Language and Religion have served as two vital pillars in the history of Empire building that were inherited by the modern Westphalian State. These pillars have been the touchstone for a unifying and uniforming status, as well as the point of diversion.
The Kenyan political activist Ngũgũ wa Thiong’o informs us that language is central to a people’s definition in relation to the world around them. Thiong’o in Decolonizing the Mind wrote that language has a dual character. One, as a means of communication, and second, as carrier of an evolving culture, making language the collective memory of a people’s experience in history.
The critical role of language in shaping a people’s destiny has been documented throughout history. And, therefore, it is also not surprising that a people’s language has continually been dominated by colonial powers. This, Thiong’o explains was “crucial to the domination of the mental universe of the colonized.” Paulo Freire, the Brazilian educator, echoes Thiong’o’s view by reminding us that, “language is a vital component to the structure of oppression, and it both generates and derives from the policy of domination, exploitation and subjugation of others.” It is from this historical and political perspective that the question of language needs to be critically engaged by indigenous peoples.
Marus Franke while writing on War and Nationalism in South Asia about the Indian State and the Nagas, provides an insightful reference which reveals more than what it says. Franke notes, “After CC [Chief Commissioner] of Assam, Elliot had stressed the importance of medical work, he emphasised the ‘civilising and pacifying influence’ of schools. He lamented the ignorance of Naga languages among the British officers and urged teaching the Nagas Assamese and Bengali.”
The implication of Elliot’s emphasis suggests that schools were used as institutions to transform the ‘savages’ into civilised and pacified individuals. The second implication is introducing languages to the Nagas. One cannot help but question whether the use of Assamese and Bengali by the British in the Naga Hills eventually resulted in what is now known as Nagamese? Along with the English language, was Nagamese, a hybrid of Assamese-Bengali, the medium of communications used to civilize and pacify the Nagas?
Nicholas B. Dirks in writing about Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India underlines the point that, “Colonialism was made possible, and then sustained and strengthened, as much by cultural technologies of rule as it was by the more obvious and brutal modes of conquest.” He emphasizes the use of anthropology to supplant history and the production of colonial knowledge to enable conquest. Both colonial anthropology and colonial knowledge were used extensively and effectively by the British to subdue the Nagas and project the Nagas in accordance with their own interests. This image was inherited and continues to be sustained by the Indian State.
The purpose of this editorial is to highlight the need to create meaningful engagement on the use of language, and specifically Nagamese. If Nagamese is the by-product of the contextual usage of Assamese-Bengali by the British in the Naga Hills, then clearly Nagamese was more than just a medium of communication, as it was a political tool to civilize and pacify the Nagas. What does this mean and what is its implication in the 21st century?
Today, Nagamese is practically a pidgin that enables people to converse daily. In fact, in multi-cultural places like Dimapur, Nagamese is widely used to the point of overwhelming and displacing the native local languages. However, there is nothing Naga about Nagamese and one’s Naganess cannot be constructed nor established through Nagamese. The Naga worldview and thought processes cannot be expressed through Nagamese!
While the practical use of Nagamese is widely acknowledged, its intention and origin must be critically questioned. Furthermore, it’s original application as a political tool as a ‘pacifier’ needs to be decolonized. If not, Nagamese in today’s context may only destabilize the Nagas as indigenous peoples.
