![]() ![]() The storiesįorm an organic whole of the terror that grasped the entire populace of a Justify their presence as guards against the other-ed ‘rebels’. ‘situations’ to depict the inflated tactics of the army to fabricate terror and The collection of stories is rife with mentions of army-rebel ![]() Rationalisation of the army presence as the ‘male-protector’ of a ‘feminised’ While some make it out alive due to sheer presence of mind, some do not. Temsula Ao’s characters are all inadvertently caught in a gruesome male-driven minefield they call home: either as an informant in need of money or as a wife of a man fighting the state forces. Ao’s stories depict how the armed response of the state forces to the self-determination movement led by the peoples of Nagaland gave way for centuries of masculinist war-mongering relegating the status of the common folk to casualties and spoils. Temsula Ao centers her stories in These Hills Called Home on characters that reveal the gendered undertones of nationalism and the violence it sanctions. These Hills Called Home speaks to the memory of loss, stories that were left untold or perhaps unheard.Īlso read : Aosenla’s Story: Traversing Through Self-Doubt And Power Dynamics Nationalism And Sanctioned Violence Similarly, in The Last Song, an elderly woman speaks of a legend of Apenyo, who was raped by army personnel as she sung her last song, and how the singing sound stills continues to haunt the village. The history of the Nagas has turned into folklore, passed down from generation to generation through the oral tradition of storytelling. “But he resolved that one day soon he would tell his grandson how his generation had lost their youth to the dream of nationhood…” Ao is aware of the conflict of sifting through the memories of a violent past, as is exemplified in her story An Old Man Remembers. Sashi hesitates as his grandson asks him about his past:Īs opposed to mainland ‘national’ history, where Nagaland is victoriously referenced to as having become an Indian state on 1 December, 1963, this collection of stories pertains to the Naga peoples’ shared collective memory of what was lost. As opposed to mainland ‘national’ history, where Nagaland is victoriously referenced to as having become an Indian state on 1 December, 1963, this collection of stories pertains to the Naga peoples’ shared collective memory of what was lost. Temsula Ao prefaces the collection of stories by making her intent clear: These Hills Called Home is a work of memory.
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