Dimapur, November 23: A three-day online national seminar on ‘Fourth World Literature: Voices of the Marginalised’, with special reference to Northeast India, began on November 22 at Tetso College, Dimapur.
A press release informed that it has been organised by the College’s Department of English.
The inaugural address was delivered by Dr. Hewasa L Khing, Principal of Tetso College, who provided a brief historical context of the term ‘marginalisation’, rising from a colonial purview.
The keynote speaker was acclaimed Naga writer, Dr. Easterine Kire, who opened her speech by stating that she felt discontent by the usage of the term ‘marginalised’, which was a keyword of the online national seminar.
“From a post-colonial perspective, she was of the view that Nagas or Northeast people in general, cannot succumb to the manner of political gaze stated by the Indian discourse on marginalised. She reprimanded the crowd on the usage of the term justifying through historical and political references, that it was a term given by an Indian political scenario with superlative connotation for the Indian mainland, while addressing the Northeastern region as the marginalised in culture, socio-political or even a subaltern in historical space,” it stated.
Her concluding remark was to “re-centre the centre-to take charge of who we are by not accepting the definition given by others to the Northeast people in general”.
(Page News Service)
