The Blue-necked God

Indira Goswami’s last work of fiction, The Bronze Sword of Thengphakhri Tehsildar is the heroic tale of a Bodo freedom fighter who was, arguably, the first woman revenue collector, a tehsildar, in British India. Set in late 19th-century Assam, the novel generated a great deal of interest when it was published. Thengphakhri is a fascinating character that the author recreated from folklore and songs and stories that she’d heard in her childhood. The image of the protagonist, galloping across the plains of Bijni kingdom in lower Assam to collect taxes for the British, is a compelling one and one that inspires awe and admiration. At a time when educated Indians, social reformers and the British government were trying to fight misogynist practices such as sati, child marriage and the purdah system, here was a woman working with the British officers, shoulder to shoulder, as a tax collector who rode a horse, wore a hat and had knee-length black hair. Indira Goswami has woven a complex tale wherein the foundations of the colonial rulers were shaken by insurgents seeking freedom across Assam just before the rise of the Indian National Congress.