“But His Most Potent Weapon Is His Tongue”

This paper analyses Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih’s The Distaste of the Earth (2024), with particular attention to the representation of anthropomorphic speech in animals, to argue that animal speech in the text serves as a narrative strategy to critique and redefine the anthropomorphic boundaries between human and non-human beings. The analysis focuses on Ka Dorbar U Laiphew Jingthaw, “the council of diverse creatures” (Nongkynrih, The Distaste of the Earth 256), to illustrate how Nongkynrih employs animal voices to challenge and subvert the hierarchical authority and linguistic dominance associated with human reason and rationality. Overall, this paper underscores the significance of storytelling in shaping and negotiating cultural values, power structures, constructions of identity, and through which ethical awareness of interconnected ecological relationships is cultivated.