The Wounds of the Frontier : Representation of War in Yeshe Dorjee Thongchi's Saba Kota Manuh

Saba Kota Manuh is an Assamese novel written by Yeshe Dorjee Thongchi, a writer from Arunachal Pradesh, who predominantly writes in Assamese language. The novel revolves around the Monpa tribe's funerary practice of cutting the dead bodies into 108 pieces. The Monpa people believe that releasing the 108 pieces of the body into the river guarantees the deceased a place in heaven. The protagonist of the novel is Aao Thampa, who performs the religious duty. The novel narrates many historical events such as the earthquake of 1950, the transition of Tawang's administration from Tibetan authority to Indian government in 1952, China's occupation of Tibet, the arrival of Dalai Lama in India through Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh, and the 1962 war between China and India. The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of the Sino-Indian War of 1962 on the lives of the Monpa community as represented in Saba Kota Manuh. By focusing on the experiences of the two main characters of the novel, Saba Kota Manuh presents a realistic portrayal of the tragic consequences of war. The study adopts a qualitative textual analysis to examine the representation of war and its socio-psychological effects on the characters.