Dr Asangba Tzudir
While the ‘criteria’ to be considered as an ‘Indigenous Inhabitant’ of Nagaland is for a person to be permanently settled in Nagaland prior to December 1, 1963, though this base year has been contested. The criterion for permanent settlement has also been given by the Government of Nagaland. With illegal immigration becoming a serious issue, the Government of Nagaland initiated an exercise to prepare a master list of all indigenous inhabitants of the State starting from July 10, 2019. The main objective, as stated by the Government of Nagaland was to prevent issuance of indigenous certificates to ineligible persons.
While there is contradiction in terms relating to the word ‘Indigenous’ which has nothing to do with the word ‘permanent settlement’, the word ‘Naga’ or even the name of the state ‘Nagaland’ as identity markers rather gets detached from the indigenousness of a ‘peoples’ that comes to define ‘Nagas’ and Nagaland.
Now there are certain practical considerations in the preparation of the list which goes even beyond the extensiveness of the survey which is entrusted to designated team of surveyors while also ‘unearthing’ official records of indigenous residents from villages and urban wards. The issue in question is the home district where the Indigenous Certificate of an indigenous inhabitant is to be issued only from the home district.
How will the permanent settlement be identified for a person say, belonging to Zunheboto as the home state but born and brought up in Mokokchung and currently living in Dimapur. In such a case, and which is not a stray case, how will the permanent settlement prior to December 1, 1963 be ascertained, what about his or her parents or legitimate guardian; what about the payment of house tax, and also about the other criteria relating to acquired property and patta on it prior to December 1, 1963. Besides the requirement of time and additional resources especially man power, the issue of proper identification presents a difficult case. The irony being that none from one’s very own home state may be able to provide any information especially in the absence of records.
Unless such issues that have practical difficulties are properly analysed by rectifying the processes, protocols etc., the very purpose and objective of RIIN exercise gets defeated and this massive exercise is going to become futile. On paper, this RIIN listing objective to prevent people from acquiring fake indigenous inhabitants’ certificates may sound simple but in reality, besides the practical difficulties, it will be the test of ‘will’ and character of those engaged in the listing while ascertaining the permanent settlement of any person. This calls for honesty and responsibility in the process of identifying ‘who is actually who.’
While, the RIIN listing may face several challenges in the pursuit of giving indigenous status certification, which the Government has limited it for the purpose on employment under the state Government, however, one thing for sure is that, RIIN list is not going to prevent the influx of illegal immigration, a serious problem plaguing Nagaland today, and this calls for effective implementation of the ILP system.
Within the challenges of the RIIN exercise, it is tragically ironic that this very loaded term ‘indigenous’ is getting detached from the ‘indigenousness’ and simply reduced to ‘settlement.’
(Dr Asangba Tzudir writes a weekly guest editorial for The Morung Express. Comments can be mailed to asangtz@gmail.com)
