Abraham Lotha
Sunday April 22nd was a day of madness. I was at a meeting in the afternoon when a phone call came saying that the Tangkhul Wungram colony in Purana bazaar was being burnt down by the Semas. Quickly Dr. John and I drove down to the spot. From the highway in Purana Bazar the smoke from the burning homes could be seen. As we drove inside, there was weird sense. Vehicles were going in and out, and there seemed to be no blocking off the street to control the situation.
We passed by the Sema Baptist church in Purana Bazar. There was a service going on inside. At first I thought I was mistaken. I told Dr. John and we listened together. We were right, there was a church service going on inside. “How can this be?” I asked myself. A few yards from there, the mobs belonging to their own tribe were on an uncontrollable rampage, destroying all the houses belonging to the Tangkhuls and setting them on fire. It was a surreal. The scene was like from the movies.
We met Rev. Kari Longchar on the way. He was returning exhausted. “Ah, we tried to talk with the mob but we cannot reason with them and they don’t listen to anybody so we just went inside the church and prayed for them,” Kari said. Then there was one of the Sema leaders from the NBCC team who apparently had been negotiating with the mob early on but found it a hopeless situation. His voice was hoarse from trying to talk to the mob and he looked very frustrated.
At the spot, there were throngs of people gathered at different spots, including some on the water tank and on the terrace of a building under construction. I stood there for some time to survey the scene. I tried to get to a better position for looking. I wasn’t sure if I was in the midst of onlookers or another mob. But certainly those near me were cheering what the other mob was doing. Some were laughing, some trying to instigate the mob, and others wanting to help but feeling in helpless.
The mob had come close to where I stood and was trying to enter one of the houses. They had daos, crowbars and pieces of wood to destroy the house and set it on fire. If one ever saw the non-rational destructive nature of human beings, this was a classic scene. I tried to get closer to where the mob was destroying the house.
There was a green iron gate at the entrance of the house. There was one young man in his late teens or early twenties who was destroying the wall of the house with the crowbar. Another one was cutting up whatever was in front of him, while another was breaking the windows. Then there was an older man in his late fifties or early sixties who was signaling the mob to close the iron gate and get in so they could destroy the house without being seen (what an irony). So before I got closed in with the mob, I decided to stay out of the gate and the joined the helpless spectators.
There were a few IRB policemen standing with guns. There were also the paramilitary personnel. But they all just stood there like statues. They were more like decorations. I can understand the “Friends of the Hill People” not acting because they will act only when their help is asked, but it was unfathomable why the policemen were not controlling the situation.
Perhaps the two most helpless persons at the scene were the Deputy Commissioner and the Superintendent of Police. The D.C. looked like he was in a total state of shock. He looked blank and incapacitated. Even worse was the S.P. who looked very indifferent, passive and unaffected by the gravity of the situation. His presence there in full uniform was an oxymoron. To say that the District Administration failed is an understatement. Because in failure one at least does something even though success may not be achieved. In this case, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the District Administration and the police force were an ineffective and passive spectator. Perhaps the best thing about their inactivity was that the police did not fire any guns (even teargas). Had there been any gunfire, the whole area would have erupted into a battle zone because there were many people there besides the police and paramilitary who had guns. Had that been the case, there would have been many casualties.
Among the onlookers there were some people who were discussing ways to diffuse the tensed situation. They were a mixture of leaders from Dimapur Naga Council, Sema leaders and leaders from other tribes and NGOs. Someone brought a microphone. In order to bring the situation under control, the DC told one of the leaders to make an announcement for the crowd to disperse. But the microphone had a near-dead battery. So whatever sound that came over the speaker was crackled up and jumbled. The idea to make any announcement was given up.
After a while, one of the Sema leaders came and told the DC and some of the leaders that he had negotiated with the mob to allow the women and children to go. “It is against international law to harm innocent women and children,” he said. There was a real urgency to get the women and children out before sunset. After some arguments and pressurizing, the DC and SP agreed to go in. There were two police buses there. They were sent in to evacuate the women and children. The DC, SP, some of the concerned Sema leaders and NGO leaders also walked behind the buses negotiating with the other mobs along the way as we went in.
