How Naga communities came together for each other during the pandemic

 

The close-knit society is falling back on the sense of community and kinship that has been passed down over generations in Nagaland

One evening in June, a group of young men and women gathered in Zhavame village in the foothills of the Kapamodzü peak, one of Nagaland’s highest mountains. The lockdown had not yet been completely lifted, and the group mused about the abandoned paddy fields in the village. Many young people from Zhavame had moved to cities to study or work, and almost half the fields had been left fallow. At the end of the meeting, the Christo Naga’s Club, whose members included students, farmers, government and private sector employees, reached a decision: they would begin cultivating the land again.

“Every member of the club comes from a farming background, but this was our first ever experience of farming independently without our parents. In the process, we learnt a lot,” says 34-year old Ngapunyi Albert Krocha, a social worker who lives in Kohima but visits his village often.

The lockdown had convinced the group about the importance of self-reliance. They hope to encourage other young people to grow their own food. “We can never know what the future holds, but if we are self-reliant, or have surplus cultivation, we can survive,” says Krocha.

Love your neighbour

This is just one of the ways in which communities in Nagaland have come together to support each other during the ill-planned lockdown, which pushed thousands of people into penury. The close-knit society is falling back on the sense of community and kinship that has been passed down over generations in Nagaland.

“If your house burns down, if your family member falls sick or dies, if you are suddenly diagnosed with a life-threatening disease, if your crops fail, your neighbours, kinsmen, clansmen, come to help you build a new house, help care for the sick,” says writer Easterine Kire about the Naga sense of community.

Churches too began serving meals to the underprivileged during the lockdown. “Then there were NGOs and individuals distributing packets of food to daily wage workers who had lost their source of income. This sense of community is ingrained in us,” she says in an email intervNagaland is a great example of how communities rise to the occasion, explains Rosemary Dzüvichü, professor at the Department of English, Nagaland University. “The commitment towards community is an integral part of Naga culture. Whether in death or celebration, we are taught to stand by each other. We have seen this in the outpouring of generosity from individuals and communities and organisations towards the less fortunate, returnees, daily wage workers who faced the brunt of the lockdown in the State,” says Dzüvichü, who is also advisor to the Naga Mothers’ Association (NMA), the apex body of women’s organisations in the State.

During the worst phase of the pandemic, NMA helped the Rotary Club identify single mothers, HIV+ people and daily wage workers to provide food and essential items, apart from helping the district administration reach out to orphanages and institutes for special needs children. The NMA also helped raise money and other resources for quarantine centres. It also collaborated with the Salesian Province of Don Bosco and reached out with thousands of rupees’ worth of essential food items to the quarantine centres at Peren and Tuensang.

“To reach out to the community, no matter how distant, especially in times of trouble, has always been a part of our culture,” says Dzüvichü. It was with this spirit that NMA helped hundreds of women and children from Rengma families, who were forced to stay in relief camps at Bokajan and Silonijan during the 2013 conflict in Assam’s Rengma Hills.

What is behind the Nagas’ sense of community? In the words of Kohima-based author, former editor and journalist Charles Chasie, “Naga tribes were all head-hunters, but they were also very diverse and practised several systems such as pure democracy, different shades of republican systems, chiefships and absolute autocracy — this is why Naga society is an anthropological goldmine.”

Universal values

“Your life, under head-hunting conditions, depended on another person, and blood relationship was important. However, not just blood relationships, friendship also mattered a lot,” explains Chasie. “Different clans had their brother clans in every other village and even tribes where Tenyimia were concerned.” Tenyimia consists of 10 different Naga tribes: Angami, Chakhesang, Zeme, Liangmai, Rongmei, Poumai, Mao, Maram, Rengma, and Pochury.iew.

Along with head-hunting, the grand ‘Feast of Merit’ constitutes the basis of Naga social life. Traditionally considered the highest form of social honour, the ‘Feast of Merit’ includes rituals and involves giving a community feast to the whole village. Among the Chakhesang tribe, only those who have performed the ‘Feast of Merit’ are entitled to wear the prestigious shawls, Hapidasa and Saparadu. They can also adorn their homes with Hapiteh, a wood carving of the buffalo head, which is also symbolised in the Hapidasa shawl.

