Between Hope And Despair
Amiya Kumar Das
STRANGERS NO MORE: NEW NARRATIVES FROM INDIA’S NORTHEAST by Sanjoy Hazarika Aleph Book Company, New Delhi, , 472 pp., 799
October 2019, volume 43, No 10

A journey through the eight States of North East India, the present book is a sequel to Sanjoy Hazarika’s earlier published and much acclaimed title Strangers of the Mist: Tales of War and Peace from India’s Northeast. Hazarika states that Strangers No More is a deeply personal book through which he intends to understand and express his concern on topical issues pertaining to politics, policy, law and disorder, violence and painful reconciliation, conservation, oppression, acts of stereotyping, thereby capturing hope and despair in the process.

Media representation of the North East has perpetuated an image that has continued since the colonial period and into the postcolonial phase. The author addresses this by showcasing the lesser known and untold stories from the field, forests and villages.

He has been involved in peace building initiatives in the region for a long time. The book is informative and offers details which people in the field of academics and journalism are often not privy to. The chapters of the book do not necessarily follow a topic or issue in terms of a chronology.

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