After what seemed like eternity, we finally reached the women and children and men. By then they had been evacuated from the church and they were gathered in the open field. Some IRB policemen were guarding them. Seeing them I was reminded of the movie, “The Killing Fields” about Vietnam. If there had been any indiscriminate firing, all of them would have been easy targets. Some of the women looked terrified, others crying, some breast-feeding their babies. But all of them worried. The men were even more worried because they feared for their lives if they were left behind. “If we die, we will die together. If we live or die, we will not be separated from our women and children,” one of the Tangkhul leaders told the administration and the leaders present there. There was more argument to resolve the issue. The urgency was to get them out before dark.
The women and children were put into the two buses. As they were about to leave, a message came from the mob saying they would not be responsible if any man was found inside the bus. When the buses were about to leave for a second time, the road was blocked because of the fires on and near the street. May be this section of the delay was a blessing in disguise. By then it was decided that everyone, including the men, should be evacuated. So a third bus was called in. Finally, a little after 6:00 p.m., the women, children and men were evacuated and taken to safety at the auditorium in the NAP camp in Chumukedima. What happened there and after that is another story.
Lessons
There are many lessons to be learned from Sunday’s incident at Wungram. The Government certainly has to respond faster to control such situations. I don’t know if it was the inaction of the administrators on the spot or those responsible in the higher-ups, but the response rate on Sunday is unacceptable. If the response was so dismal even at Dimapur, what would it have been in remote areas? The Administration and Police force should be trained to handle such situations. Even after the people were evacuated, the first administrative official to visit the displaced people was T N Mannen, the Additional Chief Secretary & Commissioner at 9:10 p.m. When Home Minister, Thenucho, visited the displaced people on Monday, he assured them of full security even if they shifted to the Tangkhul Baptist Church at Half Nagarjan. But even at 10:30 pm that day, there were only ten NAP personals protecting the displaced people at the Tangkhul Baptist church, Nagarjan. By 11:00 a.m. the next day, though, there were 20 IRB policemen guarding them.
We cannot blame the Indian paramilitary or intelligence or Indian policies for the violence that occurs in our society. Non-Nagas (including paramilitary) watching Sunday’s incident will be laughing at us – at our tribalistic mentality, stupidity and violent proclivities. Commenting on the Assam Rifles’ motto, ‘Friends of the Hill People’ someone jokingly said, “It means they are friends of the civilians, NSCN (IM), NSCN (K), and FGN. So they won’t side with any group against the others and ultimately it means that they are friends of nobody.” Nevertheless, why should we blame others for our mistakes and vulnerability?
Nagas have to realize that, God forbid, if any communal or factional violence takes place, it is ultimately the NGOs, Hoho leaders, church leaders, and concerned citizens who negotiate and save the affected people because the government is unable to protect the citizens. This has been the case, especially in factional fights, because the government (past and present) considers it as a political problem and not as a law and order problem, and so people are left to themselves to seek safety. On Sunday April 22, the affected community was the Tangkhuls; next time it may be some other community. This is why, if Nagas cannot love each other, we have to at least learn to be concerned for each others’ safety and security. We have to learn to live with difference (even as we, ironically, all claim that Nagas are one).
Whatever fight might have taken place between the three drunk Tangkhul youths and the Sema auto driver, was the immediate cause (and a wrong excuse) and just the tip of the iceberg. Apparently, as a Naga elder described it, the tension between the two communities has been building up like steam in a pressure cooker. It was bound to explode at any moment. The Morung Express reported that part of the tension was because of the control at the gate to Wungram colony. There are other theories, some of them very plausible, but I will not speculate. However, both Sema and Tangkhul communities, and all Nagas too, have serious lessons to learn from Sunday’s incident.