Seno Tsuhah, a community development worker, says that communities in Nagaland come together not only during times of crisis, but also to celebrate milestones or address important issues. “The value-based community life and sense of belonging have always been strong in our society — if we look at our forefathers’ generations, the community cohesiveness, the universal values of compassion, were always there, and that is still binding us,” she says. When vegetables couldn’t be transported into the State during lockdown, Tsuhah noticed how several villagers started visiting community forests to forage and collect wild edible plants so they could share it with urban dwellers in cities such as Kohima. She was also happy that young people were taking the lead in cultivating fallow fields. The greatest realisation of the community, she points out, has been the importance of growing their own food.

Joy of growing food

The members of the Christo Naga’s Club are sure that their new initiatives will not stop after the pandemic. “Now, we are all grown up, living in towns and cities, and we barely get the time to experience the joy of farming. So, it was a personal rediscovery, going back to nature, cultivating our own food,” says Rosou Pohena, a veterinarian who is also president of the club.

Around the same time, there have been conversations around local food in Chizami, a village perched in the hills of Phek district. Both at the church and community levels, the importance of growing one’s own food and making sure that the local food is strengthened, appreciated and acknowledged is emphasised.

A year since the pandemic, families cultivating small plots of land have begun expanding their farming. Seno Tshuhah is very hopeful that communities will continue to uphold this practice; during the pandemic, the first example of solidarity shown to one another was sharing food. “Food is at the core of our community life,” she says.

The pandemic has indeed brought people closer in Nagaland, says Dzüvichü. “It has taught me how important it is to help people in our own towns, both within our communities and beyond.”

Richard Belho, an architect who also does social work, says that the pandemic helped people realise their own vulnerabilities. “People chose to become strong and started helping each other; we started hearing a lot of stories of people coming out of their comfort zones. The pandemic did light up that spirit in people.”

Kire says there are several lessons to be learnt from the pandemic, including getting one’s priorities in order; creating awareness about the needs of low-income groups in our midst; and nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit among young people who carved out businesses and found new ways of earning an income. “I learned about the resilience of the human spirit even when it has received terrible blows, and also the abiding importance of family and finding new ways to care for each other,” she says.

Vish Rita Krocha

Source: The Hindu, 6/03/21

The farce of Naga framework agreement

 

Trust deficit between the NSCN(I-M) and the Centre may cause breakdown of agreement and revival of insurgency in the region.

Five years back, the Framework Agreement was signed between the Government of India and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isaac-Muivah) amidst great fanfare. This was done in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and General Secretary of the NSCN (I-M) Thuingaleng Muivah with R N Ravi, the interlocutor signing the agreement on behalf of the Union government. It was hailed as a “historic” agreement for ushering in an era of peace and tranquility in a region that had been rocked by violence for nearly five decades.

The reason for the haste in chalking out a Framework Agreement and rushing through it was the deteriorating health of Isak Chishi Swu, who was under treatment in a hospital in New Delhi. Unfortunately, Swu could not attend the event of signing of the agreement due to ill health. He died on June 28, 2016.

The peace talks were to be given a final touch for implementation this year, but things took a different turn when the interlocutor Ravi, who also happens to be the governor of Nagaland, took a jibe at the NSCN(I-M) ranks in June this year calling them “armed gangs” that are challenging the legitimacy of the state government. To add salt to the wound, he ordered that all government employees disclose the names of their relatives who are members of underground outfits, triggering anger among the Nagas. The die was finally cast when the governor in his Independence day address attacked the state government, in which the BJP is a partner, stating that “it has the dubious distinction of the worst performing state in the country, including the North-east region, on almost all significant indicators of human development”. He added that there was mayhem and miscarriage of dreams and expectations of the people of Nagaland, which was “unendurable and unacceptable”.

What has complicated the situation is the subtle manipulation of the Framework Agreement by the interlocutor, which had been kept under wraps since it was signed on August 3, 2015. In one particular paragraph of the agreement where it is stated, “that dialogue between the Government of India and the NSCN has successfully concluded and we are confident it will provide for an enduring inclusive new relationship of peaceful co-existence of two entities”, the word new has been removed thereby altering the meaning of the agreement itself. This has irked the leaders of NSCN(I-M). They no longer trust Ravi, and have demanded that he be replaced as interlocutor.

