Ethnic Identity in These Hills Called Home

I. INTRODUCTION

Ethnicity is the state of belonging to a social group that has a typical national or cultural tradition. Ethnic groups are characterized as "a particular aggregate group" of the populace inside the bigger society, whose culture is not quite the same as the mainstream culture. Webster characterizes it, "An individual from an ethnic group; particularly: an individual from a minority group who holds the traditions, language, or social perspectives on the group." Cashmore characterizes, "the notable component of a group that views itself as in some sense (as a rule, in many senses) unmistakable… Once the consciousness of being a piece of an ethnic group is made, it takes on a self-perpetuating quality and is passed starting with one generation then onto the next generation." 'It is made in the dynamics of world class competition inside the limits controlled by political and financial substances" and ethnic groups are to be viewed as a result of political legends, made and manipulated by culture elites in their quest for favorable circumstances and power.'i It is our identity that comprises our sense of self. Literature, language and society have noticeable impact in communicating one's identity. Assertion of identity turns out to be progressively mandatory to approve their obedient, social, moral and cultural heritage as their legacy. Temsula Ao is, without a doubt, a famous present day Northeast writer rising up out of the state of Nagaland. She has published five volumes of poems namely Songs That Tell (1988), Songs That Try To Say (1992), Songs Of Many Moods (1995), Songs From Here And There (2003), and Songs From Other Life (2007). She has also published two collections of short stories entitled These Hills Called Home: Stories from a War Zone (2006) and Laburnum For My Head (2009). A basic book on Henry James and a journal had additionally been distributed. Her writing is very critical on the grounds that she isn't reluctant to reproduce the social and political changes of Nagaland in her literary world. For her excellent inventive works, she got Padma Shri, Sahitya Akademi and even the state Meghalaya rewarded her with representative's gold decoration award. In These Hills Called Home, Ao gives an image of Nagaland where the average folks are caught in a climate of violence and conflicts. It manages the Naga uprising and its results. More often than not, the Nagas are stunned by the brutal armed forces and militancy. She describes exactly the chronicled and political development of the Nagas with no idealization, but instead portrays the political hardship and strife of the land. And here comes the respectability of an extraordinary writer. She expounds on Naga's quest for isolated political status and how the townspeople get by in such a contention inclined territory. The anguish of experiencing coming about the emergency of politics and identity in the locale had engraved in her psyche for quite a long time and she couldn't keep still and so with the assistance of memory she poured the substances of Nagas at the hour of rebellion in her innovative works.

