Lipokmar Tzudir
It is a natural phenomenon that every culture or society witness changes that are often beyond human control and which sometimes shake the core of the moral foundations.
Similarly, the Naga culture which had its foundations in the dictates of traditional norms is encountering such dilemma as a consequence of a sudden rush of modernity ushered in since the early 20th century. As Furer (1977:673) observes, “unlike other tribal populations, the Nagas have not suffered from an encroachment of outsiders on their land; but they have been subjected to many alien influences aiming at a transformation of their life-style. Furthermore, Giddens states that:
In traditional societies, individual actions do not have to be analysed and thought about so much, because choices are already prescribed by the traditions and customs whereas in post-traditional societies we have to work out the roles for ourselves. What to do? How to act? Who to be? Become the focal question for everyone. The prominence of these questions of identity in modern society is both a consequence and a cause of changes at the institutional level (Giddens 1991:70 cited in Gaunlett 2002:91).
My intention here is not to discount the importance of modernity, but to highlight the consequences of disregarding the traditional values in quest for modernity. My intend therefore is; to draw awareness among scholars and policy makers alike, to help showcase the realities of the kind of changes that have and are occurring in our society today, hoping that it will shed light on the urgency to act promptly.
Causes and Effects:
Animism to Christianity:
The arrival of American missionaries and setting up a mission centre in a village called Molungyimsen in 1876 (Mills 1926:411) led to the advent of Christianity and modern Education in the Naga hills, which is to be considered a landmark in the history of the Nagas. The Nagas prior to the arrival of the missionaries were known for their quest of head-hunting, therefore it was in fact a marvellous achievement for the American missionaries; to be able to penetrate their territory, and even being able to contain it later on.
For the missionaries, the gospel was their main intent yet the moral etiquettes in their own interpretations were inevitable, and therefore besides the positive contributions that came about, there were negative implications as well and Mills observes that:
Of the mistakes made by the mission the gravest, in my opinion, and the one most fraught with danger for the future is their policy of strenuously imposing an alien western culture on the converts…I think I am right in saying that no member of the mission has ever studied ‘Naga’ customs deeply, but nearly all have been eager to uproot what they neither understand nor sympathize with, and to substitute for it a superficial civilization (Mills 1926:420).
As Mills clearly puts it, the missionaries neglected the cultural uniqueness of the natives and its importance on their daily lives and concentrated entirely on converting them according to the doctrine of their theology. The transition from animism to Christianity was volatile rather than steady, and seen as important from a sociological point of view, yet it came at a cost of their customs, and this in a bigger light resulted in the discard of the age old traditions that have bound and defined them as a community. Alemchiba explains that:
From the moment of their conversion to the Christian faith people were no longer allowed to participate in dances or to sing traditional songs, and we have news of episodes of excommunication when this order was disobeyed. This fact had a most detrimental effect on the maintenance and the flourishing of oral literature (Alemchiba 1992:164).
A prevailing attitude of their approach, and later by the new converts was that; they branded the old practices and beliefs as totally taboo, and overlooked the quality of the moral codes and literary content in their songs, folklores, and folk tales, that later contributed towards a decline in grasping its importance by the generation that followed.
From one point of view, the transition from animism to Christianity brought about modern education, better healthcare, social welfares, modern technologies and so forth. However, from another point of view, the unsympathetic approach towards the natives’ customs and traditions by the early Christians contributed towards endangering their heritages that are vital for their identity and obstructed the development of their own traditions.
Colonial impact:
The Naga society as a whole went through several phases of transitions since the mid 19th century and one among them is the impact resulting out of the British annexation of the Naga country and later by India that led to the rise of the Naga National Movement. The Naga tribes, prior to the British invasion, were living independently from any outside domain. The villages were self sufficient and autonomously governed by their own set of customary laws, and as such there was no need of interference in the usual business of their daily lives from outsiders.
The British government for the convenience of their administration subdivided the Naga tribes under the administrations of British – Burma government and British – Indian government, and this radical move awakened the political consciousness of the Nagas that led to the formation of the Naga club1 to address the Naga political interests.
After several peaceful negotiations failed, the Naga National movement gained momentum towards the eve of the Indian Independence, and declared “Naga independence” to the world. The Indian union eventually did not honour the declaration of the Nagas, which culminated from then on to decades of warfare between the two.
Naga Nationalism was a clarion call to every Naga man and tribe to rise up in defence of their birth right; to be their own masters and not fall subject to a foreign power which was met with such overwhelming responses from every corner of the Naga Hills. Sovereignty, for the Nagas therefore became the utmost importance of that time. Men from every village took up arms to oppose the foreign (Indian) military advance resulting in huge loss of lives and properties, and the outcome of it was total chaos.
