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The different cultural traits operate by cultural synthesis through hybridization process. The discourse on cultural process mainly advocates super imposition model and acculturation process. In hybridity, the form that evolves as a product of hybridization cannot be dissected from the culture. In other words, the dominant cultural traits are easily traceable in super-imposition and, in acculturation model. In contrast, ambivalence remains in tracing out the traits of dominant and the subdued cultures. Hybridity remains an independent cultural phenomenon and allows for understanding a cultural system in all its heterogeneity. The hybridized cultural system speaks about a cultural phenomenon which is dynamic rather than static. Leenasri’s article reads the hybridization of Assamese popular music and its impact by taking DY-Medley as an example for discussion. On the other hand, Chakri’s article analyses a set of ethnographic photographs of colonial Nagaland and exposes the way in which they construct the ‘Other’. In conjunction with emphasizing the relevance of the photographs, the article argues that these photographs were influential in creating an ethnographic discourse of different indigenous groups, leading to the creation of cultural stereotypes. Further, it is also argues that the visualities of Naga community in the colonial period finds a historical continuity in the post-colonial period. Rubirams article provides a baseline of information about the meaning of death and post-death beliefs and practices of Karbi community and tries to understand the role of ancestors in constructing the identity of the community in the multi-ethnic context of North East India. Gargee’s article is an attempt to establish the validity of the indigenous beliefs and practices of the Tiwa as an example of a symbiotic relationship between man and the environment. Thus, the collection of articles in this issue of Praxis tries to address the question of human finitude, accomplishment and community in the socio-political milieu of North East India. Hashik NK Issue Editor Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org) Hybridization in Assamese Popular Music: A study of DY-Medley Music Sequel

Leensasri Gogoi

Abstract In the present age, music has become more widespread than ever because of the sophisticated technology and marketing that allow easy access to music as commodities. Modern technology enables people to enjoy music in various ways. In this globalized world, hybridization process is taking place in various aspects of human life and it is very obvious in the domain of music also. Recently music has taking a new dimension. Emphasis is laid on this article on Assamese popular music. Therefore, DY-Medley a music sequel of has been taken as an example for discuss about hybridization process that takes place in case of Assamese popular music. Aspects like representation, authenticity, commodification, de-territorialization are the broad areas dealt in here. Impact of hybridization upon Assamese music is a point of concern and discussion here.

Keywords: popular culture-music-commodity-hybridization-authenticity

Introduction Music is a product and an integral part of human experience. It sleeps into arts and culture, finds appearance in language and has great influence on human lifestyle. An overall combination of melody, rhythm, beats and tone enriched by the magical input of the singer’s perfect feel, body language and moves that captivate the soul of the listeners either by providing relaxation of the mind or compelling towards body moves in the form of head bangs, feet taps etc., consequently gaining a great demand amongst audience can be considered as popular music. ‘Many writers use the term popular music to designate music which is mediated electronically and which comes to its listeners via the playback of audio and video recordings, or via the internet, or through performance on film or television or in amplified live performance’ (Hesmondhalgh and Keith 2002, 2). Impact of globalization in various aspects of human lifestyle including music is spread widely; and it is visible in today’s scenario. ‘Globalization is a very complex set of processes and partly because global activities, problems and crises seem to emerge and develop so rapidly’(Holton 2011). It compels to think about culture as the process of the promotion of a complex internal life that takes on form and meaning in social action on a global range. It leads to

1 cultural homogenization which means westernization, and that global process function to impose western cultural imperialism on the non-western world. Eventual result of this, is the hybridized or mixed cultural forms resulted by the process of cross cultural borrowings and intercultural fusion and combination. An important outcome of globalization is the process of hybridization which involves a significant change in the boundaries of the so-called bounded cultures of pre-globalized times, in terms of their renewed production, distribution and consumption in the age of globalization. As the cultural products began to be produced and consumed beyond their traditional territories, it entailed an entirely new spatial distribution of the various cultural goods. It can be seen in today’s scenario in every aspects of human life or culture. As a part of culture, music is very much affected by this phenomenon. The term hybridization can be understood as a process of mixture between two or more differently labeled cultural traits. They may be different in being old and new, native and foreign or local and global. It becomes a newer hybridized form when people mix the traditional with the western; and also sometimes when the mixing is made between different generic versions of the local itself. It enables people to express personal and cultural identities that are different from their own, existing ones. Hybridization of music can be understood with regards to a kind of blending of various music genres, mixing of two different language, tune, flavor, emotion etc. The word hybrid has a concrete origin. Hybridization was a biological term which was used to describe the product of a crossing of two plants or species. Now it is a term for a wide range of social and cultural phenomenon concerning amalgamation and has become a key concept within cultural criticism. The term in social sciences is often used in the context of the ultimate result of globalization that is being experienced all over the world today. With the rapid transformation of human life, development of knowledge and growth of technology, a kind of culture has taken shape that is highly new, unique and popular among the masses. It can be termed as “hybrid culture”. Cultural hybridization is defined as the ways in which forms become separated from existing practices and recombine with new forms as a result of mixing different cultural forms. According to Holloway and Hubbard….. “In the past hybrids were only noted in border areas where languages, rituals and cultures mixed and created new cultural forms. Today the hybrids are

