Echoes of Insurgency: Tracing Cultural Trauma in Easterine Kire’s Bitter Wormwood

Northeast India has long been recognized as a significant hotspot of violence and communal conflict within India. The region’s picturesque beauty bears the indelible scars of communal riots, brutal violence, and a profound identity crisis. The literary works emerging from this region reflect the ongoing pain, inequality, trauma, humiliation, violence, displacement, suffering, and loss experienced by the communities living there. This paper explores the traumatic narratives of the Naga people, focusing on Easterine Kire’s novel Bitter Wormwood (2011), which portrays the insurgency period and its aftermath in Nagaland. The novel depicts the impact of the Indo-Naga conflict through the perspective of Mose, the protagonist, who becomes a soldier in the freedom movement during his teenage years. The narrative addresses central issues such as collective trauma, shared memory and identity, and the marginalization of the Naga people, who are often excluded from mainstream Indian narratives. Kire’s narrative illustrates the physical wounds inflicted during the insurgency period and brings forth the psychological and degenerative effects of violence on its people. The analysis adopts Cultural Trauma Theory, as proposed by Jeffrey Alexander, to investigate the profound impact of insurgency on the cultural identity of individuals and how cultural trauma shapes their collective memory. The study highlights the role of literature in amplifying the traumatized voices of the marginalized, with Kire’s work serving as a powerful example. Furthermore, Kire voices the perspectives of those pushed to the margins, thereby aiming to reduce the prevalent inequalities within India. Thus, Kire’s novel underscores the resilient nature of its people, who continue to seek a better future despite such traumatic circumstances.