Overcoming Gender Bias in Institutions

There are two institutions in our society that require modification for the purpose of better functioning. They are functioning okay as of now, but with modification the functioning will get even better. Not only will the institutions function better, such modification will also empower a significant percent of our population more than what it is now, and the cumulative effect of such modification will have a huge bearing on the overall Naga society. The two institutions about which I shall argue for modification are Church and the Village Council.

In our society there is hardly any church that allows women to be part of the deacon board. The deacon board has been 'all male group'. There is nothing inherently wrong in having only the male as members of the deacon board provided all the male deacon members are qualified and that there is no female in the given church who is as qualified as the males members, if not better. However, if there are females in a given village/church who are as qualified as the males, it is important to bring females into the deacon board. Churches/villages which are of moderate or small size struggle to get adequate number of people who are well qualified to take leadership. And given this challenge, bringing in females can very address this predicament. In the Bible, for example, we find Phoebe as a deaconess (Roms 15.1). If early church has a deaconess, why not today even in our churches! A church consists both male and female, young and old. And having, say, two females in a team of church leadership will enable the church to minister more effectively to the church members.

Another area of change that may serve us well is to bring in women into the village council. Traditionally it has been again 'all male group'. But traditions can be changed; rules can be rewritten. And it is we who must rewrite it whenever such rewriting is required. Other people will not come and change our rules. Nor do others know when and how to bring changes. Naga women have been peacemakers for generation. Known for sympathy and honesty, when men quarrel on money matters, women can bring transparency in money management. When villages quarrel over border dispute, women can be peacemakers. In term of brain power, there is no difference between men and women. And when many educated men in the villages are working in the cities, rendering many villages shortage of qualified men to administer the village, bringing in women into village administration can make village council more efficient.

Notwithstanding the more efficient functioning of these institutions that women can contribute to, women deserve to be given the chance to work for the larger society for their own good. Any given society that ignores women ignores 50% of the citizen of the society. And when there is the capability and there is no inherent reason why actualising and flowering of such capability is absent, society must not restrain women to flourish and develop their capability. Women are allowed to become an MLA or an MP or even as Prime Minister (Indira Gandhi) or as President ( Pratibha Patil). Given that the world has gone far ahead in term of empowering women, it is high time that capable women are allowed to come into leadership team in different domain of our lives. There is no society that has expressed regrets by allowing women to serve their society with men side by side as partners.

Immovable property inheritance right for women is an area that requires more time to implement given the political matrix in the Naga areas. Considering the land ownership system at present, giving equal right to women on such issue will damage the society instead of bringing a more progressive outlook. For example, to allow a Gujarati man who married a Naga girl own land in village A in Senapati district is too much of a problem for the society at present. This is to bring more harm than good with the present system. However, one can envision our society functioning better and our women empowered to bloom if they are given room to share responsibility and work alongside men in the church as well as in the village Council.

Chipei Avei Teidei

Chipei teidei avei hinou
Paohao louhoe zhinou leshie
Deimatao vanou ale shisho-a
Mapao nou sou peie
Ale shiliide
Zhinuh bu Khyoubuhi

She nuh maichi ralya vei-a
Zhinou thaimoe zhinou niimoe
Khyoubu teidei vea ale shiyu hae
Mapaonou soupeie
Aleshi liide
Khyoubu teidei hisii

Zion teidei avei haivea
Khyoubu teidei hai leshi shoe
Zhinou ziipa nya
Hriilai buche-e
Mapao nou soupei-e
Aleshi liide
Zhinou bu Khoubuhi.

-- Siile Shipio

Feast of Merit in Marriage

In the ages gone by, our ancestors did not have wealth so much so that sharing a meal with his fellow neighbours was a costly affair. Going to the field was not safe; headhunters from the neighbouring villages might launch an ambush. Nature was harsh, and he did not have medicine to get back his health whenever an illness strikes him; he has to wait and let natural course have its way towards recovery or death. Rivers and monsoon rain were not domesticated and therefore irrigation system was poor. When taken little more of rice beer, that drunken state makes him unfit to plough his field. All of these factors made our ancestors poor. In such widespread shortage of wealthy ones, to have earned the status of a generous man who could feed the whole village was indeed an honour. It was truly a feast of merit.

