ABSTRACT

North East India is a melting pot of diverse culture which is why it is often called India in miniature ormini-India. Therefore, the literature from North East India is multilingual. Accordingly, the literature from North East India represents the diverse culture of the various people in the region. Among others, the search for identity by the different hill tribes is one of the dominant themes in the literary works penned by the indigenous authors from the region in general and from the hill states in particular. Moreover, the political situation of the region as the backdrop of such literary works also stands tall. Therefore, cultural identity, political identity, identitycrisis, and a critical look into such issues and the consequences thereof from various perspectives does form the big story of the North East India literature from the hill states, namely and mainly, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, andparts of Assam and Tripura. One among them is the novel “Bitter Wormwood” by EasterineKire who hails from Nagaland, one of the North Eastern Indian states. This paper attempts to studythe novel “Bitter Wormwood” as representingthe literary expression of its kind from the Hill Tribes of North East India.

Key words: North East India, Hill Tribes, literature, culture, identity.