Not just a travelogue. Leaving home on 17 October 2011, Nandita Haksar and her husband, Sebastian Hongray, drove across Nepal to reach the Chicken Neck, the slim strip of land which connects the Northeast to the rest of India. From the Chicken Neck, they went up to the one of the easternmost towns of the country, Mayodia in Arunachal Pradesh. Making a U-turn in Mayodia, they swept south to the town of Moreh, a busy centre of trade, both legal and illegal on the border between India and Myanmar. Turning back from Moreh, they travelled to the Manas National Park on the Indo - Bhutan border. They then drove back to Delhi via Nepal. In all, the couple covered 15,000-plus kilometres in four months and traversed areas affected by more than fifteen separate insurgencies each of which is being waged by people seeking homelands and identities for themselves. Over the course of their journey, Nandita met and spoke with friends, relatives and strangers and found that almost all the individual histories of the tribes and races of the region have become subsumed into narratives imposed either by the State or by the dominant Hindu religion. And it is the reclamation of these individual identities, she says, that has given rise to the numerous movements for self-determination. In Across the Chicken Neck, Nandita uses mythology, history, sociology, political analysis and anecdote to create an exhaustive, nuanced portrait of Northeast India. This is a book to be read, not only to understand the many schisms of a fractured land, but also for its telling of a rousing adventure.
Nandita Haksar was a journalist before her involvement in the women's rights movement forced her to take to law. For the past three decades she has worked as a human rights lawyer, campaigner and writer. She has set many precedents in human rights and refugees law. She has taken up cases in the courts in India as well as appearing before international courts and committees. She has evolved and taught courses on human rights in various universities. Haksar's publications include: Ego and other Poems (1972) Demystification of Law for Women (1986); the book has been translated into regional languages and extensively used by women's groups for spreading legal literacy; Nagaland File: A Question of Human Rights; (the co-edited book which first exposed the human rights violations being committed by the Indian security forces in the North East of India); Framing Geelani, Hanging Afzal: Patriotism in the Time of Terror (2007) in which she writes about her experience of defending two Kashmiri Muslims accused of attacking the Indian Parliament, and Rogue Agent: How India's Military Intelligence Betrayed the Burmese Resistance (2009) in which she exposed the RAW, Indian’s external intelligence agency ; The Judgement That Never Came: Army Rule in North East India (with Sebastian Hongray, 2011); ABC of Naga Culture and Civilization (2011) which has been taught in schools for Naga children and; Across the Chicken Neck: Travels in North East India (2013); The Many Faces of Kashmiri Nationalism: from Cold War to the present Times (2015) and Framed as a Terrorist (with Mohammad Aamir Khan) (2016). Exodus is not over (2016) Antarctica: Profits of Discovery Nationalism beyond border (2018) Flavours of Nationalism Recipes for love hate and friendship (2018) She was awarded a Degree of LL.D. (Honoris Causa) from NALSAR in 2015 in recognition of her work in the field of human rights.
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