Vishü Rita Krocha
Kohima | September 28
Naga author, Dr Arkotong Longkumer is among the long list of the fourth edition of the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize 2021 for his book The Greater India Experiment: Hindutva and the Northeast published by the Stanford University Press. The longlist of 12 books was announced on September 16 and the Prize celebrates excellence in non-fiction writings on modern and contemporary India.
On his book being longlisted by the New India Foundation, which is also the only book in the list from the North East, Dr Arkotong Longkumer said, “I was pleasantly surprised but also pleased that the NIF recognised the book as an important contribution to the history about India that includes not only the central parts or the dominant regions of India but also recognising the importance of Northeast.”
In that sense, he told The Morung Express in an exclusive interview that, “I was really pleased, excited, surprised, as a Naga author to be part of that and represent the region and also honoured at the end of the day, that the Committee chose the book.”
Dr Arkotong Longkumer is Senior Lecturer in Modern Asia at the University of Edinburgh, and Senior Research Fellow at the Kohima Institute, Nagaland.
“The Greater India Experiment: Hindutva and the Northeast,” he said, “is primarily about how we understand the different facets of Hindutva- who are the stakeholders and the key actors, participating in this project of Hindutva.” Highlighting that the book interacts a lot with grassroot activists from Sangh Parivar, to really get the sense of their activities in the Northeast since Indian independence but more so, in the last ten years or so, he said, “it also looks at how they have carved the space for the ideology of Hindu nationalism to flourish and how we might situate the rise of Hindu nationalism in the Northeast.”
The book also explores the protracted Naga issue even as he put across that “I think Nagaland state is interesting with the Naga issue, which is like the big elephant in the room, that still, of course needs to be solved, and there’s a lot of talk happening right now.” In this regard, he recalled how people have said to him on several occasions that the BJP are quite serious about trying to solve the Naga issue.
“And they point to, of course, Vajpayee, being one of the first people to recognise the Naga issue as a political problem. So, I think that precedent is there but also the BJP is just generally quite keen to solve this but, within the constitutional framework of India,” he articulated.
In this context, he also expressed, “what does that mean, I don’t quite know- they might make certain exceptions, they might innovate, be a bit more creative, but that’s my general understanding…and this is all in the book as well.”
Dr Arkotong Longkumer is also working with an Indian publisher for the book and if all goes well, he informed, that the Indian edition should be out by the end of this year. He is also the co-author of Indigenous Religion(s): Local Grounds, Global Networks (2020), and co-editor of Neo-Hindutva (2019).
