A Brief History

North East Writers’ Forum (NEWF)

The north-east of India is a vastly colourful region, home to more than 145 ethnic groups. Languages and dialects, cuisine and dresses and religious practices flourish in happy, often contrasting, abandon. It has had a chequered history, from foreign invasions over the centuries to occasional internecine ethnic confrontations. Flanked on three sides by Bhutan, Nepal, China, Bangladesh, and Myanmar, north-east India has also seen insurgencies over several decades. This is a region awash with pristine natural beauty, snow-clad mountains, lush green plains and hills, majestic rivers, its forests and trees and its exquisite flora and fauna breathing life into a remarkable eco-system. Into this arena The North East Writers’ Forum seeks to encourage creativity among the region’s dwellers, through the written word, through the English language in a form unique to this incredibly fertile place under the sun.

When the North East Writers Forum became a registered body in 1997, there were questions asked about the “need” or a separate writers’ forum; and, that, too, for writers in English, working across all the eight states of the region. This inclusion of all eight states was perceived to be a kind of going against the centrifugal forces that existed, and still exist in the region. Besides, there were, (and still are) many vibrant literary bodies in most of the States. Assam and Manipur, especially, have had a long and distinguished history of written literature, while oral literature has been enriching the culture of the hill states of the region for eons. It is inevitable that writers should get together to discuss, critique and laud one another’s works.