NELit review

POST script 3
AUGUST 05, 2012

SEVEN SISTERS

Quest for roots

The first National Award-winning film from Tripura, Yarwng (Roots), made in the Kokborok language, depicts the plight of the people displaced due to the Dumbur dam built on the Gumti river 40 years ago. NELit review brings readers some relevant extracts from this 95-minute feature film, directed by Salesian Father Joseph Pulinthanath *** Agurai, the village shop keeper, and his philosopher friend reflect on what they are going through. Agurai: It is easy enough to move from one place to another. The hard thing is taking along all those things with you. Mereng: Thats not true. The real hard thing for one is to move. Agurai: What about all these things? Mereng: Why? Whatever is yours will come with you. Agurai: How do you know what is yours and what is mine? The pot I make chuak with... Is it mine? Or the dog that I feed the extra food to Is it mine? I have always thought my shop belongs to me; my land belongs to me. Mereng: The fact is we bring nothing; we take nothing. *** Ma, in the presence of her son Wakhirai, tries to persuade his aged grandfather to agree to move. Ma: Pa, I was thinking, its so difficult out here. Ochai, Chokdri and the others have already left. Agurai is also leaving the day after. Lets also go and start something new. Speaking of packing, I never thought it would be such a task. On the face of it, whats there to pack some pots and pans and dirty rags; but when you begin, oh... you realise therere things. Many things. Some things you arent sure how to even carry... Grandpa: Im not going. Ma: I wonder why people are calling it going away. We just might need to move out for a little while; and then of course, we are coming back. Pa, why dont you get up; Ill see you get ready. Grandpa: You heard what I said. I am not going anywhere. Where do I go? This is where I belong. Ma: Thats true, but still we need to move, it seems. Grandpa: If we leave the land, we will die, dont you know that? Daughter, tell them I do not have much time left. Let me die here. I wont go. Ma: Wakhirai, what shall I do? What Pa says is absolutely true. If we go, we will die. Arent we people of the land, after all? Even our skins have the smell of earth. Greedily clutching on to some papers wont make the land yours. T

Our region does not deserve

to witness such
MARAUDING OF NATURE
GG

Two villagers are getting the help of an educated man to find out what the public notice displayed at Agurais shop says Villager 1: Son, come here. Villager 2: Whos this young man? Villager 1: Wakhirais brother-in-law, stays at Agartala. Villager 2: You sure can read. Tell us what is written here. Debra: Its a notice about the dam. Villager 2: Son, we know that. You read it and tell us exactly what is written. Debra: It says the work on the dam is complete and the water level may rise any time. It tells you all to move to other places because the land will be submerged by water. Villager 1: How can a dam submerge things? Villager 2: Isnt it like the dam we make on the stream to catch fish? Villager 3: Its not like that, it seems. This is much bigger. Debra: Wait, let me tell you. This dam is different. Once completed, many places will be submerged. Even your village. Villager 1: Ah! Ha! Why are they doing this? Debra: Who knows why! The paper says its for your good. Villager 1: For our good?

Stills from Yarwng (Roots)

*** The government agent is trying to create awareness among the villagers about the completion of the dam, the rising water and the need to move out. Chokdri: Brothers and sisters, we have the agent here who first informed us about this thing. Let us hear from him what it is all about. Agent: Respected Chokdri, elders, I must first tell you that what I am saying is true. Some of you have been saying this is not true. If you dont take pre-

iNKPOT
EXTRACT YARWNG (SCREENPLAY)

caution and move away in time, it will take you all unawares. The dam is almost complete. Now the water level will rise. Mereng: We have plenty of water here. Why do we need more water? Agent: This water will be used to make current. Mereng: Whats that?

Current? Agent: Current is... Dont they have current in the town? It gives plenty of light, much more than our lamps. Then there are other things it does. Tilokti: What are you saying? How can water produce light? I havent heard a stranger thing. Yathek:What will happen to my cows and goats? They dont need current. Theres no one to think about them. Ochai:Why dont they think about our land? Agent: Arent we talking about good things current, development? Mereng: Dont keep repeating, man, its a good thing. Whats a good thing? We losing our paddy fields, is that the good thing? Agent: Look, we cannot remain like our ancestors. Times are now changing. Is it not a good thing? Mereng: We want to know whos doing this good thing. Thunta: Hey, what about your marriage? Agent: Why do you get angry with me? I am also like you. I am doing this job for my livelihood. I too have my wife and children. Please dont destroy my source of little income. Frankly speaking, I also dont understand what is happening.

