Easterine Kire's Saga of the Indigenous Naga Worldview and the Politics of Resistance in Sky is My Father: A Naga Village Remembered

Easterine Kire is an Indian English writer from Kohima, Nagaland, currently living in Norway. Nagaland, a state in northeast India, is a treasure trove of rich traditions, narratives, and oral histories. Home to seventeen major tribes and numerous sub-tribes, the state boasts a diverse cultural heritage. Their cultural heritage and storytelling form the foundation for much of Nagaland’s literary creativity, offering writers both inspiration and responsibility. By reimagining oral narratives, these writers strive to make the traditional Naga worldview and historical memory relevant to the present generation. Easterine Kire’s Sky is My Father is one such historical novel, portraying the courage of a proud Naga village that repeatedly defied British advances and withstood their sieges, thereby preserving its identity and resilience against colonial domination. Their defiance was more than a military resistance—it embodied a moral force that bound the community together, shaping its collective identity and reinforcing the values of unity and resilience. Building on this, the present paper seeks to analyze the continuing relevance of the Naga traditional worldview and its significance in shaping identity, literature, and history, comprising the myths and symbols that form the Naga social and cultural life.