My parents who were born in the late 1920s experienced the trauma of living in such fear under the Indian military rule. My mother recollects how one day they had to hide in the ceilings when the Indian army came ransacking their home of being informed that one of her brothers had joined the National movement, and helplessly watched her father get beaten by the army in their own kitchen. She sadly laments the agony of living each day worrying for her brother’s fate who never returned back. My father who during this time was studying in a school in Assam, a state of India, talks about how he often felt rejected as an outsider by the residents in the Indian state, and upon return to his homeland on holidays, lived with the fear of being branded an Indian sympathiser.
The Naga socio-cultural life was thus pushed to a dark corner of fear and uncertainty as a consequence of the colonial impact. And this lasted for several years.
Outburst of modernity:
The declaration of statehood was received with mixed reactions. The proponents of statehood at that time felt that it was the nearest possible way to bring development to the people who had been deprived of it for decades, whilst others opposed and declared it as against the wishes of the people who have fought and laid their lives in quest of Naga Independence. Mike Wooldridge of the (BBC) reporting about the unfortunate continuity of violence in Nagaland writes:
Few of the world's simmering civil wars have lasted as long as the conflict in Nagaland, in north-eastern India. It's a small but beautiful land of around a million and a half people. For the best part of fifty years, since Naga political leaders declared Nagaland to be independent, saying that as tribal people they had always ruled themselves, there's been an on/off war between militant groups and the Indian security forces (Wooldridge, 1997).
Upon attaining statehood, India did not promptly deliver its promises of developments which are one of the reasons that frustrated the Nagas who over a long period of time have been yearning for modern amenities. The disparity in allocating economic privileges in comparison to other states was apparent. This step-motherly attitude of treatment at that juncture of transition by the Indian government should be understood as one of the main reasons that led to the offspring of an extremist approach towards Naga Sovereignty, leading to renewed tensions among Naga Nationalist factions and the Indian government. And this in turn delayed the prospects of development in the newly declared state.
I grew up in the early eighties and can clearly remember that only government offices had telephone connections during those days. Television was a rare luxury and only the rich could afford to buy it from outside Nagaland. I counted myself fortunate to know a rich family in town who owned a black and white television and so would often treat myself to a TV program at least once a week, but often returned home disappointed because of power interruptions. Walking 3kms to school every day with friends was so much fun and never knew that kids in other parts of the country were riding buses or even driving their own cars to school. My father used to encourage me and my brothers to read newspapers and so did we, but it was at least two days after publications that we got the newspapers as it came all the way from Calcutta. Listening to friends about their fortune of seeing trains and aeroplanes in India felt like they have returned from heaven. It was only later in the late eighties that I came to a realisation of how much we have been deprived of, and how unfair it was.
By the late eighties, telephone connections were easily available and so did television become affordable, and with that came the western satellite cable networks. In contrast to a prior single channel afforded by the Indian state owned network they were now enjoying access to various networks: BBC, Cable News Network (CNN), Music Television (MTV) or Home Box Office (HBO) and many others which provided a glimpse of the outside world. The glamour of the western world that they saw on television came rushing like a storm and captivated the imagination of the youth that resulted in a trend of lifestyle change that later brought about adverse effects.
The Naga society, particularly among the youth were breaking out of traditional inclinations; attempting to redefine their self-identity in tune to the west’s lifestyle. Heavy metal bands of the 1980s, such as led zeppelin, Aerosmith, Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden became household names. The youths idolised these rock bands and musicians as heroes and started to imitate their music as well as their lifestyles. Local rock bands emerged from all corners and concerts were a regular event, especially in Mokokchung town.
Owing to modern media, in the case of the Nagas, the transition from traditional to modernity took place rapidly within a span of a decade that caught the society off-guard and the inevitable question of “What to do? How to act? Who to be?” became eminent. A society so unfamiliar to the challenges faced by the western world was therefore encountered with the same and got immersed in an unprecedented dilemma.
As discussed earlier, this was a generation that have long been oppressed and deprived of a free will to express and develop their potentials as consequences to years of violence, uncertainty and backwardness. It was like a volcano waiting to erupt, and in the moment of their weakness, erupted beyond control pushing them to a post-traditional dilemma.
A social impasse:
The Naga culture with no written history of its origin but one that relied merely on its oral traditions arrived to a point of social impasse shadowed by a grave risk of losing its cultural worth owing to discontinuity of their customs in desire for modernity. This social impasse was an outcome of new issues that were cropping out within the society as Munslow and Brown (1999:207) note how the 20th century was witnessing breakdowns of civil societies as an outcome of “internal economic, social, cultural and political entanglement and armed conflicts escalating further complexes”.
Furthermore, as Burroughs and Rindfleisch (2002) observe, there are adverse effects to the society as a whole when individuals engage in a lavish lifestyle.