It seems that the hangover continues; the search for honour lives on. But this times the feast is dished out during marriage. Not every marriage feast is about seeking honour, but not every marriage feast is also about generosity. The individual knows best the motives behind the action. The bigger question, however, that requires reflection is whether marriage feast that is fast developing into a culture merits affirmation or otherwise. Surely, in any marriage guests, friends and relatives specially who come from afar must be provided a comfortable stay. But the idea and practice of marriage feast goes beyond this.

Depending on the size of the groom's village and the of the bride, if she is from another village, the expense varies. Given the general economy of the district residents, anything around five lakhs is a significant figure. Bigger programme would go beyond five lakhs and modest ones below this figure. But the truth is that even one lakh is so high for most of the households. Many families run into debts as they strive hard to provide education to the children or as an illness hits hard one member of the family. Many more are just about sufficient to meet their needs. Most people would be emptying their life long saving if two lakhs get withdrawn from their purse. Only a small percentage would remain unhurt with few lakhs spent to provide a marriage feast. No wonder even long ago feast of merit was such a rare occasion!

A benevolent giver should be affirmed. Seeking honour is not bad in itself. But when marriage feast becomes a pattern such that it begins to create pressure on those who are unable to afford it, then this honourable action becomes questionable. It begins to put pressure on the society at large when a young man or his relatives begins to feel being 'left out' without such a feast. Feast of merit was optional for our ancestors; marriage is not quite like that. Marriage is widespread across different economic strata. Once it begins to emerge as a cultural practice such that being 'left out' is a shame for the family or the groom, the rich ones cannot just shrug it off and say the poor need not follow the cultural pattern. The rich and the poor have both contributed to the emerging culture, and therefore for the sake of the larger society, a different pattern would have to be set by all the parties.

It is time to make marriage ceremony less expensive – particularly without a feast. The occasion is special. Yet what makes it beautiful and joyful is not necessarily the cost. Simplicity has its own charm. Seeking an honour in a pervasive occasion like marriage, and which only a tiny section could achieve it without getting financial hurt is not a desirable path to earning fame and honour. If generosity is the motive, giving on another occasion that will not develop into a harmful culture in the near future is more desirable. In today's age, hosting a marriage feast is not necessarily the most creative way of showing generosity or sharing one's joy. If generosity is truly the reason, why not pay off someone's debt or the school fees of those children whose parents labour hard in the rain? This is unlikely to materialise because generosity may not quite be the single reason or even the main reason – something else too is involved. Yet at the end of the day, given that the emerging culture of hosting a feast in marriage is becoming more of a burden for most families, it would be more appropriate for a responsible citizen to set a different trend. May the tribe of those who are willing to set a different culture increase! 

(This article appears on 9th February, 2015 at Hornbill Express) 

9.6 feet Long Hair

Chaone Poumai Naga w/o Veikhainii Poumai Naga
Address: Phuba Khuman, P.O. Maram ( Near Mao)
Senapati District, Manipur, India- 795105.

This picture was taken a week back. It is said that whenever she plans to get it cut, she would have bad dream or headache. So she carries this long strand of hair. 

Are Maring, Chiru, Thangal... Nagas?

" The Naga tribes in Manipur with whom this volume is concerned, are (1) the Tangkhuls who inhabit the hills immediately to the east and north-east of the valley of Manipur; (2) the Mao and Maram Nagas who inhabit the hills north of the valley and to whom the title quasi-Angami Nagas has been given by some writers on the ground that they are more closely connected with the Angamis than with their fellow subjects the Tangkhuls and the Kabuis; (3) the Kolya, Khoirao or Mayang Khong group in the hills south of Mao and Maram' (4) the Kabuis who inhabit the hills to the west and north-west of the valley and (5,6 and 7) Quorengs, Chirus, Marrings, smaller tribes, who are to be found in the hills bordering the valley."

