Phek, October 7 (MExN): The Rising Youth (RY) Phek district has expressed “aghast” over the alleged “insensitive and criminal misrepresentation pertaining to a particular Naga tribe of Phek district in Nagaland” in a fictional novel ‘Bhoj’. The Bengali-novel is written by Kolkata-based author Debarati Mukhopadhyay.
RY Phek, President Kulupoyi Vadeo in a press release claimed that for such portrayal, the author can be booked “under relevant sections of the law such as statements or publishings creating enmity, hatred or ill-will between different religious, race, language or regional groups or communities.”
According to RY Phek, the novel portrayed that a certain tribe called “Jeshumi (earlier stated as Chizami) in the Phek district of Nagaland” still practice the tradition “wherein, when the mother gets old, the son kills and eats her flesh to give her peace.”
However, the author with utmost insensitivity dismisses all the numerous criticisms by justifying it as an imaginary story based on an imaginary community and claimed that there is no question of hurting the sentiments of any community or defaming Nagaland, it said.
Accordingly, the RY Phek expressed its anger over the “complete lack of respect shown by the author” and stated that such stereotypical presentations (irrespective of imaginary or not in the guise of a story) perpetuates the cycle of racism against the tribal people of the North-East region.
The author could have easily named a fictional location and clan for her book, but she chose to target a specific tribal state of the North East and thereby portraying her ulterior motive to sensationalse her book and create enmity, it asserted.