Individual materialistic mindset contributes to an overall economic disparity within a society which further escalates to an alienation of the under-privileged majority, resulting to social dropouts, and as such, the Naga society which was once a culturally and economically homogeneous one, was witnessing an unwarranted division of economic and social classes due to individualism and greed for material benefits at any cost.
Wongtong (1992:193) observes:
By virtue of their position, they do in fact play to a certain extend the role of distorting the overall social order, and in addition, they are associated with a poor and inadequate knowledge of the state of affairs as a whole, if not with compliance without choice
The political front was submerged in full scale corruptions coupled by dealing with armed conflicts between the Nationalists and the Indian army. The bureaucrats were far from being professionally trained or educated in the fields of their service and so were many teachers in schools. The church took a pro-active role in addressing the social issues, but their approach was aimed more towards condemnation of the evil rather than a psychological rehabilitation.
Outside forces and factors may have contributed to its origin but it was a case of oblivious negligence in dealing with the issues at hand. In other words, it was an institutional failure to notice the rapidity of modification that was occurring in and to a society who were psychologically not ready for such abrupt change.
Not surprisingly, the attitude of the youths toward society became a total contrast to the traditional norms of respect and moral decency and got submerged in the hopes and pleasure Rock music was offering. In the year 1995, when I was still a freshman in college, I attended a peace concert at Mokokchung, and in that concert one of the leading bands in Nagaland played a cover song of Pink Floyd – Another Brick in the Wall. At that time, I enjoyed the music and thought it was quite appropriate. But in retrospection, if we study the content of the text, it was contrary to the theme and motive of the concert. And the lyrics explain the attitude of the youth of those days of which I was part of:
Another Brick in the Wall by Pink Floyd
We don't need no education
We don’t need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!
All in all it's just another brick in the wall.
All in all you're just another brick in the wall.
Wrong, Do it again!
If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding.
How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?
You! Yes, you behind the bike sheds, stand still laddy!
Conclusion
Change is a reality, and its impact is tremendous. The transition to modernity was a long cherished fulfilment, but it shook the core of our moral base and as consequence, our traditional values have taken a backseat.
As Merriam wrote:
No matter where we look, change is constant in human experience; although rates of change are differential from one culture to another and from one aspect to another within a given culture, no culture escapes the dynamics of change overnight; the threads of continuity run through every culture, and thus change must always be considered against a background of stability (Merriam 1964: 303).
Every indigenous community can be considered as a repository of a distinctive body of knowledge, which have evolved over a long period of time. Knowledge accumulated through generations and stored in myths, legends, tales, proverbs, songs, dances, beliefs, rituals, ceremonies, arts and crafts and handed down from generation to generation have determined and enriched the course of the human race.
Likewise, knowledge accumulated through generations and transmitted from generation to generation have determined and enriched the course of the Naga Culture. The Nagas without any written history entrusted all their historical facts in their memory which was formed into songs and the same have been orally passed down to every succeeding generation.
History and customs enshrined in the songs are interwoven into the very fabric of the Naga culture covering every aspect of our daily lives; be it celebration in times of marriage, birth of a child, a festival, an expression of love during courtship, a victory call or call to war, adulation for warriors, mourning for the dead, sowing, harvesting, expressing disputes with their neighbours or with a neighbouring village and so on and so forth. These songs act as a medium of representation and description of our ancestry, upon which all our customs and belief systems had been established, and so a comprehension of the significance of the songs will lead to a deeper understanding of the people and the culture and the legacy of traditional values our forebears have left us with, and that has been the purpose of this paper.
As Vansina (1985:199) states, “where there is no writing or almost none, oral tradition must bear the brunt of historical construction.”
In cases similar to ours, the policy makers and scholars need to step in and ensure that there are amenities available so as to extract the information before the ‘thread’ encounters memory lapse or even worse.
Reference:
Alemchiba, Ao 1992 ‘The Art of The Nagas,’ The Nagas, Somaré, Grata and Vigorelli, Leonardo (Eds.) Galleria Lorenzelli: Bergamo.
Burroughs, James E. and Rindfleisch, Aric 2002 Materialism and Well-Being: A Conflicting Values Perspective, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol.29, pp.348-370.
Furer, Christopher Van-Haimendorf 1977 The Changing Position of Tribal Population in India, Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London: London.
Merriam, Alan 1964 The Anthropology of Music, Northwestern University press: Illinois.
Mills, James P. 1926 The Ao Nagas, MacMillan and Co.: London.
Vansina, Jan 1985 Oral Tradition as History, James Currey Ltd: London.
Wongtong, Toshi 1992 ‘Outline of a Culture in Transformation.’ The Nagas, Somaré, Grata and Vigorelli, Leonardo (Eds.) Galleria Lorenzelli: Bergamo.
Wooldridge, Mike 1997 The Forgotten War in Nagaland [Online]: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/ programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/32885.stm, accessed: 22 June
