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02/08/2005: "Review of Tom Farrell’s AN AMERICAN IN NAGALAND – Published in India by Indialog"

Review of Tom Farrell’s

AN AMERICAN IN NAGALAND – Published in India by Indialog

Based on the novel first published in the United States under the title ‘the Ghandi of the Nagas’ an American in Nagaland is an intriguing novel that binds two very separate worlds. Tom Farrel’s novel is well written; it captivates till the very end and is full of suspense. Surprises in both subject matter and in relations keeps the attention not only fixed but creates the feeling of wanting to read more. Both the backgrounds in the USA and India are well worked out and it is the detail around the personalities that breaths life into them. Of course Tom is most familiar with the settings in the USA itself as well as the characters that come into play. The Naga student around which the story develops is made very credible when one thinks of her for the open and relational point of view prevalent in the USA. Of course a Naga girl from a remote area, even remote by Indian standards, who carries her culture with her, may play around with the norms and values of the country she is in. Being alone and devoid of compatriots naturally will feel drawn to a university professor who sensing her loneliness accommodates her. Of course by the girls instigated sensual interludes follow and are vividly described, but the girl never really binds herself as she has a boyfriend at whom she dearly loves. This young man will later play a major part in the novel as he joins the Naga Army and is in proximity of the girl’s father who as Farrel describes from the Konyak tribe’s norms and values cannot allow his daughter marrying the professor she comes to India and later Nagaland with. The Father, a politician who has served in the Indian Parliament has the professor kidnapped as he believed his daughter and the professor are heading into a forbidden union.
Though as a novel the Farrel’s book is still a very good and well thought out read, here he goes wrong in relation to who he paints the picture of the Naga cultures. Of course his novel is fiction and as such it remains a good novel. But then if read widely then his idea of the Naga Army behaves and can be used for personal revenge is not something the Nagas themselves will be very happy with.
First of all there are no politicians who can order the Naga Army to kidnap someone. The Nagas stand is to struggle for the right to self determination. They may abduct someone to, as is painted in the book, get the forgotten Indo-Naga war in the news and therefore on the map of the international community, this because the Indians have been successful to keep the Naga struggle isolated and their land in isolation. Nagas however fight the Indian Army and do not harm outsiders and thus do nor resort to kidnapping. The Father, ex parliamentarian and supreme leader of the Konyak tribe is not the prime example of the Nagas for the majority of tribes do not know supreme leaders but are known for their village state democracies, so no elitist kind of vendetta can emerge. The Konyaks have, but then should they stand for the Nagas who in majority support the Naga Forces against India and will not be ordered to entertain personal grudges.
Farrell feels for the Nagas and paints them, through the professor in captivity, as being righteous in their quest. This he does by the rather fast conviction of that professor who by what he has been given to read readily stand up to soot a television interview tobe screened before being released and after. It is strange though that he feels convinced so fast as he has been given only the information handed to him by his abductors, The Naga underground Army.
A small, perhaps not too significant thing is that, while in captivity in the forest, Naga girls of the Army play with him as in teasing him sexually, the initiative coming from them in showing and touching him with their breasts. This is harmless but in reality Naga women are well trained and no commander would let this happen, this apart from the idea that Naga women are free and easy to do so. But as said that is a minor thing, yet gives the kind of picture of the noble savage.
A last thing is the ending of the book where the professor is killed by the father in a treacherous way as he was on his way to be released. This is not just something for it portrays Nagas, who were portrayed by the British who partially occupied them, as headhunters. Given the divide and rule practices of the successive Indian Governments as a result there is one main and two minor underground movements/armies, one minor one he NSCN-K that was said to be funded by the chief minister has following among the Konyaks. But even so the question will be if that faction could be used to kill someone to end personal trouble like loss of face.
The point is that the Nagas as a people, as a nation, now are portrayed as though righteous in their quest are savages underneath the veneer of being civilized as portrayed by the father of the girl who after all has been in the Indian Parliament for quite some time. It shows that underneath it all the Nagas are savages still. Why should this be knowing that it was the American Baptist in the 19th century who brought Christianity to the Naga Hills and made the Nagas in majority to be devout Christians. There have been many Americans in Nagaland since then but up until something like 1955 when The Government of India ordered them to leave. They are still devout Christians but the Americans did not help the Nagas, then united fully, in their Quest to self determination, yet there were killed by the thousands. Americans abandoned their brothers in Christ.

In summary it is quite obviously a very good novel and one that reads in one breath. It is sensual, very well done in relations between people, there is passion and sensation. So, as fiction the novel is good, yet it contains some reality and it is that reality that unfortunately paints both a rosy and a savage kind of picture of the Nagas. Historically the Nagas have every right to be independent, but the Americans in Nagaland abandoned them. This American in Nagaland is killed for the wrong reasons and not quite worthy of the Naga nation.

Frans Welman
Naga international Support Center


TOM FARRELL served as the dean of the John Hazen White School
of Arts & Sciences at Johnson and Wales University from 1992 – 2001.
He is the author of a previous novel, “Nantucket 1970”, several textbooks as
well as articles in academic journals and newspapers. He earned degrees
from The University of Notre Dame and The University of Rhode Island.
He divides his time between Narragansett, Rhode Island and
Nantucket Island, Massachusetts.