Meanwhile, since Muivah was already in New Delhi for his health-related treatment, it was expected that a final agreement would be arrived at before Independence day. But with the relationship souring between NSCN(I-M) and the interlocutor, any further talks became impossible. The Prime Minister’s office intervened and directed the Director of Intelligence Bureau, Arvind Kumar and the Special Director, Akshay Kumar Mishra to carry the talks further.

For reasons best known to the government and the NSCN(I-M), the Framework Agreement was veiled in secrecy for the last five years. It was only when the tampering in the agreement was noticed, did the NSCN (I-M) decide to bring it out of the closet and disclose to the world.

The three factors that are stalling the agreement are the Constitution, the flag and the amalgamation of certain areas of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Manipur adjoining Nagaland to form a greater Nagalim. In their initial demands, parts of Myanmar were also insisted upon to be merged with Nagalim — an impossibility. In his Independence day address to the people of Nagaland on August 14 last, Muivah briefly traced the history of Naga movement and stated that “the Framework Agreement recognises the sovereignty of Nagas”. He further stated in unambiguous terms that “the Nagas will co-exist with India sharing sovereign powers as agreed… But they will not merge with India.”

The flag and the constitution are important for the final agreement. The Nagas have their own flag and constitution and it is up to the government to recognise these as they are “the symbols of Naga nationhood,” according to Muivah. With the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir divesting the state of its constitution and flag, the task for the Centre has turned difficult. Nagaland too enjoys the special privileges like Kashmir under Article 371(A).

The fact that representatives of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur were invited to attend the talks serves as an indicator to the fact that the Nagalim factor too is to be discussed as these states would be affected if territories within their boundaries are to merge with Nagaland. Fortunately, with the NDA government at the Centre and its appendage, the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), in the affected Northeastern states, the Centre may exert some pressure on these governments. However, it may cause an upheaval among the denizens of the affected states. How this issue will be sorted out needs to be seen.

With these three crucial demands of the NSCN(I-M) being so complex and affecting other states, one is bound to question as to how the Framework Agreement was drafted without taking the affected states on board. Article 370 could not have been ignored while arriving at an agreement with NSCN(I-M). Was it for this reason that the agreement was kept under wraps for the last five years in a bid to bide time so that the NSCN(I-M) stalwarts could mellow down and subsequently agree to the Centre? Tampering with the Framework Agreement has further complicated the issue leading to a trust deficit.

Breakdown of the final agreement may lead to return of insurgency not just in Nagaland but in the adjoining states too, as NSCN(I-M) has been playing a lead role in keeping the insurgency pot boiling in that part of the country. All other insurgent groups look up to NSCN(I-M) as a big brother for carrying on with their nefarious activities. The Chinese too are looking out for opportunities to jump into the fray. We need to be on the guard.

The writer retired as Inspector General of Police, CRPF

Source: Indian Express, 3/09/20

Sustain the Naga peace talks

 The Indian State has a novel way of dealing with what seem to be intractable armed conflicts. Engage (with stakeholders, including rebels); assert (the State’s authority) and coerce; divide (especially rebel groups which are often prone to fragmentation); concede (but only partially, without compromising on core principles); and repeat the cycle. The template has been applied, with varying degrees of success, in different contexts. But broadly, it helps ensure peace without concessions, maintains the centrality of the State, and either weakens rebel groups or creates incentives for them to stay within the framework of a peace agreement.

The Naga peace talks between the Centre and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (I-M), which started in 1997, have followed a similar trajectory. Asia’s oldest insurgency, when talks began, appeared intractable — Naga groups were insistent on their distinct identity; they wanted a Greater Nagaland, which included Naga-speaking parts of other Indian states and Myanmar; they saw Nagaland as sovereign, with its own symbols. New Delhi was clear that neither would a Greater Nagaland be possible, nor would these groups be allowed to claim absolute sovereignty. But to keep the peace, the State often, rhetorically, accepted the distinct identity of Nagas; it informally allowed NSCN (I-M) to operate (including allowing it to function as a de facto parallel regime which had its own armed militia and collected tax); it also bridged differences and accepted the idea of “shared sovereignty”, a form of asymmetric federalism.

