Nagamese: The Conquering Guest

It must be true that at initial days when Nagaland was echoed from the hill station of All India Radio, Kohima, the people in Assam paused their works and gathered around their transistors to listen to the language that resembled theirs. They knew that actual Naga dialects are different from that entertaining- very similar and yet elusive language.
How and when of the origin of this pidgin are not that of impossible questions. Yet one is not obsessed with the exact dating of the birth of Nagamese. However, guestimation points to a very recent happening may be four to five decades old. If I am wrong authentic accounts are welcomed.
I have somehow brought myself to participate in the debate on the goodness and badness of Nagamese; more inclined to the how of its origin and its aftermath on the Nagas.
Sibsagar had been a major trade centre in Assam during the British India. The contiguous Nagas were often attracted to the city on barter trade. Undoubtedly those Naga-Assamese contacts on trade preceded the American Missionaries tryst with the Nagas in the 1870s. The fearful-looking Nagas in war gears used to appear in groups and strolled the Sibsagar streets, and disappeared behind the jungles of the hills after the days work. Trade must have been the sole force that facilitated contacts.
Secondly, schools and bible institutes in Assam had early batches of Naga students enrolled in them. The alumni of such schools brought home manageable Assamese. Many of them were distinguished for mastery of pure Okhomia and were envied. Besides that, those Naga villagers bordering Assam, for any unexplained reasons, already got chance to pick up Assamese. Available record, meager though, buttresses the point. J H Hutton was greeted with a pleasant surprise when, on his tour to Tamlu village in 1923, one of the villagers spoke to him in pure Assamese. He failed to grasp the meaning. His Naga interpreter by name Kuhoto replied the man in Assamese. This tiny incident suggests Nagamese did not exist that time.
Assamese-speaking Nagas became the source of the spread of Assamese among the new sets of learners. With the increased mobility of the people and social intercourse the speakers of Assamese (now deviant form) proliferated like never before. The language became neither Assamese nor Hindu nor the Nagas’. There was no way the Assamese people could comprehend anything, except ‘koribo lagibo’. But some of them were so compassionate to pacify the confusion and declared “This is Naga way of speaking Assamese; let it be called ‘Naga-mese’. Be that acronym a derision or a boon, it has come to stay.
Bad, some horrible, pronunciation is one our people are no less reputed in. like all others those living along the northwest Assam are slightly worse (lighter mood added). Ill-whetted tongues bluntly imputed one or two letters in many words, altered and even lost, with impunity, many words to entirely strange words. No sooner had we got that mixed creation it got proliferated at an astonishing velocity.
Now the question of indispensability of Nagamese: there are people beating their chest and exclaim; “imagine Nagaland minus Nagamese, how at all could an Ao speak to an Angami, a Konyak to a Sangtam or Sumi?” from the backseat of the choir I play my part, “imagine a villager venturing out to Kohima or Dimapur without the a b c of Nagamese”. True absolutely.
Conversely, imagine Nagaland without this lingua franca. I’m sure our people would not have been resorting to acting and gesturing to argue for a kilo of better pork or cookies. Market language could have been Hindi and broken English resembling multi-lingual states like Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya. More positively, everybody could have been fluent in several Naga dialects. All these could be compelled on all of us. That did not occur and it’s all empty regrets. When there was no Nagamese our forefathers could speak or understand their neighbours’ dialects. They often exchanged social visits and were praise for each other. Mutual hatred and suspicion did not reside in their bosom. Language familiarity played the cementing role. But now who needs to learn Sangtam, Chakhesang, Zeliang or Lotha and others? Are you compelled to learn them for practical reasons? No. Nagamese is here. In the family of mixed parents what language is spoken? Neither the mother’s nor the father’s – and you know what. Then what about you speaking and writing skills in your own mother tongue?
By now pro-Nagamese must be fully girt for the dig on my explicit ill-disposition towards Nagamese. Enough of bruises have been inflicted on it despite being a beneficiary of its services. Support camps have weighty reasons which are undeniable. Try to ban Nagamese officially- deploy the police to catch the violators. The next day the whole scene in the markets will be ludicrous. Office rooms will be full of comedians and performers. The idea will not work now, not in future.
But here the crux of the debate is whether to develop and promote Nagamese or discourage it, and if possible allow it its natural death. Its promotion will come in the shape to live performances, print and electronic media like radio, TV. Films and music CDs, public addresses, etc. we have been doing them and doing more. Many schools are being taught in Nagamese. Language is the first and foremost element in education system. We can ignore this fact at our peril. You should look at the products of Nagamese medium schools (Space is not sufficient for this topic). You can not blame them; they are only the victims of our lingua france. No drastic measure is impossible. There is then need for a desperate compelling circumstance to undo this Naga-mess. Circumstance is the natural law that makes man to become what he is. Necessity is the mother of adaptation, if I may improvise it.
I am hoping some positive follow-up of the recently held Language Workshop under the aegis of the State Government will be seen. Minister for Higher Education, Dr Shurhozelie gave an opening remark on the need for developing a common language on the basis of the Naga dialects. That sounds most daunting but worth working on. In the same speech he had sent a strong signal to discourage Nagamese in schools. I don’t see why schools can not ban it. No one is born with a language (with exception to genetic tendency to learn mother tongue first), but born to the language which means any language can be learned by choice and by circumstance. The debate is timely, and the fact that the subject being debated means the people are coming to realization.
Dr. K Nishene Nekha
Wangkho College, Mon