Reviewed by John Cairns
It's possible to describe Easterine Iralu's insightful novel, A Terrible Matriarchy (2007, Zubaan, New Delhi, 314 pages), as simply a story about a nasty grandmother named Vibano and a disenchanted child. Actually, the book offers much more -- a generation-long saga of a troubled family in a troubled place. The unusual setting is Nagaland, now a state in northeastern India, at an unspecified time in the second half of the 20th century.
Even ordinary domestic activities suggest past turmoil. “Mother baked a cake in the ammunition box that had been left behind during the war by British troops. Almost every house had one of these.”
Although many characters struggle with near-poverty, they own plenty of high-growth seeds of conflict. Problems stem from extreme alcoholism, domestic violence, simmering resentments, neighborhood gossip, fearful superstitions and constant tension between modern thinkers and traditionalists. Anyone reading that “Vini was dead drunk the night his wife delivered a healthy eight-pound baby boy” instantly sees trouble coming.
A tiny protagonist, Dielieno, the youngest in a five-child family, has celebrated five birthdays when she's sent to live with stern Vibano who wants her to “be a good worker”. The girl must learn housework by doing it, everything from early-morning treks for water to evening chicken-counts. Feelings fray, and Dielieno “wickedly” wishes that “Grandmother would die”.
Needing to speak and act respectfully doesn't deter the child from retaliatory tactics. “ ‘Bring me the yarn basket,’ she said brusquely.
I ran to get it from the kitchen. But on the way back I deliberately slowed down, trying to take as much time as possible over this one task because by now, I had learnt that when one errand was over, there was always one other to do.”
Only the insistence of Dielieno's parents forces Vibano to allow her young “worker” to attend school. The old lady believes girls don't need education because it has nothing to do with maturing into a good Naga wife and mother. “ ‘In our day,' Grandmother began, ‘girls did not go to school. We stayed at home and learnt the housework. Then we went to the fields and learnt all the fieldwork as well. That way one never has a problem with girl-children. They will always be busy at some work or other, too busy to get into trouble.”
Dielieno loves school and takes every chance to visit her parents and brothers. Yet doubt lingers about whose ways and opinions work better. Is the matriarchy really so terrible? Modern habits and gadgets don't always prevail.
The protagonist describes people with childish honesty. “Of late, Bano had become very difficult to be with.... Over the years, she had grown obese and slowly lost her looks. A newcomer could mistake her for a fifty-year-old woman because she had grown so slovenly. She no longer bothered to pretty herself up in case a suitable man might come along and make her an offer. When she went to the shops she waddled like a giant duck.”
Readers may consider Nagaland, with its history of tribal wars and headhunting, an exotic setting. But for the author, it's a familiar homeland, the place she knows best. “It was fascinating to hear Neikuo tell stories from her life. It amazed me that her father had lived in an age when people cut off the heads of their enemies and there were no roads nor buses nor cars. Just narrow paths that led from village to village that turned into muddy tracks in the rains.”
Daily lives for Dielieno and the people she knows have distinct differences from those of most readers. There's the overpowering need to follow tradition, to marry someone deemed “proper” by older folks, to respect illogical superstitions and to treat boys better than girls. Only boys get extra meat to eat or sweets to savor.
“My Grandmother didn't like me....
‘What meat do you want?’ she simpered sweetly, as she ladled out gravy and meat.
I quickly piped up, ‘I want the leg, Grandmother, give me the leg.’
‘I wasn't asking you, silly girl,’ she said, as she swiftly put the chicken leg into my brother's plate. “That portion is always for boys....’ ”
It seems that Nagaland's dead return as ghosts. “ 'Have you forgotten that at this time last year it was the old Bangladeshi man who was haunting the village after he had hanged himself. There were so many who saw him carrying his water pot and singing to himself on the road. Why, there was a young girl who said that he even slapped her on the bottom!’ ”
Despite Nagaland's uniqueness, most worries and woes there resemble those found elsewhere. The local traders of malicious gossip sound familiar. “At the water spot there were two women. ‘I swear he is the father of the child. Haven't you noticed how much the child looks like him?’ the first one was saying to the other.”
Challenges to satisfy childhood curiosities about sensitive subjects are universal too. “ ‘When is Grandfather coming back?’ I asked Mother one day.
‘Back from where?’ she asked in a very surprised tone.
‘When he's finished dying, isn't he coming back?’ ”
Lessons in life that Dielieno learns resemble those that all people do: “We cannot buy love. We can only hope that when we have loved our children well, they will, in turn, grow up to love us.”
Easterine, an advocate of democracy and human rights in Nagaland, lives in Norway. Her earlier book, A Naga Village Remembered (2003), became the first English novel by a Naga writer. Many of her short stories and poems probe the conflicts that have troubled Nagaland.
To the author, it's no huge mystery why her home state suffers. Many of its people cling to a destructive mindset. “ ‘In the old days, women.... pushed their men to go to war. That was what they saw their mothers doing, and they grew up to do the same.’
‘But why, Mother?’
‘Because they would be safe if their men were good warriors. Others would think twice about attacking their village if their men could earn the reputation of being good warriors.’ ”
A Terrible Matriarchy goes much better for readers than for the young narrator. There should be no hesitation in naming Easterine as an up-and-comer among leading authors.
Approval rating: 78 per cent.
For more information: www.zubaanbooks.com
(October 9, 2011)
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Easterine Iralu writes of an unusual homeland.
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