Shaokhai Mayirnao
Debates on Dog Meat Ban in Nagaland have inconclusively raised that such an initiative by the state is a sham devoid of democratic virtues. Peoples as citizens deserve justice - time for public discourse - to have a say on matters that ‘run through their kitchen’. Lest we forget, the Indo-Myanmar Border (Pillars 154, 155 and 156) too runs through the house of the Ahng (Chief) in Longwa village, Mon District, Nagaland; leave the Nagas, the Ahng (as spelled by Revd. Y Chingang in The Konyak Naga: Yesterday and Today) himself did not have a say on the matter for which his descendants now dine in India but sleep in the Myanmar part of the house. Absurdly incorrigible it would be if history repeats. Incidentally, it is learnt, during fieldwork stay at Longwa village, that the current Chief Minister, Neiphiu Rio, then as a Lok Sabha MP adopted Longwa village under Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY), and commissioned and completed the construction of the present house of the Ahng.
It is unfortunate, rather distasteful, that a fatuitous sweeping generalisation robbed away the cultural rights of a group of citizens in broad daylight when a State Assembly stands vigil; or who cowed the House down is altogether another trickery politicking like the case of individuals abetting the moves fishing for political party tickets is. Many writers too within and without have termed this ban as derogatory, insensitive, culturally imperialistic, infringement of rights, racist display of power, speciesist and so forth while many are celebrating the ban as a victory.
If India is still a democratic country, certain democratic virtues in its procedural practice might be expected. Likewise, it would be noble of the Government of Nagaland to revoke the ban for the time being; meanwhile constitute a Joint Committee to research upon the matter, engage with the citizens and deliberate upon the reports and findings; thereupon decide the matter based on what is culturally appropriate and developmentally inclusive. The mother, whose only source of livelihood is being reduced to shambles following this sudden imposition of ban, as a citizen at least deserves this much of gesture from the government; and public debate be allowed among the Nagas for a favourable change.
A poem titled Celebrating Naganess reads: Life is beautiful in the Naga Hills./Its culture serenely magical./People affable and affectionate./Life is as mystique as elsewhere./Hornbills of the nature and/Folklores of the old demystify the verve./And when the harvest season comes in,/Bonfire at Morung invokes festivity./Hues of shawls, makhela, beads, arm bands/And headgear spring to life./Naga culture is kaleidoscopic,/As psychedelic as rice beer./To decode the aesthetics,/Understanding Makhel ancestors might help./To know the beauty, ask the spirit of forests;/To feel it, flirt with Naga chilli;/To celebrate it, wear the aroma of axone,/And dance away to the beats of drums and chants.
What of our history and culture? If history repeats, this particular poem too like our folksongs would lose its meaning only for our descendants to inherit a culture with no historical roots.
The writer is Research Scholar at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.
