Independent Researcher, Annasseril House, Kottayam, Kerala, India.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21659/jsae/v3n1/v3n121
[Article History: Received: 15 April 2026. Accepted: 18 August 2026. Published: 07 October 2026]
Abstract
Shillong as a place has come to represent many aspects of what it means to belong to a postcolonial space. A hill station in colonial times, it was designed by the British to evoke the memories of a homeland far away. Today it is an area marked by remnants of the colonial past harbouring the coming together of identities that blur borders and belief systems. Shillong as a place has become an entity in transition burdened with myriad questions of who gets to call it home. The paper attempts a reading of Janice Pariat’s short stories in the collection Boats on Land to see how Shillong is portrayed in it. The stories become significant in portraying a postcolonial space that becomes a dynamic zone constantly negotiating with ideas of belonging. Pariat’s stories lead to an alternate understanding of the land and the people that try to address its manifold variegated existence. The paper looks at how the stories challenge the western world’s homogenised understanding of South Asia but also the need for revisiting our lands and its stories through lenses that have been deemed marginal for a long time.
Keywords: Shillong, postcolonial space, home, in-transition.