2 to be seen in everywhere because of the global and local intertwined in many ways.” ((Holloway and Hubbard 2001) Two basic characteristics of hybridization in terms of music are….. standardization and fusion. Standardization refers to that process of cultural transformation which involves higher visibility and recognition of one particular form or version of a cultural product at the cost of the other available forms or versions. This is a process through which a particular style of cultural performance becomes more powerful, looks more authentic in public sphere. Adorno’s Theory of standardization deals with the position of popular culture in a capitalist society. In the essay ‘On Popular Music’, Adorno discusses about standardization by making distinction between serious music and popular music (Adorno and Simpson 1941). Adorno noted that the whole structure of popular music is standardized. According to him “all popular music contained a verse, chorus and bridge and that these elements were interchangeable without damaging the song”. Adorno’s definition towards to serious music is- serious music includes classical and avant-garde pieces (Serious music, for Adorno, includes classical and avant-garde pieces). These are the music which fulfills the emotional human need, whereas popular music cannot. Adorno’s theory of standardization can be seen in popular music today. He says “standardization of song hits keeps the customers in line doing their thinking for them, as it were. Standardization of popular music has been considered in structured terms that is, as an inherent quality without definite reference to the process of production or to the fundamental cause for standardization”. So, standardization is a process through which music are consumed and this are makes in a different way which is highly new, advanced, visible or clear. With the concepts of cultural hybridization as briefed above, this article puts for itself the following objectives: a) Exploration and analysis of the hybridization process in the audio elements of the songs and music of DY-Medley, and b) Exploration and analysis of the hybridization process in terms of the visual aspects of the DY-Medley performances.

Hybridization and Assamese Popular Music Assamese music can be understood in terms of their categories such as - regional , ethnic folk music, devotional song, modern music etc.

3 The experts and connoisseurs have divided the classical Assamese music into two parts and Ojapali. Folk songs, regional folk songs are considered as the native music of Assam which has no author or composer; these have been continuing through one generation to the next. The composers of Borgeet, Mahapurush Srimanta Sankardeva and his disciple Madhavdeva, gave a new definition to the Assamese music. People considered some songs composed by some of the great pioneer of music of Assam differently. Songs written by Jyotiprasad Agarwala, Bishnu Rabha, Parvati Prasad Baruah, and Dr. etc are known as Jyoti Sangeet, Rabha Sangeet, Parvati Prasad Baruahr sangeet, Bhupendra sangeet etc. These songs are composed for their film, nation, nature, love etc. In this globalized era, Assamese popular song has got a different turn. The old songs from 19th century Assam – the era which is known as “golden age of ” are newly composed and sung by new singers. The advanced technology, digital qualities, and rapid growth of media that helps to popularize these songs through its remixing and recording with digital device, high quality voice, singers from the new generation - plays an important role in this case. From the historical perspective, we can see the adaptation of electronic instruments in music recording. Earlier, songs are led by limited instruments such as harmonium, tabla, and flute in case of Assam. If we move towards rising of electronic instruments in Indian music, ‘by the 1970s the introduction of electronic instruments such as synthesizers began the downsizing of film music production in the studio. The electrification of film music included the sue of rock and funk- influenced wah wah guitar and more abrasive, metallic tones such as the drum machines used in European and American disco music’(Hesmondhalgh and Keith 2002, 242). Same rule is following by the Assamese music industry to popularize and make clear sound, beats and rhythm in song recording. Now day’s composers are very much interested in composing modern song by giving an ethnic flavor on it. So, today the process of hybridization in Assamese popular song is getting visible to the masses, although it is happening from the past. In case of visualizing this process of hybridization to masses, media plays important role. Various TV channels take initiative to provide entertainment to the audience. Some of the music shows called MTV@coke studio by channel [v], Kingfisher strong Backstage by Friday Movies, take an initiative towards it. DY 365, an Assamese news channel conducts music show called DY- harmony, DY- Medley etc.

