This is an introductory list of texts on Northeast India. The list attempts to cover
ground in a wide array of thematic areas and debates that consist of oral vs. textual literature,
whether literature and representation can be useful to understand the making of the socio-
literary cultures of the northeast, and texts that critically look at writings in English emerging
from the region. The list also incorporates two texts that methodologically engage with how
literature from the region can contribute to the field of social sciences. Individual works of
literature, whether poetry or prose, are selected because they cover a vast array of themes that
one can engage with methodologically – firstly, translated writings by women and the
question of self-representation, secondly, the works do not follow a linear trajectory and
move between spaces and time and expand ways of thinking about planetary concerns, or
even the idea of how a novel is supposed to work (or not) and lastly, a critique of myths, that
deems people as outside of history.
Ao, Temsula. “Writing Orality,” In Orality and Beyond: A North-East Indian Perspective.
Edited by Soumen Sen and Desmond Kharmawphlang. Sahitya Akademi, 2005, pp. 99-112.
Aruna, Nahakpam. “Contemporary Manipuri Short Stories.” Eastern Quarterly, vol. 5, no. 1,
2008, pp. 12–23.
Baishya, Amit R. Contemporary Literature from Northeast India. Oxon: Routledge, 2019.
[Chapter 1: Necropolitical Literature from Northeast India, the Everyday and Survival, pp 1-
49.]
Barma, Bijay Kumar Deb. “Ekalavya of the Longtarai.” Indian Literature, vol. 49, no. 5
(229), 2005, pp-33-34.
Barma, Bijay Kumar Deb. “A Frenzied Dance.” Indian Literature, vol. 49, no. 5 (229), 2005, pp-
33-34.
Das, Prasanta. “Anthology-Making, the Nation, and the Shillong Poets.” Economic and
Political Weekly, vol. 49, no. 42, 2008, pp. 19–21.
Kashyap, Aruni. “The Fiction of Assamese Augusts.” Seminar 650, 2012, pp. 73-77.
Kashyap, Aruni. How to Tell the Story of an Insurgency. HarperCollins India, 2020.
Matta, Mara. “The Novel and the North-East: Indigenous Narratives in Indian Literatures.” In
Indian Literatures and the World: Multilingualism, Translation and the Public Sphere,
edited by Roseela Ciocca and Neelam Srivasrava. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, pp. 223-
44.
Haripriya, Soibam. “Poetry and Ethnography: Tracing Family Resemblances.” Society and
Culture in South Asia, vol. 5, no. 1, 2019, pp. 126–146.
Hussain, Shalim. Betel Nut City. Rlfpa Editions, 2018.
Indian Literature: Special Issue on Tripuri Literature, vol. 49, no. 5 (229) Sahitya Akademi,
September-October 2005.
Nongkynrih, Kynpham Sing. Funeral Nights. Context, 2021.
Zama, Margaret Ch, “Locating Trauma in Mizo Literature: The Beloved Bullet” In
Emerging Literatures from Northeast India: The Dynamics of Culture, Society and Identity,
edited by Margaret Ch Zama. Sage 2013, pp. 65-75.
Misra, Tilottama. “ Women Writing in Times of Violence.” The Peripheral Centre, edited by
Preeti Gill. Zubaan, 2010, pp. 249-272.
Moral, Rakhee Kalita “ Beyond Borders and Between the Hills: Voices and Visions from
Karbi Anglong or, Whose Hills Are These Anyway?” In Emerging Literatures from
Northeast India: The Dynamics of Culture, Society and Identity, edited by Margaret Ch
Zama. Sage 2013, pp. 65-75.
Pou, Veio. “Of People and their Stories: Writing in English from India’s Northeast.” Modern
Practices in North East India: History, Culture, Representation, edited by Lipokmar
Dzuvichu and Manjeet Baruah Routledge, 2018, pp 225-49.
Samom, Thingnam Anjulika. Crafting the Word: Writings from Manipur. Zubaan, 2019.
Singh, Parismita. Centrepiece: New Writing and Art from Northeast India. Zubaan. 2017.
Zou, David Vumlallian “Raiding the dreaded past: Representations of headhunting and
human sacrifice in north-east India.” Contributions to Indian Sociology, vol 39, no. 75,
2005, pp 75-105.
-Soibam Haripriya
Assistant Professor
Department of Social Sciences and Humanities
Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology-Delhi