Whoever is able to get into the Weltanschauung of the tribal communities would be amazed at their sense of affinity with nature and their rootedness in an assigned BLANK space in the JOSEPH PULINTHANATH larger scheme of Director & screenplay writer Interviewed by Siba K Gogoi the universe. Do you think litterateurs and This is what writers have done justice to makes the issue of displacement in the Northeast? uprootedness I dont think writers in the region have adequately addressed the issue. an unimaginably Most cases of displacement are development-induced, but the dreadful government has long fought shy of viable resettlement policies. experience The term development-induced has a soothing ring to it, and is rapidly for the tribal G G gaining currency, but development

Point

TRR

TRR

ushered in at the cost of other peoples futures or aspirations needs to be questioned. Hundreds of families having to live without access to power even after giving up their land and property for an electricity-generating scheme are a telling example of the harsh one-sidedness of some development-induced initiatives. When development, displacement and resettlement get mired in the murky world of party politics, formulation and implementation of resettlement policies, however viable, become difficult. Is there any sense of rootlessness, or rather, the feeling of being uprooted, among tribal people of the Northeast? If so, how would you describe it? TRR To my mind, rootlessness is different from displacement, even from the nagging feeling of being out of place. And I also feel the tribal communities of the Northeast are not weighed down by any sense of rootlessness. Rather, the tribal people here do have a tremendous sense of being rooted. Whoever is able to get into the Weltanschauung of the tribal communities would be amazed at their sense of affinity with nature and their rootedness in an assigned space in the larger scheme of the universe. This is what makes uprootedness an unimaginably dreadful experience for the tribal. Along with the physical space that he loses, he experiences the loss of that vital rootedness in the larger reality. While every case of displacement need not mean uprootedness, some cases do. And in such cases, an aid package or rehabilitation does not serve as adequate compensation. Restoring harmony calls for more ingenious steps that often dont fall within the purview of the development squad. Film-making itself is an art which is invariably an ingredient of literature. TRR It must be. I often forget if it was a film I saw or a book I read. I suppose its all about telling the story using tools, such as words and images. And the degree of sensitivity with which you choose and use them will define, to an extent, the power of your story. Cinema, with its focus on showing, is more unforgiving, in a way. But it can, while sticking with images and stories about images, easily slip into the realm of imagery, symbols and metaphors without wordiness getting in the way. This broader canvas allows patterns to emerge and meanings to coalesce. When faced with the demands of a good script, I found Henry James thought on char-

acter and incidents in literature to be applicable to cinema as well. One thing is certain, whether its a book you are writing or a film you are making, your passion gets into the pages or onto the screen. Why did you choose to make a film on a four-decades-old issue? What is your opinion on the ongoing movements against river dams in the Northeast in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh in particular? TRR Perhaps because its not a fourdecades-old issue. To me, its a present-day issue in more ways than one. As I live in Tripura, it is clear to me the tremors that the Gumti hydel project had generated among its victims have not subsided yet. Our region does not deserve to witness such marauding of nature. Having seen what such a project has done in Tripura, I cannot but support the anti-dam movements in the Northeast. Kokborok is comparatively new as a written language. The volume of Kokborok literature, particularly poetry and plays, has, however, grown in recent times. TRR The recent years have seen a spurt in literary output from writers in Kokborok. However, it is far too meagre nothing to write home about. Had the language received sufficient attention from all quarters the Kokborok story would have been quite different. It is up to the community to set its house in order as far as the language is concerned and this is needed if it is to truly make its mark on the literary scene in the Northeast or the country. The languages of many northeastern tribes have been found to be either vulnerable or endangered. Do you think movies can help preserve such languages? TRR A well-made movie is an asset to the community concerned; it becomes an addition to the existing cultural corpus of the community. The complex nature of cinema makes it an extremely valuable property whose worth will only keep increasing as time passes. In that sense, even a movie with no spoken language is a valuable asset to a culture. And movies that have spoken languages in them also provide a window on the language scenario of a culture at a particular time and place. Films can do endangered cultures and languages of the Northeast the world of good because they, amongst other things, help communities to clarify and strengthen their collective identities. T