4 The process of acquiring and exercising modernity is an important dimension behind this phenomenon of hybridization. For instance singing a Borgeet, a devotional song which is used to sung by sitting and wearing gamusa etc. is sung by a singer wearing western dress in a open stage by using electronic instruments automatically changes its value and aesthetics. Now days, Borgeet are available in internet, CD and most importantly these are became different from original one in terms of tune, accompanying music and other musical conventions which are done by new composers to commercial use. Another example is singing a bihunaam with electronic musical instruments instead of traditional instruments like dhol, etc. can be called as the result of the process of hybridization as it creates a new form of whether it is good or bad. It can be termed as trans-culture. Composers were used to compose the modern songs by using tunes from other songs like regional folk songs, western and classical songs. They also use some words that represent different culture. For instance, Dr. Bhupen Hazarika’s song “Bolo o missing dekati”, he used so many missing words in that particular song’s lyrics. Another song is “Axom dexor bagisare sowali”. There he used jhumur and bihu also.

Dy-Medley as Hybridized Package DY-Medley is a music show conducted by a regional news channel of Assam that is DY365. The whole music show is dedicated to re-record the old Assamese popular songs which were gained enormous popularity in the 80s and 90s. The various songs which are re-arranged for the fusion, is led by Poran Borkatoki, Munu Hussain, Anupam Konwar, Purab Gohain, Bibhuti Gogoi, Kaushik etc. The anchor, Bornalee hosted the program and introduces each song. The program’s main objective is visible in the signature tune of it. The whole signature tune says that… xure xure aadoru no xomyok/ gane gane bisaru nobo probahtok/ sina jona loie buku uposai/ take haboti notun aguai/ gane gane proti axa nigorai/ kakh pabo bisare hiyai/ dy meldey owo owo dy medley... it says that we welcome new time, moment with song/ through music we want to search new day/ we all know each other/ the new things growing like that/ by the music for fulfill each and every hope/ we are just living together… So, it is a sense through music, it’s time to welcome new era, new flavor and new hope. It is an ultimate product of consumer culture as the result of economic liberalization. It relies heavily on politics of representation. The program selected such kind of music which were considered to be very sensitive and heart touching in terms of their tune, lyrics and singers passion. Observing the various characteristics of the audio

5 elements of the songs of the DY-Medley sequel, the following five patterns of changes are identified in this particular set of songs: 1. Same old song, but in new voice, with fresh music 2. Fusion involving added texts to the original lyrics 3. Fusion highlighted through local and western musical instruments 4. Same old songs sung in different rhythms 5. Presenting the old songs in different flavours of passion and emotion

Same old song, but in new voice, with fresh music: DY-Medley basically emphasizes on popularizing the old Assamese songs. For that matter the new composer selects some old songs, re-arranges them with new music. With the perception of youth and singers from new generation, the new composer selects some artists for singing the re-arranged song. As a result of this, the song is re-recorded by the new singer which makes it as new song with a new voice apart from the original singing voice. It may be true that because of poor music instruments and recording quality, the old Assamese songs are not that much popular among the new generation though these are sung with deep feel and emotion. So DY-Medley tends to insert some additional music and clear voice quality in the same old song by using new singing voice, instruments and additional music. To study this element, here is an example….. The song Konman boroxire si; the new version of this song is led by Octapad while the original song is led by singer Dipali Barthakur itself. Song is just made as standard form by DY- Medley without any fusion with other musical genre. Song is re-recorded by Zublee Baruah. The rhythm that creates by the musical instruments is like rock and roll since these all are electronic instrument Singer sings this song very easily with simple rhythm, tune, scale and passion. In case of rhythm the old version is based on khemta playing by tabla. From the old version of this song we get a genuine picture of the image which describes the lyrics of the song that is an insect called jiyan (dragonfly) playing with water. But in case of new version it seems like singer is not much concern to the lyrics of the song. See just gives emphasize on her way of presenting the song by giving her own passion that can be termed as erotic. Song is made by DY-Medley quite long by adding supplementary music while the old version is comparatively very short. Fusion involving added texts to the original lyric:

