The Bronze Sword of Tengphakhri Tehsildar

"The Assamese language is also ancient and its early Indo-Aryan version can be traced back to the 4th or 5th century with the earliest known literature found in 9th century Buddhist verses. It has its own script, grammar, and idiom. As with Bhojpuri, though, so much of Assamese literature is yet to be translated because of the lack of translators. Indira Goswami, who wrote under the name Mamoni Raisom Goswami, was a revered, much-garlanded Assamese writer. She was a firebrand—a political and social activist, writer, and professor. Several of her works have been adapted for stage and film because she broke new ground by writing about taboo topics around widowhood, sexuality, and more. “In the postmodern era now, feminist and Dalit literatures are gaining more attention” This novel is Goswami’s last work of fiction. Set in late 19th century Assam, it follows the life of Thengphakhri, a Bodo freedom fighter who has been immortalized in Assamese folklore, songs, and stories. She was employed by the British colonial administration in the Bijni kingdom in lower Assam as a revenue or tax collector, the eponymous ‘tehsildar’—perhaps the first woman in that post. At that time, educated Indians and the British government were both trying to bring about reform in the country by working to eliminate patriarchal and misogynistic practices like sati, child marriage, the purdah system, etc. and encourage widow remarriage. Alongside all of that, we have this swashbuckling protagonist, where she’s boldly riding horses, wearing hats over flying knee-length black hair. Eventually, she rebels against the British. I interviewed the translator, Aruni Kashyap, in 2020, and he told me that the book contributed toward healing relations in the region by foregrounding the contributions of the marginalized Bodos to the nation’s freedom struggle. And that Goswami helped reframe the literary, historical, and political discussions around Assam and its smaller kingdoms like Bijni."