Cultural Preservation and Resistance in Easterine Kire’s Text

Abstract

Easterine Kire’s works demonstrate the diversity and regional voices in Indian literature; they are firmly anchored in the unique cultural environment of Nagaland. Her work amplifies the voices of Naga tribes, who have been historically marginalized in mainstream Indian narratives, by embedding their myths, traditions, and world views. Kire’s writing deconstructs colonial and nationalist stereotypes about the Northeast by offering representations created from an indigenous perspective rather than an external one. Her texts blend myth, oral traditions, and the spiritual world, which depicts the use of regional mythology to create layered narratives that address contemporary issues. The objective of the paper is to investigate the ideas of counterculture, subculture, and power. In this process, the paper is an attempt to interpret Easterine Kire’s texts ‘When the River Sleeps’ and ‘Bitter worm wood’ using Gramsci’s theory of hegemony.‘When the River Sleeps’(2014) acts as a textual archive, documenting rituals, myths, and landscapes that were traditionally transmitted orally. The text’s attempt to preserve and convey cultural stories through the inscription of orality into text is its polemic. In a similar vein, ‘Bitter Wormwood’ (2007) chronicles the Naga people’s trauma, resilience, and evolving traditional traditions. In order to challenge hegemonic histories and contemporary Indigenous world views, these texts prioritize Indigenous storytelling structures, communal rituals, and ancestral knowledge, which is a counter cultural act that questions hegemonic histories and re-centers Indigenous world views. Kire’s works involve the concepts of power and hegemony. ‘When the River Sleeps’ portrays the power of spiritual and customary practices that govern the community. ‘Bitter Wormwood’ directly interrogates the dominance of colonial and post-colonial states over the Naga people. Female characters in her texts display “quiet resistance,” defying patriarchal and militaristic norms through their emotional fortitude and survival tactics.