Book Review – A Naga Odyssey: Visier’s long way home

When I first read A Naga Odyssey: Visier’s Long Way Home back in 2018, it prompted me to sharea short review of it in my face book post, back then. There was an intention to pursue it further, in a longer version in print media for wider consumption; half a decade later, after years of contemplating whether to begin a journey of writing book reviews, recommending ‘the book’ to anyone interested in Naga literature, and haunted reminders of my self-commitment, I typed this.
As a bibliophile from my childhood days, books have been a constant companion for me but A Naga Odyssey I must admit was the first which thrilled me to attempt a form of review. ‘The thrill’ I speak of, however, should not be mistaken to reflect the content of the book; the subject of the book rather, as Rajmohan Gandhi noted in the forewordhas“… much to be sad about….” The book, is a memoir, an autobiography –of Sanyü, who begins his narration as a young boyat the onset of his ‘manhood’ in the misty quiet village of Khonoma (Nagaland).“Visier’, Visier’, Visier, wake up!” reads the first line of chapter one, while “I was home!” forms the concluding line of the last chapter.The time lapse, between the two exclamations was a span of decades from 1956-2015. Nearly sixty years (a lifetime for many), I summarize allegorically-of life on the run.
Sociologists have long understood the inter relationship between the individual and society- and A Naga Odyssey attests how the history of a society contours the history of an individual; how the events and experiences of a society impact and influence the emotions, choices, and lives of the individuals. In this context, it is not surprising that Sanyü’s (his) story cannot be separated from the history of the Nagas (his people) or Nagaland (his home land). It is in this context as well, how in Sanyu’s story we will hear (in the first portions of the book) the echoes of our grandparents’ stories–of decamping the villages and taking to the jungles to survive during the Indian Military Operations (1950s).Shared memories, shared history –indeed ‘there is much to be sad about’ in the Naga context; mournful memories and a painful phase of a ‘people’shistory’ that cannot be buriedas the pages of the book reminds us.
The strength of the book lies in the fact that this is an account of a first-hand experience of the narrator (Sanyü). An emic perspectivewe scholars call it! ‘The insider’s perspective’,in simpler term,which is valuable in analysinglocal realities/experiences. While the book features a co-author, Richard Broome, one will find thatthe worldview of the narrator is not replaced by the other’s (Broome here) understanding or experience of the world.Thus, the story remains authentically Sanyü’s throughout. The book draws its life webbed around the Indo-Naga conflict/history which began in the 1950s. This is why for a Naga like me, this book remains an impactful one! Only a Naga can fully comprehend when Sanyü narrates “The jungle changed our worldviews….Traditions were altered and taboos were broken out of desperation. In starvation we looked at the world from a different perspective. Circumstances changed, the food changed, the belief system changed, a lot of superstitious melted away. Women ate monkey meat!” In between these lines was where, I say,‘neo-colonialism’, in the form of India’s integration,took over changing the life course of the Nagas amidst havoc.
For those of us who have read Kaka Iralu’s Nagaland and India: The Blood and Tears (or The Naga Saga its republished version) which recounts the history of atrocities meted out to the Nagas by the Indian Military, it stirs the anger and bitterness in us. Sanyü’s A Naga Odyssey on the other hand makes us grieve more quietly butintensely of the same experience (Indo-Naga Conflict). Sanyü recounts “In September 1956, A.Z. Phizo took photographs of his beloved Khonoma village, now in ashes, and slipped into East Pakistan from Eastern Nagaland, and on to London, where he led a government in exile.” The village for the Naga back then was the world, ‘a village in ash’ represents–a people stripped of its material culture, of its economic activities, of its history, its memories, its space, its power, its dignity. Deprived of their lifeworld, the book aptly reflects how it was an economically regressive, psychologically traumatic, culturally alienated and politically abusive period it was for the Nagas. It intercedes for us, as R. Gandhi informs in the foreword, why“Many Nagas do not think of themselves as Indian” despite Nagaland becoming the 16th state of India in 1963. In his book Christianity and Politics in Tribal India, G Kanato Chophy has effectively argued that many contemporary Nagas,himself included,choose to identify as “Constitutional Indians”, and ‘share and participate’ in building of modern India (despite recognizing that Nagas and other mainland Indians do not possess a shared history or culture) banking on modern India’s commitment/assurance (constitutionally) to safeguard the rights of every Indian individual ‘irrespective of ethnicity, religion, class and gender’.Indeed Indo-Naga relation is now one of negotiation and only mutualunderstanding, equal respect, and sincere concern can help us move past a tumultuous strained past- relationship.
The book offers us many life lessons as well- of family values, friendship, adapting to new environment; it also gives us a glimpse of the outside world, colonialism and identity crises, problems of indigenous people in other parts of the world and even had space for love and humour. One particular theme which really stood out for me was ‘forgiveness’. In A Naga Odyssey one comes across not only thenarrative of Indo-Naga relation but of the inner battleswhich mushroomed among the Nagasduring the intense Indo-Naga conflicts. During the split in the Naga National Movement in 1968 and a vicious cycle of killings followed; we read of, Kolezo, who was seething with anger to avenge his clansman, experiencing a change of heart largely influenced by Sanyü’s uncle Niketu Iralu’s sharing ‘to find stillness and forgiveness instead of hate and revenge’.What followed this change of heart was a trail of forgivenessthat transcended tribes, andan end to a cycle of loss and pain by one person’s decision to choose forgiveness.
True to its title, the book ends with Visier’s ‘home-coming’ which reminds me, A Naga Odyssey I vouch,is a must read for every Naga; specially, the lot of us, whoare unaware of where we came from and what had happened during our journey, and if willing it may equip us to reach homebecause let’s face it, we are home, but most of us are ‘home and yet still away from home’.
Dr.Loina Shohe,
Asst. Professor
Dept. of Sociology, Unity College