Beyond the “mainstream”: Mamang Dai and the possibility of a distinct Indian tribal literature

The tribes of India, with their unique experience of “apartheid”, have remained, since colonial times, invisible to “mainstream” India. After learning some of the dominant scripts, writers from these tribes have attempted to voice the insider’s point of view. The tribes of India, in general, are caught between their animistic world and the fast-growing impacts of Indian modernity. How does the tribal writer delineate the unfathomable perplexities of the tribal mind and, at the same time, be perspicuous to her elite readers? What makes them visible? For example, the dilemma of using English to convey her tribe’s esoteric reality prompts Mamang Dai, of the Adi tribe from the Northeast, to explore stylistic possibilities. If capacitated to convey the insider’s point of view through a distinct generic platform, like Ben Okri or Momaday, the tribes of India would finally overcome the shadow of “apartheid” as participants in the polyphony of a democratic nation.