New Delhi: At first glance, Pimpalgaon in Maharashtra and Tamenglong in Manipur are worlds apart—geographically and culturally. But in the zine Postcards from Tamenglong to Pimpalgaon, artists Anna Sireiliu and Pournima Shinde found common ground as they exchanged visual notes.
“I was disturbed by the way patriarchy functions in my maternal grandmother’s town, and Pournima too resonated with some of the experiences that were similar to her days in Pimpalgaon,” said Sireiliu at a panel discussion titled ‘Sometimes Words Can’t Say It All: Visual Stories from the Northeast’. It was one of the 12 sessions at the Brahmaputra Literature Festival, held in New Delhi from 6-8 February.
The festival—part of the recently concluded New Delhi World Book fair at Bharat Mandapam—brought together writers, artists, illustrators, poets, performers from Sikkim, Nagaland, Manipur, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, and Mizoram. Some interrogated the stereotype that the Northeast is defined by conflict. Others questioned whether an artist can move beyond the straightjacket category of ‘representing’ the region. No topic was off limits—from Naga repatriation to rediscovering family homes, the 1966 Aizawl bombing to the legend of Baba Harbhajan Singh.
During the discussions, panellists shared the ‘origin’ stories of their works. In ‘Crafting Stories, Telling Tales: Perspectives on Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Northeast’, artists like Canato Jimo, illustrator and director at Pratham Books, and children’s author and illustrator Pankaj Saikia talked about creating art that is an expression of their own lived experiences and children’s narratives.
Together, these sessions showcased how emerging visual literature from the region has become a gateway to understanding the Northeast—beyond folktales and conflict. Through their prose, verse, and illustrations, they explored everyday, mundane occurrences that were not always bracketed in either of the two categories.
Sireiliu and Shinde started sending postcards to each other, with descriptions of the images. They documented the minutiae of their lives giving each other access to their worlds. From a young girl sitting on a pile of second–hand clothes to two pet dogs, mithuns, and how people would have to fix power grids because of constant power cuts.
Pema Wanghcuk moved away from the immediate crisis of the Sikkim floods to focus on Indian soldier Baba Harbhajan Singh in his graphic novel. Legend has it that the sepoy, who was made honorary captain posthumously, would visit the dreams of his fellow soldiers to inform them of the plans of their enemies. Even today, many are convinced that his spirit guards the Nathula Pass along the India-China border.
“We took the myth that one can often find in border towns, about a spirit that guards army posts, rebuking soldiers when they are not doing their duty well,” said Wanghchuk.
Conflict and beyond
In their books and illustrations, Canato Jimo from Nagaland and Assam’s Pankaj Saikia show children navigating school and home, friends and family, instead of the usual folktale retellings or mythology.
Jimo’s book, Snip, is about two siblings, Avi and Toto, making mischief while their parents are at work. The book, which was part of his graduation project at the National Institute of Design, has no words. Saikia’s The Theatre of Ghosts is about a group of children walking through the lanes of their village at night to watch Bhaona, a form of theatrical performance popular in Assam. In When We Are Home, written by Priyadarshini Gogoi and illustrated by Saikia, two children displaced by the floods, a recurrent feature in Assam, remember their home through sensory memories.
But Jimo pointed out that there is pressure on writers and illustrators from the Northeast to represent conflict in their work for mainstream readers.
“The region is often clubbed together as one or one story is made representative of the entire region. If conflict is part of the narrative you want to share, that is okay. But the story is the hero. It’s not about creating noise. If your story is great, it will stand on its own, even without the noise,” said Jimo.
On the other hand, Hannah Lalhlanpuii from Mizoram chose to write about a little-known ‘conflict’. Her book When Blackbirds Fly is about the 1966 bombing of Mizoram by the Indian Air Force to push back the Mizo National Army (MNA) insurgents from Aizwal.
Lalhlanpuii documented what happens to families who become collateral. She narrated the story of her grandmother who had to raise her children as a single mother, and the financial and emotional repercussions of that.
Her story is categorised under ‘terror lore’, a unique genre in Mizo literature. The author recalled an incident where during a discussion with children about the book, they thought it was entirely fictional.
“The children said, ‘I think you watch a lot of war movies because it is straight out of a war movie’. I had to tell them that the bombing actually happened in Aizawl,” said Lalhlanpuii.
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The publishing
An audience member wanted to understand the perspective of the panellists about folktales featuring in children’s literature from the Northeast.
“Folktales are important, but they should not be the only thing out there that people know about,” said Jimo. Lalhlanpuii too was in agreement over how literary works from the region often become straightjacketed into the categories of folktales and conflict.
“I write about conflict because it is personal, and it is my mother’s story. But as we are from the Northeast it should not just be about conflict and folktales. We can definitely write about both, but we can also be universal and write about love and murders,” said Lalhlanpuii.
For the most part, regional publishing houses in the Northeast are either bootstrapped or lack sufficient funding.
“There has to be an ecosystem that supports diversity of voices and visual representations and self-expressions,” said Assamese author and illustrator Parismita Singh, in one of the sessions.
During the interaction, another audience member suggested that children’s books and graphic novels from the region can be introduced into the curriculum—in schools and universities. Singh suggested that libraries could support authors and illustrators by stocking their books. This could also become a push for newer voices to emerge.
“Publishing feels intimidating, expensive, and out of reach for young people in the Northeast, especially women confined to domestic spaces. A zine making can be empowering because all it needs is paper, a stapler, and a copy machine. It is a way of creating collectives where voices can be heard,” said Sireiliu.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)
The only states in the north-eastern region worth knowing are Assam, Tripura and Manipur. These states have a glorious history and are culturally rich and socially vibrant.
The rest – Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram – are not worth investing time and resources in. Better not focus on these states.