Book Review: Into the Hidden Valley
Reading a piece of history is never an easy task, daunting, to say the least. Some of the most harrowing tales of apathy and misery lie perhaps not in the day after tomorrow as presupposed by people, but rather in history. However, it is not the cold-blooded violence and slavery of colonization that has left a lasting impression in my mind, but rather the tale of local tribes across native America and Central and North Eastern India that has shaken my conscience. It is a thing of wonder really that one fine day a group of people enter an unknown land with documents of possession and render thousands homeless. Colonization surprises me of course, but what really bothers me is the idea of property that was easily pardoned by history while its contemporaries like slavery were let go. It is perhaps callous on my part to juxtapose the two, but in a sense, they resembled the other as implicit in many historical writings. Into the hidden valley is a book that brings back these latent thoughts.
Into the hidden valley: A Novel by Stuart Blackburn is a tale of two worlds- one of a reverential shaman of the Apatani valley and another of an ICS officer of erstwhile British India. The story traverses through the life of Gyati, an Apatani Shaman looking for answers from overheard tales, while simultaneously giving a peek into the India of the 1800s through the eyes of an anxious young man named George, about to embark upon his journey as an ICS officer posted in Assam, India. The story is of a time when British colonizers were seeping deeper into the Himalayas. Halyang, as they were called in the valley, Britishers had slowly begun to set camps in small towns in the inner hills, with the aim of securing Tibetan territories eventually. None had reached the Apatani Valley yet but their arrival was a point of constant conjecture in the hidden valley. The author intertwines cultures of the local tribe and functioning of the British Indian bureaucracy into an incident that led George to the valley twice, while returning from his second expedition with a secret that he took to his grave.
This book is a simple tale of an incident and the events leading up to it but it leaves the reader with many questions to ponder about. For me, it bought back the same emotions that the account of Santhals in Central India did, or the story of how the American map expanded leftwards, uprooting native livelihoods along the way. It makes one reflect upon the entire idea of ownership and the supremacy of government orders over deep-rooted cultures. It also makes one wonder about the basis of present-day society and how history has proven time and again that the strongest man is, in fact, the one with the better weapon. It is a good one-time read for people like me who revel in novels with a non-fiction tone.
Into the hidden valley: A Novel by Stuart Blackburn is a tale of two worlds- one of a reverential shaman of the Apatani valley and another of an ICS officer of erstwhile British India. The story traverses through the life of Gyati, an Apatani Shaman looking for answers from overheard tales, while simultaneously giving a peek into the India of the 1800s through the eyes of an anxious young man named George, about to embark upon his journey as an ICS officer posted in Assam, India. The story is of a time when British colonizers were seeping deeper into the Himalayas. Halyang, as they were called in the valley, Britishers had slowly begun to set camps in small towns in the inner hills, with the aim of securing Tibetan territories eventually. None had reached the Apatani Valley yet but their arrival was a point of constant conjecture in the hidden valley. The author intertwines cultures of the local tribe and functioning of the British Indian bureaucracy into an incident that led George to the valley twice, while returning from his second expedition with a secret that he took to his grave.
This book is a simple tale of an incident and the events leading up to it but it leaves the reader with many questions to ponder about. For me, it bought back the same emotions that the account of Santhals in Central India did, or the story of how the American map expanded leftwards, uprooting native livelihoods along the way. It makes one reflect upon the entire idea of ownership and the supremacy of government orders over deep-rooted cultures. It also makes one wonder about the basis of present-day society and how history has proven time and again that the strongest man is, in fact, the one with the better weapon. It is a good one-time read for people like me who revel in novels with a non-fiction tone.
Comments
Post a Comment