"The village of Mao, a Meithei name, or Sopvoma as it is called by the Nagas themselves, lies on the western spurs of Kopamedza, on the cart road from Dimapur to Imphal. Close to it and almost contiguous are the villages of Robugnamei and Pudugname who form part of the Mao leaguer. Its kindred villages stretch to the east as far as Jessami ( Phundrak in Meithei), which is build on an apex of land between the Lanier and the river which rises below Mao, and looks towards Melome and Lapvome. Svemi ( Chinjaroy in Meithei), the scene of one of the most bloodthirsty raids...is now inhabited by Mao people and by Tangkhuls with the result that the typical customs of both tribes are here being subjected to modification owing to the syncecism that has taken place. Oinam and Purum belong to the Mao group but are so far removed from the direct influence of Mao that they present many features of interest, enough to differentiate them from Mao. On the west of the Manipur-Kohima road the group extends to Uilong, the village in whose vicinity is a collection of stone monoliths of rare symmetry, and to Yang and Bakema, villages more connected with Mao or Maram than with the Kabui Nagas or with the Katcha Nagas."

"The Kolya Nagas or Khoirao Nagas, or, as I prefer to call them, the Mayan Khong ( a corruption of the name Mayangkhang, a Thangal Naga village), inhabit nine villages in the hills south of Maram and Kairong. They are now almost indistinguishable, in so far as customs and appearances are concerned, from Mao and Maram, and I was informed that they were descended from Maram. "

" The Kabui Nagas are now restricted to the hills immediately north of the Cachar road... There is ample evidence, historical and traditional, to show that their expulsion from the hills to the south is comparatively recent. I have stumbled across ruins of large villages in the jungles south of Nongba, and learnt that they were the ruins of Kabui villages that had been destroyed... in the early part of the last century. "

"The Quorengs now consist of but nine small villages in the country just south of the great Barail range, which forms the north-western boundary of the state."

" The Chirus inhabit some thirteen villages situated on the slopes of the hills on the western side of the Manipur valley, and are not numerous"

" The Marrings have a few villages in the Hirok range of Hills, in the south-west of the valley" 

* From The Naga Tribes of Manipur by T.C. Hudson, (First published in 1911). pp.2,3,4 &5.

Poumai Naga Folksong

The Myth About 'Evil-Eye'

“Hraomai” as it is called in my Poumai Naga dialect can best be translated as 'evil-eye'. It is a common belief that if a person from such a family of 'evil-eye' casts a spell in the form of a compliment or something of that sort, the person upon whom the cast is spelled will fall sick. And in certain cases the so called victim (let me put it that way) would even die. One of my older brothers was considered to have been 'attacked' when he was 2 by a person with such 'accursed power' that he remained physically and mentally challenged even when he died at the age of 32. So if there is such a thing as 'evil-eye' I have strong reason to be angry with such people for bringing such hardship and suffering in the life of my parents and their children specially my brother who was the 'victim'.

I learnt that there is a slight variation between different communities about how 'evil-eye' works and how it is transmitted across generations. In the community I come from, it is believed that the 'power/curse' is transmitted from parents to children. And suppose a 'clean' person marries such 'unclean' people, then both of them eventually become 'unclean', and their children will also become 'unclean'. The implication of such belief is that 'clean' people avoid marrying such 'unclean' people. And eventually a kind of caste system prevails in the community. One group is considered clean and the other as unclean!

