Women, War and Tradition: Interrogating Power and Memory in Easterine Kire’s A Terrible Matriarchy and Mari

Abstract

Easterine Kire has emerged as a defining literary voice from Northeast India, intricately documenting Naga history, culture and the gendered dynamics of social structures. This paper critically examines her novels A Terrible Matriarchy and Mari, interrogating the complex interplay of patriarchy, matriarchy, memory, war and resistance through multi-generational narratives. By drawing on feminist and postcolonial theorists, comparative references and oral history, this study situates Kire’s fiction in the broader landscape of global indigenous storytelling and explores how her work reclaims marginalized female experience. The novels, rooted in the lived realities of Naga women, offer profound insights into the cycles of subjugation and empowerment, the psychological legacy of war and the potential for transformation within traditional societies.