Native Past And The Needy Present: A Critical Reading of Mamang Dai’s Legends of Pensam

North East Indian Literature is marked by a unique presence of nature and environment. The beauty of the landscape enriched with different species of flora and fauna, mighty rivers, high mountain ranges add on a vibrant culture and tradition existing among the tribal of North East. It shows rich ethnic diversity of the region. The relationship between man and nature in Indian English writing, more specifically from North East, has been depicted by a handful of writers of the region. Mamang Dai’s The Legends of Pensam is written in lyrical prose and evokes the memories of an entire community of people. It represents the predicaments of the sensitive young minds of the contemporary Arunachal Pradesh. They find difficulty to come in terms with the inevitable break with the enchantment of the past and to re-model their lives according to the demands of the changing times. Through this paper the researcher will make an attempt to study how the people who practiced animistic faith in community-oriented setups suddenly came face-to-face with the realities of Western modernity, the Christian religion and individualism as a way of existence