Contesting Militarized Violence in "Northeast India": Women Poets against Conflict

IF 0.2 Q4 WOMENS STUDIES

Meridians-Feminism Race Transnationalism Pub Date : 2021-04-01 DOI:10.1215/15366936-8913107

B. Mehta

{"title":"Contesting Militarized Violence in \"Northeast India\": Women Poets against Conflict","authors":"B. Mehta","doi":"10.1215/15366936-8913107","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The northeastern states of India have been positioned as India's postcolonial other in mainstream politics with the aim to create xenophobic binaries between insider and outsider groups. Comprising the eight \"sister\" states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura, this region represents India's amorphous shadowlands in arbitrary political markings between the mainland and the off-centered northeastern periphery. These satellite states have been subjected to the neocolonial governance of the Indian government and its implementation of political terror through abusive laws, militarized violence, protracted wars against civilians and insurgents alike, and gender abuse. Women poets from the region, such as Monalisa Changkija, Temsüla Ao, Mamang Dai, and others, have played a leading role in exposing and denouncing this violence. This essay examines the importance of women's poetry as a gendered documentation of conflict, a peace narrative, a poet's reading of history, and a site of memory. Can poetry express the particularized \"sorrow of women\" (Mamang Dai) without sentimentality and concession? How do these poetic contestations of conflict represent complex interrogations of identity, eco-devastation, and militarization to invalidate an elitist \"poetry for poetry's sake\" ethic?","PeriodicalId":54178,"journal":{"name":"Meridians-Feminism Race Transnationalism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2000,"publicationDate":"2021-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Meridians-Feminism Race Transnationalism","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1215/15366936-8913107","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"WOMENS STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Abstract:The northeastern states of India have been positioned as India's postcolonial other in mainstream politics with the aim to create xenophobic binaries between insider and outsider groups. Comprising the eight "sister" states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura, this region represents India's amorphous shadowlands in arbitrary political markings between the mainland and the off-centered northeastern periphery. These satellite states have been subjected to the neocolonial governance of the Indian government and its implementation of political terror through abusive laws, militarized violence, protracted wars against civilians and insurgents alike, and gender abuse. Women poets from the region, such as Monalisa Changkija, Temsüla Ao, Mamang Dai, and others, have played a leading role in exposing and denouncing this violence. This essay examines the importance of women's poetry as a gendered documentation of conflict, a peace narrative, a poet's reading of history, and a site of memory. Can poetry express the particularized "sorrow of women" (Mamang Dai) without sentimentality and concession? How do these poetic contestations of conflict represent complex interrogations of identity, eco-devastation, and militarization to invalidate an elitist "poetry for poetry's sake" ethic?

查看原文本刊更多论文

“印度东北部”的军事化暴力之争:女诗人反对冲突

摘要：印度东北部各州在主流政治中被定位为印度的后殖民地，目的是在内部和外部群体之间制造仇外二元对立。该地区由印控"阿鲁纳恰尔邦"、阿萨姆邦、曼尼普尔邦、梅加拉亚邦、米佐拉姆邦、那加兰邦、锡金邦和特里普拉邦这八个“姐妹”邦组成，代表着印度大陆和偏离中心的东北部边缘之间的无定形阴影地带。这些卫星国一直受到印度政府的新殖民主义统治，并通过滥用法律、军事化暴力、针对平民和叛乱分子的旷日持久的战争以及性别虐待实施政治恐怖。来自该地区的女诗人，如Monalisa Changkija、Temsüla Ao、Mamang Dai和其他人，在揭露和谴责这种暴力行为方面发挥了主导作用。本文探讨了女性诗歌作为冲突的性别文献、和平叙事、诗人对历史的阅读和记忆场所的重要性。诗歌能否在不带感伤和退让的情况下表现出特殊的“女性的悲哀”（马芒戴）？这些关于冲突的诗意争论如何代表对身份、生态破坏和军事化的复杂质疑，以使精英主义的“为诗而诗”伦理失效？

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Meridians-Feminism Race Transnationalism WOMENS STUDIES-

CiteScore

0.50

自引率

0.00%

发文量