But there was no pact, and the perils of prolonged talks are now visible. RN Ravi, the key interlocutor for the Naga talks and now Nagaland’s governor, expressed the State’s exasperation at the operation of a parallel regime when he criticised “armed gangs”. NSCN(I-M), exasperated by the lack of a tangible solution despite a framework agreement signed in 2015, and annoyed at what it perceives as lack of respect, wants a new interlocutor and structure for talks. The geopolitical churn makes the situation more challenging — remember China has historically encouraged many armed insurgents in the Northeast, and given the current state of India-China ties, renewed Chinese support for those against the Indian State is quite possible. The Naga peace process is an achievement. It has kept the peace in a region troubled almost since Independence. New Delhi must sustain it and break the stalemate, by reviving talks and institutionalising an agreement. The old template must be tweaked to accommodate new realities.

Source: Hindustan Times, 26/08/20

Is Asia’s oldest insurgency close to a resolution?

A peace pact is welcome. But bringing NSCN (I-M) on board is important

The Naga insurgency has been one of India’s oldest conflicts. Right from Independence, Naga groups have asserted their distinct identity and sought to break away from the Indian State. Led by Angami Zipo Phizo, the movement for secession took a violent turn in the 1950s. When some elements signed a peace accord with the government, a more radical outfit — the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) — was set up under the leadership of T Muivah, Isak Swu and SS Khaplang. The group eventually split.

The movement itself had two major strands: Recognition of Naga sovereignty; and the integration of all Naga-speaking areas (particularly of Manipur) into a Greater Nagaland. These were demands that no government in Delhi could meet. The first — sovereignty — would undercut India’s claim over the region; the second — integration — would create a backlash in Manipur. But since the 1990s, Delhi began engaging closely with NSCN, led by Isak and Muivah (I-M). A ceasefire was declared. Multiple rounds of negotiations were held. Violence dipped — even though the insurgents maintained a parallel government in the state. And, in 2014, a “secret” framework agreement was signed.

Delhi is close to signing a final peace agreement with a section of the Naga groups such as the Naga National Political Groups, but this does not include the NSCN (I-M). There has been an evolution in the Naga position. Demands for Independence have faded. But symbolically, they want a recognition of a distinctive Naga identity. This, for NSCN (I-M), means a recognition of the Naga flag and a separate Naga constitution — demands that Delhi finds hard to accept. It is also clear that Delhi will not redraw state boundaries. With a clever mix of engagement, coercion, co-option, and inducements, Delhi has managed to neutralise the Naga extremists. A peace agreement will be most welcome. But unless NSCN (I-M) is brought on board, sustainable peace and closure of the insurgency will be hard to achieve.

Source: Hindustan Times, 28/10/2019

The complexities of Naga identity

The Nagaland govt. will face many hurdles in its quest to compile a list of indigenous inhabitants

The Nagaland government’s move to compile a Register of Indigenous Inhabitants of Nagaland (RIIN) opens up possibilities in the context of the decision to link the register to the Inner Line Permit (ILP) system without a consensus on the definition of an ‘indigenous inhabitant’.

One such possibility is of RIIN pushing the negotiators engaged in the ongoing Naga peace talks to articulate new and hardened positions on the contentious issue of integration of contiguous Naga-inhabited areas.

Though the official notification on RIIN has not mentioned a cut-off date to compile the proposed register, the authorities in Nagaland have till date issued indigenous inhabitant certificates using December 1, 1963 as the cut-off date. Nagaland was inaugurated as India’s 16th State on this date following the ‘16-point agreement’ between the government of India and the Naga People’s Convention on July 26, 1960.

Opposition from NSCN (I-M)

The National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah), which has been engaged in peace talks with the government of India since 1997, has opposed the compilation of RIIN asserting that “all Nagas, wherever they are, are indigenous in their land by virtue of their common history”.

