ISSN (Print) - 0012-9976 | ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846

Articles by Manjeet BaruahSubscribe to Manjeet Baruah

The ‘Bourgeois View’

A critical understanding of space requires an engagement with the material processes that constitute it, as well as the way it is represented in works of art and literature. Moreover, understanding spatiality is also crucial for comprehending how class is constituted. In this regard, this paper explores how, between the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, the bourgeoisie in Assam conceived and represented space. The discussion is based on Lakshminath Bezbaroa’s play Jaymati (1915) and Rasna (Birinchi) Barua’s (1959) novel Seuji Patar Kahini (The Story of the Green Leaves).

 

Yaruingam (1960): Revisiting the Assamese Literary Classic and its Idea of People’s Rule

Birendra Kumar Bhattacharyya’s novel Yaruingam, written in the 1950s and finally published in 1960, was centred on the Naga movement for self-determination. In the post-colonial period, the novel has often been considered a landmark literary moment of Assamese literature, especially in the writing of political novels. Though focusing on the Naga movement, the novel was also as much about an early postcolonial Assamese literary imagination of “people’s rule.” Today, when questions of identity, democracy, and of the place of people in shaping the sociocultural and political future of North East India have become critical, this article examines how this early postcolonial novel dealt with some of these questions.
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