Disinherited voices from the past

In Mamang Dai's new book The Black Hill, set in 19th century Arunachal Pradesh, nature takes the role of a character that plays its part in events leading up to the tragic demise of Kajinsha, a Mishmee tribal hanged to death for the disappearance of Father Nicolas Krick, a French priest determined to make his way in the region with his sextant. Just as the sharp river bend stops the British soldiers from coming in to the villages by the droves with their 'guns and garrisons', the small mound behind the home of Gimur, Kajinsha's wife, acts as a prop in their first encounter.

The story is a fictional exploration of a heavily debated event that took place in what was then the princely state of Assam, says Dai. "A priest had come to the Mishmee village through the route around Pasighat. He was quite unusual, and collected river stones and wrote about the land. He also left several humorous notes. The ensuing events had left a fair bit of acrimony between the various tribes of the area over the years."

Nature found its way into The Black Hill, as it does into her writings and poems, which, interlinked to the place's geography, paint rivers and mountains and forests as lush and yet mysterious. Nature is sacred and even worshipped in the region. Dai's writings also bring forth the conflict that the region has witnessed. She writes about places like the Sang river that do not find a mention in the government's geographical survey.

Recalling how The Black Hill came about, Dai says she was on her way to the London Book Fair a few years ago when she took a detour and reached the Paris Foreign Mission — the very same mission that had sent the priest to India to make inroads into the region for the East India Company.

Dai also visited the Dibrugarh jail in upper Assam where Kajinsha breathed his last. "Being the first tribal to be hanged to death must have felt horrible, and he was eventually made into a hero of sorts by the people," says Dai. Mishmee people, who remembered his legacy with some bitterness, are quite happy that the book finally talks about the event.