‘When Blackbirds Fly’: Why Mizoram author Hannah Lalhlanpuii talks about insurgency from a child’s eyes

Hannah Lalhlanpuii says the conversation around the Mizo insurgency is very much absent in the Northeast discourse, says the author, is the reason why she believes her book has kind of achieved what she had set out to do. Photo Courtesy: Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest

"My mother was three years old when my grandfather got killed during the insurgency and due to my grandfather's tragic death, my grandmother continued to develop mental illness," recounts Hannah Lalhlanpuii. The first-time author's book ‘When Blackbirds Fly', which was released earlier this year, delves into the very subject of the insurgency but from the eyes of a child. The Mizoram native says her mother's family suffered a lot of loss because of the insurgency and she knows of many other families that were affected too. "So, we grew up listening to all these stories of the insurgency and the lives that were affected by it. It has always been there at the back of my head to put out these stories for people," she adds.

It was for this very reason that the PhD research scholar, who was in Mumbai in November for the Tata Literature Live! The Mumbai LitFest, felt it was imperative to write the book. The fact that not many children in Mizoram really knew what their ancestors had faced in the 1960s due to the insurgency was the other reason. "I didn't intend for it to be a children's novel," says Lalhlanpuii, continuing, "When I started writing, I realised we have many political and historical accounts of the insurgency but a majority of them were biased. The reports, accounts and statistics had a political agenda and a blame game about who started it, whose fault it really is." Using the child as a narrator, she thought the perspective would give "a very unbiased stance" towards the insurgency because "children do not care about politics, they don't care about the power in place and their perspective is the purest and most unbiased perspective we can get".

Where politics meets culture
Even though the book is right in the thick of politics, it is hard to ignore how the Mizo author chose to look at it from a cultural lens instead. Understandably, it stems from the story she grew up with because of her maternal links. "The insurgency really shaped what we are as a society today - our parents and grandparents, our idea and mentality towards mainland India because of the Indian army occupation of Mizoram during that time including the police brutality and suffering those tragic situations."

Such has been the effect of the insurgency that Lalhlanpuii through her interviews and personal interactions has realised how old people who experienced the event cannot stand leaving Mizoram. "It is kind of a cultural, social and community thing and I just wanted to leave the politics out of this because when you bring politics here, people's story gets pushed aside."

Introducing Mizoram to the world
Ever since her book was released, Lalhlanpuii believes ‘When Blackbirds Fly' has been received well. Her observation comes from personal experiences that aren't limited to literary festivals and reviews but closer home among the youngest readers. "I have met school kids who have read and asked me did the bombing of Aizawl really happen or did you make it up? They were very grateful to know that this is what their parents and grandparents have gone through," she says. "Another aspect is that if I hadn't written the book, you wouldn't be asking me these questions and we wouldn't be having a conversation about it," reminds the author.

Considering the northeast state depends on oral traditions to tell stories, the stories appearing in English are also a positive development. "If you take a look at other northeast states like Nagaland, Manipur and Meghalaya, they have tonnes of writing in English that has come out but that is not the case with Mizoram because we are comparatively a very young state, so it would be difficult to get any conversation about Mizoram especially with mainland India."

The fact that the conversation around the Mizo insurgency is very much absent in the Northeast discourse, says the author, is the reason why she believes her book has kind of achieved what she had set out to do. It is to bring about historical awareness not only outside of Mizoram but also inside it, especially for current and future generations.

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