It is to feature financial moral and cultural milieu, and inclination which obstructs social, lingual, educational, democratic, and general fellowship development arranged soul. It is to illuminate human qualities as well. It is to move, rouse and impact neighborhood ordinary citizens to draw out the adjustment in society. Mazinee stated, "On the off chance that you need to change the world put fire into hearts of young minds". In this manner, it is an undertaking to deliver lacunas before the young minds to draw out the positive change for onward all round-development in the adolescents of Northeast India as a rule and Tripura specifically. This paper is an endeavor to disk and dissect the ethnic identity of the Nagas to hold the independent regional land and which was tested by the government or Armed forces of the India. In the perusing of Temsula AO's short stories. Their quest for an independent Nagaland and their proceeding with scan for identity give the scenery to the stories. These stories talk movingly of home, neighborhood, town, region, nation, nation and international level. The turmoil in Nagaland is established, not in the classical factors of hardship or social unfairness however in a profound dread of the loss of both ethnicity and identity; and it is this dread vivifies one of the most genuine revolts in India's North East. Ethnic identity is the emblematic utilization of specific markers of culture by a community to differential itself from different groups and networks. It shapes the center of national identity for the vast majority of the world's people. Ethnic identity is regularly connected with cases to territory accepted to be the selective homeland of a specific ethnic group. The ideology that legitimates this case is at some point alluded to as ethnic nationalism and the individual from specific land parcel. The existential identity of the Nagas is submerged in legendary legend how they began, the area of their cause and why they came to live at better places or occupy the geographical zone called Nagaland and outside the state in certain spots in the joining states. Every clan with its distinct language, social customs and dress codes has kept on living as a recognizable ethnic identity inside the group collection known as Nagas. In the stories it is communicated that townspeople were baffled at the conduct reared to them by the Indian armed force removed from their familial site and put them to another spot making it helpful for their security forces to monitor them. Workmanship and specialty are essential to appoint a distinct identity to the Naga clan. In the story the 'Last Song', the girl Apenyo watches her mother weaving colorful shawls which will be sold in the market to bring extra income. Ethnic identity in the idea of room has to do with property, self-possession and the politics of sovereignty. It is likewise acknowledged in the possession of a sovereign land. Acknowledging identity starts with asserting of land. Regional land meaning of his identity. Accordingly, as the Armed Forces chose to take their regional land they tested their choice, and at long last took arms which prompted the introduction of the Naga separatist Movement. In story, 'The Last Song,' which is the story of a young girl called Apenyo who appears to have an extraordinary ability for singing and who will sing a sweet, pleasant, quiet independent song in the town church at a major occasion of the devotion of the new church building. In the opening line of the story Temula AO composes, ‗It seemed the little girl was born to sing….what the mother considered unreasonable behaviour in a child barely a year old, was actually the first indication of the singing genius that she had given birth to.‘ The girl's mother has religious bowed of psyche. He had confidence in God and use to venerate God. She never left alone her at home. Temsula composes, ‗Her mother would take her to church on Sundays because she could not be left alone at home.‘ Apenyo's father Zhamben was a gifted singer. Her mother Libeni was a widow since her father kicked the bucket in teachers training course. Libeni and Apenyo made due on what was developed the field. Libeni was the best weaver and her shawls were in incredible demand. The daughter wanted to support her mother. The mother was persuaded that she has acquired this prudence from her father. Libeni didn't wed second time for her daughter. Apenyo was ideal mix of natural physical and singing excellence. Temsula pushed- ‗Every time the choir sang it was her voice that made even the commonest song sound heavenly. Along with her singing voice, her beauty also blossomed as Apenyo approached her eighteenth birthday…which earned her nickname singing beauty‘ The government chose to catch the people for anti-national activities on the festival day of church building and capture every one of the leaders. The mother and the daughter experienced sudden conduct. Armed forces were making trouble. It was an extraordinary moment for the townspeople and they had arranged well with incredible excitement kidding of having twofold Christmas that year. Be that as it may, it was anyway inconvenience times for the Nagas. The Armed Forces grouping the entire town would be unstuck from their ancestral sites and herder into new ones, making it advantageous for the security forces to protect the residents who attempted to escape from the spot. ‗There was chaos everywhere. Villagers trying to flee the scene were either shot at or kicked and clubbed by the soldiers who seemed to be everywhere‘ It was tragic that Apenyo and her mother were likewise assaulted and slaughtered by the Indian Military forces which the story is later advised by a woman to the new generation. Temsula AO through her woe telling stories catch the voices of regular Naga people who are somebody unaware of this movement however were made exploited people and loss of life. Finally we locate that both the mother and daughter lost their honor and life. The Captain was additionally rebuffed and God defended his ways. In this way, it is apparent from these stories that how the Independent movement which picked up momentum was tested by the government forces to consolidate Nagaland into Indian Union and fight back the independent movement which anyway cost the lives of normal residents in the winding of violence. Perusing of Temsula AO's these stories advanced the question of ethnic Identity and possession of sovereign land as the Nagas bound to their distinct ethnic identity of holding a land that have been guaranteeing their ancestral homeland which was an independent state and needed to hold it without acclimatizing with the Indian Union however in asserting their sovereign land it cost parts lives.

