THE BLACK HILL

Set in the mid-nineteenth
century, the action takes place in the Northeast-the region that spreads from
Assam to Arunachal today. The East India Company is seeking to make inroads
into the region and the local people-in particular the Abor and Mishmee tribes
fear their coming and are doing all they can to keep them out of their
territories. The author takes a recorded historical event-the mysterious
disappearance of a French priest, Father Nicolas Krick in the 1850s and the
execution of Kajinsha from the Mishmee tribe for his murder and woven a
gripping, densely imagined work of fiction around it. And, even as the novel
tells the story of an impossible journey and an elopement, it explores the
themes of the lure of unknown worlds, the love people have for each other and
their land and the forces of history. Gimur, a girl from the Abor tribe, runs
away with Kajinsha from the Mishmee tribe and they settle down on his land
near the Tibetan border. Father Krick’s attempts to reach Tibet to set up a
Jesuit mission are foiled repeatedly by the local people not because of any
personal animus towards the priests or their work but because they feel
rightly that once the priests come, the British, with their guns and their
garrisons will follow. The story revolves around events in Gimur’s and
Kajinsha’s villages and is also seen from the point of view of Father Krick,
a gentle, intelligent man, devout but no bigot, whose determination to reach
Tibet no matter what the cost, impacts tragically on all those who encounter
him.