Nagaland legislator Mmhonlumo Kikon to release poetry book on Naga communities

Kohima: Nagaland legislator and BJP national spokesperson Mmhonlumo Kikon is all set to release his latest and third book of poems titled Slingstones. Delhi-based Rupa Publications has recently announced the acquisition of Kikon’s book which is based on Naga communities.

Slingstones will be available for pre-orders on Amazon and Flipkart on August 15.

Speaking about the book with EastMojo, Mmhonlumo Kikon said: “I am inspired by our history and how it is placed within the colonial afterthought. The compulsion of colonial interaction amidst the entire spectrum of culture and war and spirituality informs my poetry.”

According to Rupa Publications, Slingstones is an exploration of the historical and spiritual landscape of Naga communities.

Kikon’s poems isolate and examine the unchanging nature of space and time, the past and the present, the here and now and the author takes a penetrating look at the banalities of daily life that actually shape and define the contours of identity, both within communities and outside, said the publication company.

The publishing house noted that the poems identify the constructs of the modern world that seek to replace the indigenous.

Through the book, the author also explores the process of self-preservation employed by tribes against the onslaught of material and ideal forces.

Kikon, who is also the spokesperson of the High Powered Committee (HPC) for COVID-19, said that despite the work schedule, the lockdown has provided more time to read and write. Kikon has earlier written The Penmi Poems (2018) and The Village Empire (2019).

Meanwhile, the publishing house added that the collection of Mmhonlumo Kikon’s third poetry book is intimate and brave review of lives lived in the wide of expanse of nature and their interactions with the outside world — from the habits of culture to the distinct quandary that communities have to face, from the struggle to come to terms with the evolving world to the rush to educate the so-called ‘savage’, and from abandoning the ruins of colonialism to taking a measured approach to change.

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“This is a searing portrayal of the innate and native desire to revive a cultural ethos that has been drowning in a vortex of complex and systemic institutions. The path of these poems and their sweeping swathe is magnificent and painful,” it added.

Rupa Publications is one of India’s largest book publishers and distributors which began its journey, more than 80 years ago, from College Street in Kolkata.

The company has published works of APJ Abdul Kalam, Ruskin Bond, RK Narayan, Satyajit Ray, Khushwant Singh, Ramesh Menon, Gulzar and Derek O’Brien, among many others.