Rooting for the uprooted

ARPANA GOSWAMI

UMAN history abounds in tales of violent clashes and ethnic cleansing. Innocent people either get killed or become rootless in such conflicts whose socio-political reasons they are hardly aware of. The struggles and sorrows of a group of Adivasi people, who had suffered the brunt of ethnic violence in the late 1990s in the Bodoland area, have shaped the backdrop for my first novel, Neela Noi. The western part of Assam has been disturbed by continuous bloodshed over the last two decades. Violence born out of the demands of various ethnic groups for autonomous states, mainly to secure their identities and culture, and also out of their feeling of alienation from the mainstream Assamese society, has killed and displaced thousands of people. Autonomous status gives some indigenous groups greater control over the areas where they form the majority. This also encourages ethnic violence as such groups seek to establish themselves as being in a local majority. As a result, indigenous and non-indigenous groups are often affected by violence and displacement. The 1996-1998 ethnic violence in Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon districts of Assam had forced thousands of people to flee their homes and left many dead. A large number of people have still remained displaced. Government-run rehabilitation camps are often closed prematurely to push people to return home in spite of threats to their security. The assistance provided by the government has been insufficient to facilitate their homecoming and access to basic necessities. Many Adivasis, displaced by the Bodoland violence, continue to live in relief camps. Even after being pushed out of rehabilitation camps, thousands of others are still homeless. My first novel, Neela Noi, deals with this theme of ethnic violence, a cruel reality of contemporary society; I have depicted the characters and situations based

LOOKING GLASS
RRRRRRT G

THE horrors of ethnic cleansing that Adivasis have faced are just sensational news for the Guwahatibased media, politicians, intellectuals and the public. In a democratic country like ours, all of us have some responsibility for solving the problems of the uprooted people
NEELA NOI
ARPANA GOSWAMI AANK-BAAK, 2011 `150, 304 pages Paperback/Fiction
on some true incidents of brutal killings. Neela Noi describes the life struggle and collective sorrow of a group of uprooted Adivasis, who could not be rehabilitated in their native villages after they were sent back from refugee camps. The situation in those hamlets was not conductive to living without fear and so, they were compelled to live here and there. The refugee camp that I have depicted in the novel really existed in the Patgaon area of Kokrajhar district. While travelling across the area for field research for my novel, I discovered this camp. There lived a group of homeless people who were struggling to enroll themselves as inmates of the relief camp. When I approached them they treated me as a heavenly figure, one who could bring an end to their suffering. I was greatly embarrassed as I was aware of my limitations; I could do nothing for them except writing about their miserable lives. I was shocked at the grinding poverty that had tormented them for years. Because of their illiteracy, they have been victims of exploitation. They are trapped in the vicious circle of the rotten socio-political system of the country. I had conversations with those affected by the ethnic clashes Adivasis, Muslims and Bodos and also with their leaders. I collected data about that particular clash resulting in their displacement, and gradually I was convinced that I had a story to tell. Other than that, I, the heavenly fig-

ure, could do nothing practical for them. For a new writer like me, the theme of ethnic clashes was not an easy one. But it was the theme that had been haunting me for years. I have spent 12 valuable years of my life in the Bodoland area. I closely witnessed the tensions in the area during the 1996-98 clashes. Then a school-going girl, I was deeply moved by the traumatic incidents which killed thousands and uprooted thousands of others. A nearby school was turned into a refugee camp where thousands of Adivasis lived in inhuman and unhygienic condition. Besides the fear of the rebels, epidemic and death were common there. I can never forget the scene that I witnessed of some Adivasi boys drinking sewage water flowing out of the bathroom of our house. These experiences early in my life touched my heart to such a level that many years later, when I was feeling an irresistible will to write a novel, they became the theme of it. Adivasis are the most backward group of people living in Assam. Even their very existence was unknown to most people until the Beltola incident. The so-called mainstream Assamese society tends to regard them as the others. The horrors of ethnic cleansing that these people have faced are just sensational news for the Guwahati-based media, politicians, intellectuals and the public. Nothing fruitful has been done so far to minimise the suffering of these people. Everyone forgets about their existence as soon as the situation after such clashes turns normal, though on a superficial level. But in a democratic country like ours, all of us have some responsibility for doing away with such problems. By depicting traumatic incidents like ethnic clashes and the struggle of the Adivasi people for rehabilitation, I have just tried to bring to light an oftneglected reality of our contemporary society. But I still feel deeply that just writing a novel is not enough; its time we did something to solve the problems of the uprooted people. T

Tripura actor Meena Debbarma in Yarwng.