being Gay in a Conflict Zone

After the recent verdict of the Supreme Court of India on IPC Section 377, the tag of ‘criminal’ has been removed from the lives of gay men in this country, only legally. The society still doesn’t pardon them and their lifestyles, considers them worse than the untouchables and as mentally ill people. They are not accepted by anyone, as in many cases parents don’t accept their own child as gay, and consider that to be an insult to their parenthood. These individuals don’t adhere to the norms and traditions of the society. Their livelihood has many nuances that build a confidence inside them, a sense that develops into accepting their own self, coming to terms with their own sexuality. But the orthodox and staunch normative structure outcasts them openly. They are harassed, embarrassed, abused and in some cases subject to violence by anyone who considers oneself outrightly superior to these individuals. Thus, a sense of shame and guilt drive these individuals to get inside a ‘closet’ and lead a life of ‘lies’. The development of a sense of ‘protective sanctity’ (Sedgwick 1990) leads them to be closeted always inside their own cocoon. The role of gender performativity and acceptance of structural masculinities are challenged by gay men all the time. The nuances of their livelihood question the social practices of masculinity through performances, almost criticising Connell and Messerschmidt’s (2005) philosophy of masculinity through the social positioning of individuals as against the configurations of male bodies. Thus, dismantling the patriarchal power structure. The whole idea of transvestitism or dressing and feeling like a woman by any gay man threatens both the polemics of hierarchical power of normativism by feminising masculinity (Halberstam 1998). Amidst all these structural morphologies, gay men try to naturalise the systematic violence of patriarchy and disfiguring power of the sexes. Now when these individuals are already undergoing so much torture, abuse, violence, what would be their condition in a conflict zone? To comprehend this kind of sexual violence in conflict zones, one needs to decipher the common understandings of gender positioning, its hierarchy and the whole idea of sexual victimisation. One can easily figure out the disciplining attitudes of militarising society and how men in power control the men inferior.

Davidson’s “An Army and a Young Boy Who Runs a Shop in Manipur” tries to disagree with the notion of motivational perpetrators of masculine sexual violence. The dynamics of social hierarchies being imposed, maintained and made to be functional becomes almost null in this story. It is always understood that combatants have opportunistic choices of outlaying the liminality of sexual violence on men, but this story stands against that whole idea of combatants being opportunistically violent. The subtle love between the two protagonists that leads into such beautiful romantic nuances seems to authenticate the not-so-acceptable normative love, almost agreeing with Alison’s intersectionality of ethnicity and gender of one’s exuberance in displaying specificity of normative construction of the militarising process (Allison 2007). The sexual violence in a conflict zone is so structuralised and essentialised that it doesn’t even think of race, ethnicity and gender in carrying out the violence constructively. But this story proves everything wrong, intact it disagrees with the whole idea of masculine sexual violence and brings out love between a combatant and a local guy, Ningthem. The combatant comes from Uttar Pradesh, and gives Ningthem lots of Bollywood songs CDs and doesn’t even hesitate to share the sweet that came from the army man’s hometown, which is meant for him and his close ones who are far away from home.

Very interestingly, these interactions reinforce and transact the masculinity of the combatant and simultaneously feminise the local guy, impinging through the subtle strictures of normativity of masculine behaviour and the non-normative attributes of Ningthem. But now if one tries to critically analyse the story, one can only say it is a mutual attraction between the two that lasted only for a few weeks. No strong feelings from Ningthem’s side are portrayed that can be quoted as ‘gay emotions’. But taken into consideration, the non-verbal communications that take place between the two protagonists are queer, explains Catherine Nash and Kath Browne in their edited book titled, Queer Methods and Methodologies: Intersecting Queer Theories and Social Science Research (2010). It is not that one is trying to put it into that awkward box of nomenclatures and terminologies, Sedgwick categorically says that the psychic mimesis of emotional affinity that changes the gender performativity becomes significant in shaping the emotional structure as no normative. This is exactly what Davidson is trying to do in this story.