Temsula AO in her book, 'These Hills Called Home' composes, many of the stories in this collection have their beginning in the fierce long periods of bloodshed and destroys that make the history of the Nagas from the mid-fifties last of the century, and their demand for independence from Indian states. In spite of the fact that she is neither praising nor invalidating nationalism in her stories, the battle for independence turns into a setting of her stories. In one of the short story, The Jungle Major, it is discovered that the entire town partook in this nationalist movement, for the sovereignty of land. ‗It was after a year or so of Khatila‘s marriage that the entire land was caught in the new wave of patriotic fervour that swept the imagination of the people and plunged them into a struggle, which many did not even understand.‘ The townspeople even felt the Indian forces as foreigners who came to guarantee their land. To the Nagas, identity is especially partnered to the possession of his land. to join the new band of patriotic warriors to liberate their homeland from foreign rule‘. Along these lines, obviously Temsula AO connects with and questions the idea of nationalism with regards to Nagaland as even the remotest town were engaging in this movement. ‗These were, however, troubled times for Nagas. The independence movement was gaining movement by the day and even the remotest villages were getting involved, if not directly in terms of their members joining the underground army, the certainly by paying taxes to the underground government.‘ The armed forces were sent to attack the places of Naga leaders and pestered the common villagers who offered asylum to these disruptive activities arranged Nagas. Temsula AO's these stories depict the independence movement and abusive estimates which were taken by the Indian forces to stop this movement. In the story, 'The Jungle Major', the Armed forces undermine the villages on the off chance that they don't give or cover any data about the agitators. ‗The officer concluded that a beautiful woman like her cannot be heartbroken over the disappearance of an insignificant man like Punaba from her life, so they went away after threatening the villagers that if they were withholding vital information about rebels, they would come back and raze their village to ground.‘ The armed forces utilized many stringent measures to stop this movement ‗As had happened to other villages, their barns would have been set on fire, their houses destroyed and the people would have been taken to the grouping areas. But thanks to the audacity of Khatila‘s ploy, the entire village was saved from a fire.‘ Subsequently, those villages which were not then legitimately associated with this conflict turned out to be increasingly sympathetic towards the underground forces when they knew about the outrages submitted by the armed forces on innocent villagers.

One ought not be stepped on the bases of one's ethnic love and performance as it were. Ethnic people ought not be named regularly for the cultural inclination that turns into a danger for absence of alteration, dynamism, language, innovative, thought provoking ideas, education and soul to compete and change. They ought not

culturally, morally, and profoundly static state empower one to go financially down. He feels defenseless, poor, frail and unprotected for his regrettable condition. To appreciate the life one must have positive values which are: Truth, purity, cleanliness, self-restraint, honesty, patience, forgiveness, modesty, learning, self-actualization, and non-attachment. To finish up, we may state that Temsula Ao attempts to satisfy her inward desire to speak with the perusers about the fierce history of Nagaland which is joined with different social issues identified with Naga opportunity battle, violence, identity emergency and political turmoil. In her story, she depicts conventional people who had encountered violence and how they arrange power and forces to increase an interesting political status. The significant part of the book is rebellion and she gives an image of Nagaland distressed by militancy and armed forces. But a predetermined number of stories, the majority of the stories portray the savage annihilation brought about by militancy and armed forces which bestow only battered the common people by the quickly evolving social, political, financial and even cultural situation. In this manner, the story gently uncovers the various types of violence and socio-political encounters that are physically and psychologically compelling the people living in the area to lead a life of injury. We realize that literature is the reflection of society. Here, one gets data, data clears approach to thoughts, thoughts lead to actions, actions empower ones to make propensity, propensity prompts demeanor and mentality assembles one's personality which chooses one's destiny. All these originate from a person's advantage, frame of mind and values and later on appear as culture. On the off chance that one becomes self-dependent, self-adequate, self-subordinate then one may search forward for rights to self-determination and ethnic identity.

1. Anuradha Chakraborty (2012). Problematics on Ethnicity, Identity and Literature, Published SPS Education India Pvt. Ltd., Kolkata, pp. 342. 2. Ao, Temsula (2006). These Hills Called Home: Stories from a War Zone. New Delhi: Zubaan Books. Print. 3. Temsula A.O. (2006). The Last Song, ‗These Hills Called Home Stories from a War Zone‘, published by Penguin books in 2006, pp. 28. 4. Temsula A.O. (2006). The Last Song, ‗These Hills Called Home Stories from a War Zone‘, published by Penguin books in 2006, pp. 25 6. Temsula A.O. (2006). The Jungle Major, ‗These Hills Called Home Stories from a War Zone‘, published by Penguin books in 2006, pp. 7. 7. Temsula A.O. (2006). The Jungle Major, ‗These Hills Called Home Stories from a War Zone‘, published by Penguin books in 2006, pp. 4. 8. Temsula A.O. (2006). The Last Song, ‗These Hills Called Home Stories from a War Zone‘, published by Penguin books in 2006, pp. 25-26. 9. Temsula A.O. (2006). The Jungle Major, ‗These Hills Called Home Stories from a War Zone‘, published by Penguin books in 2006, pp. 3. 10. Temsula A.O. (2006). The Jungle Major, ‗These Hills Called Home Stories from a War Zone‘, published by Penguin books in 2006, pp. 2.

M.A. in English, Qualified