A statement issued by the ‘Ministry of Information and Publicity’ of the self-styled Government of the People’s Republic of Nagalim reads: “The present move of the State government to implement [the] Register of Indigenous Inhabitants of Nagaland (RIIN) is contradictory to the inherent rights of the Nagas. It is politically motivated to suit the interest of the groups advocating for the ‘16-Point Agreement’. The ‘Nagaland State’ does not and will not represent the national decision of the Naga people. It was formed purely to divide the Nagas.” The self-styled government of the People’s Republic of Nagalim is the parallel government run by the NSCN(I-M).

On June 29, the Nagaland government notified that RIIN “will be the master-list of all indigenous inhabitants” of the State. All those to be included will be issued “barcoded and numbered indigenous inhabitant certificates”. It added that all existing indigenous inhabitant certificates would become invalid once the process of compiling RIIN is completed and fresh certificates issued.

RIIN is different from Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) as exclusion or inclusion in RIIN is not going to determine the Indian citizenship of anyone in Nagaland.

Three conditions

Since 1977, a person, in order to be eligible to obtain a certificate of indigenous inhabitants of Nagaland, has to fulfil either of these three conditions: a) the person settled permanently in Nagaland prior to December 1, 1963; b) his or her parents or legitimate guardians were paying house tax prior to this cut-off date; and c) the applicant, or his/her parents or legitimate guardians, acquired property and a patta (land certificate) prior to this cut-off date.

The compilation of RIIN also involves the complexities of deciding claims in respect of children of non-Naga fathers as well as non-Naga children adopted by Naga parents.

If the Nagaland government goes ahead with a compilation of RIIN with this cut-off date, then all Naga people who have migrated to the State from the neighbouring States of Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh and elsewhere in India after this day will have to be excluded.

The NSCN(I-M) statement adds, “Nothing is conclusive on the Naga issue, until and unless a mutually agreed honourable political solution is signed between the two entities. Therefore, any attempt to dilute the final political settlement by justifying any past accord of treasons should be seriously viewed by all Nagas.”

This clearly indicates the opposition the Nagaland government may have to face if it goes ahead with the move to compile RIIN. The Centre and the NSCN (I-M), which is the largest among all armed Naga rebel groups, signed a Framework Agreement in 2015, the content of which has still not been made public, in turn leaving room for speculation on the contentious issue of integration of all contiguous Naga-inhabited areas of Assam, Nagaland, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.

Unless otherwise clarified through an official notification, the proposed linking of RIIN with the ILP system may require large numbers of non-indigenous inhabitants of Dimapur district, more particularly the commercial hub (Dimapur town), to obtain an ILP to carry out day-to-day activities. Most of them migrated from other States and have been carrying out trade, business and other activities for decades. Migration also explains the higher density of population in Dimapur district (409 persons per sq. km) when compared to all the other districts in the State. The ILP is a travel document issued by the government of India to allow a ‘domestic tourist’ to enter Nagaland, and is valid for 30 days.

Streamlining ILP

The Supreme Court, on July 2, dismissed a Public Interest Litigation seeking a directive against the Nagaland government’s move to implement the ILP in the entire State including Dimapur district, which had so far been kept out of the purview of the ILP system.

A report prepared by the government, in collaboration with the UNDP in 2009, gave information on migration patterns in Nagaland. Titled ‘Rural-Urban Migration: A Thematic Report’, it said that in 2001, Assam was the State with the highest number of migrants to Nagaland (19,176 people), followed by Bihar (7,249 people) and Manipur (4,569 people). A large section of people (about 45% of them in the case of Assam, 59% in the case of Bihar and 25% in the case of Manipur) had migrated for better employment and business opportunities.

While the move to streamline the ILP system to curb the influx of “illegal migration” to Nagaland has been welcomed by civil society, public opinion is still divided on compiling RIIN without a consensus on the cut-off date.

As the Nagaland government has begun a consultation process on RIIN, it will be under pressure to de-link the work of streamlining the ILP mechanism from the proposed register and put it on hold till the ongoing peace process concludes and the final solution is worked out.

Besides this, the complexities that may arise in streamlining the ILP mechanism due to non-issuance of domicile certificates or permanent residence certificates to a large number of non-Naga, non-indigenous inhabitants could also make the task even more difficult for the Neiphiu Rio-led Nagaland government.

Sushanta Talukdar is Editor, nezine.com, a bilingual online magazine on the Northeast

Source: The Hindu, 24/07/2019