III. Love in a Conflict Zone

Amidst the structural and systematic violence, gay men keep exercising and enacting their desired fantasies, through which they try to escalate the patriarchal superiority of the perpetrators’ violence. This kind of psychological framework is always prevalent in a gay man’s world. One positions oneself in the structure of victimhood and accepts the abuses thrust upon one at intervals while allowing the abuser to develop a sense of superiority and satisfy his patriarchal attributes. Gender subordination and performativity keep resonating at all phases of life of any gay man in this country. Trying to cope up with atrocities becomes a part of their forte, and they embody a sense of resistance through their tolerant nature. For instance, many closeted gays undergo emotional harassment when in front of them others crack homophobic jokes or are always making fun of their choices of clothes. Such nuances of everyday lives create a sense of subjugation that leads them to enclose themselves more into their ‘protective sanctity’ and be harsh on their own gender performativity.

Davidson’s Imphal Express Blue deals with such a psychological framework but with naive innocence. Performative utterances and constative performances create subtle inherent characteristics of gay men to bloom out in appropriate circumstances. The narratological technique of Ningthem dissuades the whole idea of romance and love beginning and ending with sexual urges. The physical love between him and his best friend, Pari, creates a sacramental affinity that leads them to be satisfied in their gender performativity. According to Sedgwick, such gender performances upheld the psychological disciplining of desire and a sense of control over the gendered body (Sedgwick 1997). Every gay man undergoes such emotional turbulences of choices about performing a particular role against his will or not, almost deroutinising his whole existential essence of being gay. The portrayal of the multifaceted suffering of Ningthem brings out an expanding fresco of violence across physical, sexual, psychological and also social realms of the people in Manipur after the imposition of the AFSPA. The sufferings are multilayered in the case of gay men in this conflict zone. A sense of shame and guilt was always thrust upon them for their gender performances of being gay. Always questioning their masculinity, by family and society, leads to physical and psychological violence. This results in psychological problems like anxiety disorder, loss of sleep or appetite, nightmares (Christian et al. 2011), etc., especially in children. Also, the children tend to develop a strong psychological bonding with their same-sex friends, as we see in the case of Ningthem and Pari. The pangs of separation create another level of suffering for the protagonists. One notices that social suffering is also impinged here through militarised tensions between the locals and the combatants. Ningthem’s brother dies in the scuffle that takes place in Sanjenthong. Ningthem is forced to leave his studies in the boarding school and go back to the family. The clash of travails in his heart, leaving Pari, on one hand, and, on the other hand, the death of his brother, make Ningthem cold and indifferent. In fact, loss of appetite has been portrayed here as one of the symptomatic disorders.

According to Sedgwick, the fundamental consciousness becomes relational and simulated –manifested through the physical infliction of pain. The trauma engrosses the mind in such a way that systematic operations of bodily performances become delusional in some cases, like that of Ningthem. It is not that Davidson is trying to draw attention through psychopathologising his characters, but he tries to bring out the liminal space and existential strictures in this story. The representation of heteronormative pains has always been portrayed and depicted with immense authenticity, but doubly-victimised homonormative pains have been portrayed for the first time. Davidson tries to emphasise the weakness and powerlessness of these non-normative people existing under the AFSPA. The whole idea of transmogrification of masculine power and violence and feminine victimisation and powerlessness goes beyond the realistic level and enters the surrealistic level of amalgamation of both these characteristics in one individual. He does masculine performances but depicting the victimhood of powerlessness also comes alongside. Ningthem is the best example that Davidson could create in Imphal Express Blue.

IV. Cruising in a Conflict Zone

When physical existences are questioned and when the essentiality of being what you are is doubted, then the gays have to build up a close-knit circle, where their gender performatavity and characteristics are liberalised and set free. In such ghettoised constraints, the gays have to choose a safe space to act, react and interact among themselves. Those they choose with specificity and precision. Not only physical spaces but also temporal spaces are considered before making them open for the closed community. The sense of belonging and intimacy is stronger here and creates a phenomenal space of safety and social gatherings. This process is termed ‘cruising’. Davidson focuses his third story Cruising in Imphal on this particular cultural dimension of gay people. The exactitude and fine detailing of cruising amidst the social militarised turmoil is well-crafted and described with finesse. The socio-political subjectivity of the cruising culture among the gays characterises conscious and unconscious ambivalences and contradictions. Unattached sexual experimentations and encounters provide varied pleasures for gay men, but they also create a sense of loss and alienation from physical risks. For instance, the narrator gets scared when he sees a Commando jeep approaching. Very interestingly, there is the social respect and dignified recognition that the narrator has for himself that he could have been at risk if he were caught by the jeep. This sense of fear and loss camouflages with that of the sense of experimentation, rather complicating the erotic and cultural normativity among the gay community. In this process of normativism versus non-normativism, the marginalised space of resistance ends with inaccurate cultural hierarchies, almost proving that promiscuity is an essential existential characteristic of gay men.

