Interview with Samrat Choudhury: Exploring the Heart of India’s Northeast in Mizoram Literature festival

Samrat Choudhury

 

Aizawl, 18th October: Samrat Choudhury is an author and journalist from Shillong who doesn’t just write books, he weaves narratives that capture the complex and often overlooked history and culture of India’s northeastern region and a former editor of broadsheet newspapers in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. He currently divides his time between India and the Philippines and writes op-eds, analyses and occasional reportage for a number of national and international publications.

Samrat's previous book was The Braided River: A Journey Along the Brahmaputra, 2021. He has earlier authored a novel, The Urban Jungle, which was nominated for the Man Asian Literary Prize. He also co-edited an anthology titled Insider/Outsider, on this issue with relation to Northeast India but let’s not get too serious just yet—this man has a way with words and stories that can charm the ink off a page, and today, we’re getting cozy with the creator himself during this wonderful Literature festival held in Aijal club, Aizawl Mizoram.

Q: What Inspired you to become a writer, like when did you decided that now you have to become a writer?

Well as a student in school, I was interested in writing, reading, so it started with the usual you know writing essays, stories but of course that is something you are sometimes forced to do as a part of your education, so you do it and sometimes one enjoys it and sometimes one does not, but I learnt some things at least while I was doing that then I studied engineering but while I was studying engineering I realized that I liked writing than doing what I was doing in that engineering college. So, after that I became journalist and became my professional responsibility so then I was writing news and features every day, every week and that is how I really learnt the craft of the professional level and after that I wrote my first book “The Urban Jungle” published by Penguin then subsequently several years later I wrote a travelogue following “The Brahmaputra” which is called the Braided River and after that most recently I have written the political history of northeast India It is called “ Northeast India: A Political History” and this was published first in London and subsequently in India by Harper Collins , it is a popular political history of Northeast Indian by popular I mean that it is not academic, so that is the distinction.

Q: So, when there was a transition in your career like now you decided to become a writer rather being an engineer what was reaction of your parents and closed ones as we have often seen that writing and other occupation other than being doctor and engineer is looked down upon?

Oh, that common obsessiveness with a particular science stream occupation my parents too had! so, when I came home and told my mom that I want to do journalism and fun fact I already joined the profession before revealing it to my family and said to my mom that this is what I want to keep pursuing so my mom told me that after hearing my choice of transition relatives and neighbourhood kept asking her that “is Samrat didn’t passed the exam?” so, in response I said “I have the degree which is of no use you can frame it on the wall and there will be no problem and after that Mass communication became a popular course and of course some of the same relatives and neighbourhood people initially had problems their children grew up and wanted to join the same profession as me

Q: You kind of paved the way for the next generation in your family, now moving on the next question your book “Northeast India: A Political History” This book is a lucid and readable narrative account looks at the journeys through time by which each of the states of its Northeast entered modern India and acquired their present shapes, but the feeling NE people have when they go to mainland is racism but in broader perspective if we see us mainlanders also face racism here in NE and of course it’s not a comparison of racism but the issue is the same but in our case it’s not even talked about or highlighted in mainstream media, what are your views?

Correct, I agree there is racism here too so the book that was released today in the Literature Festival which is “But I am One of You” which had the very same theme you are talking about the feeling of belonging and unbelonging in the Northeast India, it is about the insider, outsider issue in relation to Northeast India, it is a collection and it is specifically addressing this unspoken issue which we don’t want to talk about, we want to have that conversation and with people from all the communities but in a friendly way, So what I did is I asked people from different communities across Northeast India good writers, scholars to contribute in this book from there perspectives so that we understand what actually the thought process is, So that’s what we have done and the result is this book which is released today and talking about the mainstream media which doesn’t highlight this as the issue and this should be talked about, we have to acknowledge these problem wherever they arise, and statement like "we all are Indians” raises a question, we are all Indians now but m any of these places didn’t wanted to be , they didn’t wanted to be a part of India, I am a historian too , I have wrote the book North east India : a Political History so now I am speaking as a historian and this is the part of the fact of Indian history and they fought and then insurgencies happened, in the festival too I spoke about that Indian Air Force bombed Aizawl where we are standing right now, so it was a war right! and people have bad memories, many of them lost homes, their families, they were killed, they were raped. some of the bitterness comes from that traumatic past they have

Q: That was such a great answer, at last as being a former journalist and writer what advice would you give to us students who see our future in journalism?

So, the thing is That Indian journalism has faced some difficult times and you all being in this digital era makes you all more prone to yellow journalism, the core reason for this problem is related to the business model basically there are more paid news now and those paid news are creating problems because you have to write news according to the person who paid you, for e.g. newspapers for century or more than century had a certain business model which essentially meant that they are selling for their content so it’s all reversed now everyone mean business here but let’s see what will happen in future.