Native Culture and Gender Politics in Nagaland: A Study of Easterine Iralu a Terrible Matriarchy

Abstract

The paper aims at examining Easterine Kire Iralu’s novel A Terrible Matriarchy (2007) from feminist point of view.  The novel A Terrible Matriarchy is the coming-of-age story of a young girl, Dielieno. The narrative explores the suffering of innocent Dielieno and her confrontation with the traditional Angami society to which she belongs to. In the ethnic world of Nagaland, both patriarchal and matriarchal control co-exists but it also has a strong Tantric tradition from time immemorial. For various reasons the status of women in the northeast has not been different from the women in the mainstream of India. Easterine Iralu through her girl protagonist Dielieno depicts the severe gender discrimination where the grandmother neglected Lieno to the worst extent, always caring and preferring the boys. The grandmother's matriarchal hegemony makes Lieno revolt silently. The various aspects of women's marginal status and native culture have been analyzed in the paper.