According to Ben Cove, in his book Cruising Culture: Promiscuity, Desire and Gay Culture in American Gay Literature, it becomes more complicated as subtle differential dynamics of caste and class diffuse in such cruising culture. Gays seek emotional exclusivity and intimate monogamy, and for such a quest, they make themselves undergo sexual non-monogamy and intimate promiscuity. But this notional understanding of promiscuity does not hamper gay men’s psychology, as they tend to build up a stronger community feeling when they come across many gay men in the exact cruising space, which builds up a sense of safety and social security amidst all sufferings of livelihood. Amidst the booming of technological space in the post-neoliberal era where building up one’s own social circle is much easier, cruising culture shifted to the virtual world. The protective sanctity has become more rigid and stronger than it was before. Class consciousness has risen up to the sublime through these virtual dating platforms for gay men. The physical risk factor is still prevalent, and the sense of loss of social recognition for those who are closeted in real life runs into major psychological sufferings. But the monogamous relationship has taken its own turn and has become one of the leading characteristics for cruising in cyberspace. Many do seek a long-term relationship. But these factors are all the same across the country. People in conflict zones suffer in different kinds of notionally unsafe conditions in virtual spaces in which the other person might be military or army personnel or a combatant. Davidson, therefore, picks up the topic of physical cursing to unveil this culture of gay men.

V. Conclusion

Conceptualising and recognising the fact of being gay in conflict zones have been represented well by Davidson in his three short stories. The non-normative voices from the margins started coming out. It’s unfortunate that such voices cannot see the print version of their creative works. So the virtual space has taken it over and given it the structural spatial value that it deserves. It has reached much more readers through this cyberspace publishing of the short stories. The desires and the discriminations, the powerlessness and the patriarchal oppressions, the performativity and the prejudices, the marginalisation and the violence all encompass these short stories of Davidson. The nuances of no normative identity and gender subordination bring a different form of understanding of the propensity of being gay from the conflict zone of Manipur. Kumam Davidson does justice to the community by portraying such vivid characters who voice out the pains, turmoils, travails, agonies in the immediate surroundings of militarisation.

References

• Allison, M. 2007. ‘Wartime Sexual Violence: Wome...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of figures
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• List of Contributors
• Introduction Canon Formation and Literatures from India’s Northeast: Some Reflections
• Part I Literature from Northeast India
• 1 Love in the Conflict Zone Negotiating Spaces in Davidson’s Gay Short Stories
• 2 From Legend to Fiction, the Politics of Representation A Study of Indira Goswami’s Thengphakhri Tahsildarar Taamor Toruwal (2009) and Bidyasagar Narzary’s Birgwsrini Thungri (2004)
• 3 Writings from the ‘Periphery’ Folktales and Other Forms of Literature of the Paite Tribe of Manipur
• Part II Peripheral Voices
• 4 Play and Performance in Twenty-First Century Assam Narratives from the Margins
• 5 Subaltern Mentality and Literary Engagements Positioning/Positionality, Identification/Identity in Select Poetic Voices from Northeast India
• 6 The Char and the City1 Reading Miyah Poetry
• 7 Pitting Irony against Aggression Miyah Poetry as a Challenge to the Dominant Assamese Discourse
• 8 “The Ground Beneath our Feet”1 Miyah Poetry and the Politics of Othering in Assam
• Part III Revisiting the Subaltern: Critical Approaches
• 9 Mythology, Contemporary Issues and Writers’ Response The Manipuri Experience
• 10 Narrativizing Aging and Dementia Reading Anuradha Sarma Pujari’s Jalchabi through the Lens of Gendered Gerontology
• 11 Literature from Northeast India The Problems of Categorising
• Part IV Literature As Socio-Political Expression
• 12 The Subaltern Gandhian Discourse in Virendra Kumar Bhattacharya’s Mritunjaya
• 13 The Road Not Taken An Alternative Understanding of the Literature from Northeast India
• 14 From Apocryphal Orality to Textual Veracity The Translation of the Subaltern Voice in Easterine Kire’s Writings
• Index