For sometime there has been a gradual buildup of anti-Tangkhul feeling in Nagaland because of the highhandedness of some Tangkhul underground cadres. As a result, the Tangkhul community in Nagaland has suffered much. Why were other community members (apart from a few leaders) not willing to control the mob or defend the Tankgkhul community? Everyone says a mob cannot be controlled. I doubt it would have been the same had the affected people been members of another Naga community. The Tangkhul community has to seriously examine if they have any friends among other Naga communities other than the Semas. If they don’t have any friends, why not? Nagas have never been known as loners.
Similarly, the Sema community has to watch out for a similar, if not worse, kind of growing ill feeling and anger building up against them by other Naga communities. On Black Sunday there were many Semas present there who were feeling awfully sorry (and ashamed) at what was going on at Wungram. Had it not been for the concerned Sema leaders the situation might have gone worse. Having said that, everybody says that a mob is irrational and difficult to control but the Sunday incident at Wungram had the marks of a planned strategy because there were people among the mob giving direction, and some others (may be pretending to be Semas) embedded among the spectators instigating and directing the mob with hand signals. Morung Express editorial (27/4) was right to call it a ‘deliberate and brutal attack’. There were also unconfirmed reports (sources that do not want to be named) that the destruction of houses and properties started following a service (or meeting) in the church that was held earlier that day. Reflecting on Sunday’s incident, one prominent Tangkhul leader said, “The thing that brought tears to my eyes on Sunday was seeing children of five, seven or nine years shooting catapult and torching the houses. What kind of generation are we bringing up for our society?”
The Semas too will have to be careful not to allow the growth of ill-feeling by others against them and for this the Sema community has to do some serious self-examination. Nagas must move beyond prayer and fasting.
The Lothas have a saying: “Once you have a Sema as a friend, you have friend for life.” The Tangkhuls and Semas have been known to be friends (at least in the NSCN). But this time around, the faithfulness of the Sema friendship seems to have been tested. The Sema and Tangkhul leaders have met and resolved to ‘forgive and forget’. Forgiving maybe possible but forgetting is not. So the best overture may be to help build up the houses and lives of the affected people.
Are Nagas truly sorry? In the Wungram colony incident, it was absurd and the height of hypocrisy that some were having service in the church even as the mobs were destroying and burning the houses of their neighbors. In general, people are not repentant. Most of the communities, including the Semas, that came to meet the displaced people at the NAP Training Center said, ‘mon duk ase, mon duk kobole ahishe.” None of them said, “We are sorry” or “forgive us” (the Sema and Tangkhul leaders supposedly apologized at their meeting on 26/4). Even Thenucho, the Home Minister, led the team of leaders in prayer when he visited the displaced people at the NAP Training Center. Instead, it would have been better if he had announced some kind of help or relief from the Government’s side. He said the prayer but left the people hungry. I found it very strange and wondered if concepts of saying sorry and asking forgiveness were missing from Naga vocabulary. Now that the ashes have settled and tensions have cooled, I hope we will realize that we cannot just stand and stare and commit sin of omission.
Nagas have developed a very ‘matter of fact’ attitude towards violence. This is partly because of the high incidence of factional killings in the society. In the eighties and early nineties, when there was a gunshot, people ran away from the scene and sought protection. Nowadays, the immediate response is to rush to the scene. As a result, in the Sunday incident at Wungram colony, the road leading the colony was chocked with vehicles parked on all sides. Even if the administration had wanted to bring in any additional forces, there would have been an unnecessary delay. If we are not careful, this ‘matter of fact’ attitude towards violence will be our downfall.
The hornbill and its feather unite all Nagas as a symbol of status, valor, beauty and youthfulness. A Tankghul legend says, one day there lived a woman who was reduced to widowhood. She was looked after by a rich man but was ill treated by his wife. So she decided to run away and she became a hornbill. Whenever she emerged from the jungle, she taught the people through the flapping of the wings: you should always love one another, you should live in unity, and then you will prosper. The next time anyone of us gets angry against a member of another tribe, may be we should at least think of the hornbill feather and remember that we should love one another.
