From the heart—The philosophy of Easterine Kire’s writing

By Easterine Kire

As told to A. Sentiyula of The Naga Republic

I call the action of writing from the heart by two other names: one is ‘Dil se Direct’ and the other is, ‘Writing outside the Box.’ Writing from the heart is writing that ignores formula. It is also about writing the silences.

What do we mean by writing outside the box? It is writing outside the defined boxes. Who defines us? The victor-coloniser makes definitions about us. In the Naga case it was the western anthropologist and his ethnographical studies on Naga tribes that can be seen as the colonizer writing us. This emerges as the first comprehensive writing on our cultural behaviour. Anthropological writing is valuable; but it was not one hundred percent accurate as it was done from an outsider’s perspective. At one point of time in the 1930s we became objectified by such writing and were reduced to objects in museums. However, the positive element of anthropological writing is that a great deal of cultural information which would have been lost, were preserved through this medium.

A constructed identity

The more insidious writing that has been done on us is by national media. In a great disservice to the Nagas and the Northeast region, national media has been creating a constructed identity of the Northeast for many decades. This constructed identity defines the area and its people as conflicted; prone to politically volcanic eruptions on a regular basis. This constructed identity was accepted unquestionably by many mainstream publishing houses who expected writers from the Northeast to write works of blood and gore and victim stories. The effect of this definition was to create expectations upon the writers and, sadly, many reviewers of our books are greatly influenced by this definition. I have experienced reviewers looking only for political elements and highly politicized plots in my books, and expressing that the failure to include these elements was tantamount to inaccurate representation of my society.  These are the boxes I am referring to and writing as dictated by these expectations creates writing within the defined boxes.

Writing from the heart is about writing outside the box. It is writing yourself as opposed to the colonizer writing you. I am writing from the heart: it is an action of decolonizing my writing.

Writing from the heart puts back value in that which was devalued by colonial processes. We should value and encourage insider perspectives, insider research, insider narratives.

I believe that when I write from my heart, my readers receive from their hearts. It is a beautiful connection.

Not every voice is helpful

There are many voices dictating on our writing. The insistent voice that says we should write within the box is a continuation of our mental and psychological colonization. If we believe we should write according to that dictate, we are responding as our colonized selves. It is resisting the dictation to write according to formula. Beware accepted discourse. What is accepted discourse? It is discourse on stereotypes of a culture, of a race, generalisations made about a community that are accepted unquestioningly. Accepted discourse is about accepting constructed identities.

Stop feeding the stereotype

Stop ascribing to the stereotype by insisting on looking only for specific items in Naga writing or Northeast writing. Real and worthy research must concentrate on what the scholar can find outside the box in order to qualify as research. If it does not do that, it is just reproducing another person’s opinions.

Where our communications with national media are concerned, the state must take on in a wise and informed manner, the task of blasting the stereotypes of Naga behaviour or attitude. The Nagas as a people cannot be represented by a few voices: that would be a gross misrepresentation and would risk feeding the stereotype, as has happened in all the national media attention we received during March 2015 and January-February 2017. Stop feeding the media’s stereotype of us. We are much, much more than the caricatures they paint of us.

How do we stop feeding the stereotype?

Simply by learning to do this: by choosing to live bigger. Live big-hearted – that is such a beautiful constituent of Naga culture that we still practise. We can do this and go one step further. We can combine the culture of Naga big-heartedness with wise-heartedness, thus defying the stereotypes in a dignified manner.

We live out dignity. How? By attending to all phases of our lives. By taking control of what our children are being taught every day. We can introduce dignified living by taking control of school and college and university syllabi. Do they include our indigenous wisdom so that our young can learn it on an everyday basis? In the absence of the morung in our lifestyles, are we replacing its teachings with something inferior? Can we continue teaching our children our values by making sure their syllabicontains such education?

Identity and writing from the heart

Writing from the heart is all about identity. The constructed identity that the media and the colonizer gives us is full of victimhood; it is designed to give us a victim mentality. It is designed to limit us. We must understand how victimhood works.

It is true that in Nagaland today we still live under AFSPA and DAA. We have many, many sad stories amongst us. Our sad stories of suffering need telling so that sufferers can find healing and closure. But after that is done, let us move on. There is a beautiful story of an angel who visited the house of a family grieving very long over the death of their child. The angel went around the rooms in full view of the parents and turned the photo frames of their child face down. He told the parents that it was time to move forward with the assurance of a future reunion with their loved one. Let us move on. Our victim stories generate negativity and racial hate. They don’t have the capacity to strengthen us. They end up disempowering us. Let us show them due respect and understand their place in our communal history, but having done that, let us move forward.

Constructed identities commodify us. We cannot allow that.

Writing the Silences

We have experienced many periods in our history when our narratives were silenced by war, bombing and burning of homes, and occupation of our hearths. All these periods silenced our narratives. However, there has been an even more sinister silencing of our narratives by other agencies. Let us write the silences: the stories that others deem are worthless; let us bring them to the light because we know their true value.

Changing the centre

Part of the victim identity is to be preoccupied by the idea of the centre and be oppressed by one’s imagined marginalization and distance from the centre. The most effective answer to marginalization is changing the centre. It is an attitude of contentment with where you are, and living your best life where you are. You create your own centre and you decide where that is, and in doing that you take control of your own destiny. In the Northeast, there is no reason to feel deprived or neglected or, most important, less able. We can build up vibrant bookstores and get access to the best that is being written and produced worldwide. By living our best selves, we will attract others to our regions; we will no longer have to run to imaginary centers.

Your God-given identity

Writing from the heart is about expressing your real identity; your God-given identity because that is full of value and has no victimhood in it. It is sometimes about playing a wild card, defying the expectations, writing out the things that have value for you, and as you do that, the value will be returned to you, in double measure.

Dr Easterine Kire is a poet, short story writer, children’s book writer and novelist from Nagaland.

In 2011, she was awarded the Governor’s prize for excellence in Naga literature, and in 2013, she was awarded the “Free Word” by Catalan PEN, Barcelona.

In 2016, she won the Hindu Literature Prize for her book, When the River Sleeps (Zubaan).

Her book, Son of the Thundercloud (Speaking Tiger, 2016) has been awarded the Tata Litlive Book of the Year award in 2017.

Easterine writes poetry and has a band called Jazzpoesi. The band has given out a digital cd in summer 2013 that topped the Norwegian Jazz charts in summer.

She is also founder member of a publishing house called Barkweaver Publications.

Her new book, ‘Don’t Run My love’ published by Speaking Tiger is is available at Crossword Kohima, Pages Kohima, Ilandlo Dimapur and online at amazon.in and some private sellers.