I have now come to believe that this story that some people possess power to cast spell on others is a myth. If a word or a speech can cast a spell that could make another person sick, how could that power be transmitted from the DNA of parents to the children's? But if it is transmitted from parents to children like sickle-cell anaemia or haemophilia is transmitted then how could it possibly give power to a person to cast a spell on another person? It does not make sense scientifically. Here someone would counter saying that it is the power of the evil spirit that make things possible. For the sake of argument let us grant that this is possible. But if it is the evil spirit that works then how could it possibly be transmitted from parents to children? The power of the evil spirit cannot be transmitted from parents' DNA to children's DNA. And if it is the power of the evil spirit, then how could the 'curse/power' infects those who confess and believe Jesus Christ as Lord and God? So the whole argument does not make sense. But if anyone invites the evil spirit and asks power from the evil one, then of course the issue is different! But as far as I know there is no one in the community who does that.

I believe the traditional story has been passed on from one generation to another. And even today the same story continues about those people about whom the story has been told. And because we typecast such people, we find allege incidents of such people having cast spell on someone. And in a close knit societies like ours where interaction between members of the community is extremely frequent such 'unclean' people interacting with other members is bound to happen, and when some sickness occurs we just attribute it to such 'unclean' people. And so this story continues in the neibourhood.

The story is passed on among the 'clean' people. But because telling the 'unclean' people in person that you are unclean will make the society unlivable, the story remains an open secret. There are stories: an 'unclean' people felt that strong urge to cast a spell on someone yet because he remained indoor the whole day he avoided harming anyone... but because the urge was so strong and he had to wrestle with the urge, the house was as if a tornado had just passed through; such 'unclean' people are able to see through the intestine and other organs of a person; such people, however, cannot cast spell on their enemy and they 'attack' only whom they don't hate, etc. Since these are all stories that cannot be verified because the 'unwritten law' prohibits one to openly discuss name or talk about such people, even if I consider them as myth I cannot prove such stories as unathentic nor could anyone prove the stories to be true. So if there is anyone out there who is a member of such family whom others consider them to be 'unclean', please write to me and provide comment about such stories. I shall not disclose names, but I wish to continue to write and discredit such stories as myths. My id is jeremiahduomai(at)gmail.com.

And those who are consider themselves clean, why do you believe that anyone could have such power to cast a spell? Comments from other communities would also be appreciated.

The Nagas: God's people?

It was in early 90’s when I first heard that Nagas are God chosen people after Israel. I was young then and I just believed what I was told. Growing up in an environment where ethnic factionalism determines the outcome of politics and social life, to hear such ‘prophetic utterances’ from ‘extremely spiritual people’ was very much assuring. After all when the enemies of the Nagas: Meeteis, Kukis and Indians, have us all surrounded on all sides, to be assured that because we are God’s people He will deliver us all gave us hope even in times of terrible situation.

Somehow the idea that Nagas are God’s people seem to be still very much alive even today. Almost all Nagas are Christians, and therefore it seems reasonable to many people that we occupy a special place in God’s heart. This understanding is very common among those who are in the villages; and it is there even among well educated ones living in towns.

For sometime now I have questioned the source of this prophetic utterances. Whatever be the source, I am absolutely sure that the message is not from the God of the Bible. I am convinced about it because there is nowhere in the Bible that says God loves the Nagas more than the Kukis or Meeteis or Indians. Nor can we derive any such message from reading the Bible, unless we distort the biblical message. Though Nagas (in general!) do not like Meeteis, that does not mean God loves Meeteis less. God of the Bible, in fact, loves us all equally.

To believe that God loves Nagas more because God has chosen the people as second Israel is to have a distorted view of who God is. After all God does not do partiality. And having a distorted view of God is bad. It is also bad because elevating oneself that way results in looking down on the other communities. Finally, it is bad because seeing oneself that way prevents oneself from coming nearer to God by way of repentance.

It is important that Nagas try to construct its own identity as God’s children. Nevertheless, Nagas should not privilege themselves over others (or rather we Nagas should not privilege ourselves over others). Such moves will break God’s heart from whom we Nagas as well as others have been deriving identity.