Rising Youth of Phek district (RYPD) has taken strong exception to a Kolkata-based author for the insensitive and criminal misrepresentation pertaining to a particular Naga tribe of Phek district in her book “Bhoj”.
RYPD president Kulupoyi Vadeo in a press release said he was totally aghast at the insensitive and criminal misrepresentation of a particular Naga tribe of Phek district, for which she could be booked under relevant sections of law for statements or publishing that created enmity, hatred or ill-will between different religions, race, language or regional groups or communities.
He said Debarati Mukhopadhyay from Kolkata in her fictional novel “Bhoj” had narrated that a certain tribe called Jeshumi (earlier stated as Chizami) in Phek district still practised the bone-chilling tradition of cannibalism wherein the son killed his mother upon she getting old and ate her flesh to give her peace. The mother, who brought her son to earth through her belly, ended up in the same son’s belly, which was considered pious in their tradition, as per the novel.
He noted that the author had with utmost insensitivity dismissed all the criticisms by justifying it as an imaginary story based on an imaginary community and asserted that there was no question of hurting the sentiments of any community or defaming Nagaland.
“Authors often write stories based on a State or a region. Suppose I write that a person in Kolkata murdered someone. Does that mean I am defaming Kolkata?” Mukhopadhyay had countered. But the RYPD president questioned how this logic was applicable in this case when she had specifically cited Nagaland and Phek district where cannibalism was practised by presenting it as a truth statement.
He said the youth body was irked by the complete lack of respect shown by the author, who was supposedly an educated person. He cautioned that such stereotypical presentations (irrespective of imaginary or not in the guise of a story) perpetuated the cycle of racism against the tribal people of the Northeast.
The author could have easily named a fictional location and clan for her book, but that she chose to target a specific tribal State of the Northeast only portrayed her ulterior motive to sensationalise her book and create enmity, he added.