6 Some of the songs which are used by DY-Medley for fusion, especially in case of two fusion type of music that are taken from different languages and genres, have some similarities in terms of their lyrics.) It seems like the songs are used same in terms of similarities to make easily understandable for both communities from which the songs are belongs to. It can be said that one song helps to understand another songs. At this point, one of the songs is taken for illustrate as example….. The song Pratham morome Jodi hohari napai is originally sung by Samar Hazarika and also in the new version of this, the same singer re-recorded it with its fusion with a Bengali song which is sung by Ashish. The lyrics of the both the Assamese and Bengali song is same in terms of their meaning. It is like pratham morome Jodi hoahri napai/ bhalpuwa kio jano morohi jai. Which means love will decay if first love is not responded by someone whom you love. The Bengali part is also remain same that says… bhalo basa die sudhu/ pelam betha boke/ bondhuttobujilo na amar chole gelo duri keno re…which means you gave me love and later you do not understand my feelings, why you leave me? Song is not much changed as the singer is same. It seems that the song is simply standardized with digital technology and advanced musical instruments. And also it is a process through which the meaning of the song visualized for both Bengali and . Fusion highlighted through local and western musical instruments Musical instrument plays an important role in case of song, its lyrics and singer’s passion. A song depends on music while it is a matter of entertainment, consumption and media audience. While studying hybridization process in the songs of DY-Medley, it is important to see the instrumental part. Some of the songs highlighted the fusion of instruments which is blending of traditional and electronic instrument. For that matter, songs are changed in terms of rhythm where one may get both traditional or local and electronic or global flavor through instrumental sound. Here a song is taken as example to describe how DY-Medley highlighted the fusion part via using of music instruments. The song Nahor phoola botorote mor is called as bihu xuriya adhunik geet in Assamese (song similar to the bihu song’s tone). This song is fusion with a jhumur song (song from tea tribes of Assam) in DY-Medley and it is re-record by Zublee Baruah. Here we get the fusion of two different music genres – one is bihu and another is jhumur. These are different from each other in terms of dialects, tone, rhythm and lyrics. Apart from the physical nature of the song, we can see

7 that these two songs are based on two different environment and two different communities. The song nahor phoola botorote mor gets a different form as the result of its fusion. Jhumur part is led by an instrument called madal which is an instrument particularly used by tea tribes of Assam having unique rhythm, and the Assamese song is led by tabla with khemta rhythm. There are also other musical instruments used to make this song as standard form. There is a kind of mixing of tradition and western in terms of instruments. Same old songs sung in different rhythms Every old Assamese songs has its own tune, meaning, and rhythm which are played earlier with limited musical instruments consists of simple rhythm and beats. While DY-Medley had taken those songs for remix or fusion, it is obvious in case of change of rhythm. The instruments which are using for fusion, they are electronic and rhythmic in nature. Sounds of these are very energetic that compels audience to dance with that rhythm. And the songs are also fusion with different kind of music genres which are different from each other in terms of rhythm and beats. So, old songs are made standard based on the rhythm created by advanced instruments and fusion song part’s rhythm. A discussion about one of the song which is made slightly different from the old version of the Assamese song in terms of their rhythm is attempted here. The song Jonti olale torati olabo has been fusion with a Nepali song which makes it different from its old version. The song is led by Octapad and the Nepali song has no similarity between lyrics and tune. It seems like it is a sense towards changing the beat of the song jontiolale torati olabo. The old version of this song has limited instrument including harmonium. On the other hand fusion song has lots of musical instruments. In the old version the flavor of a nature like moons, stars, wind, and flower is depicted in the lyrics of song in such a way that compels listeners to feel the nature while listening the song. The singers’ Khagen Mahanta and Archana Mahanata are very much successful to give a natural depiction to the listeners through their passion. But in the new fusion version the essence of this lyrics is no longer exist as the singers fails to keep that link between their passion and lyrics. In the new version of the song is very much clear in terms of voice of the singers and music of instruments which follows the rhythm of Nepali song’s part. So the whole song is transferred to a different rhythm. Presenting the old songs in different flavors of passion and emotion Old Assamese songs are written and sung in a different context, environment and perception. Those contexts, perceptions are not similar to today’s scenario. Some of the songs are

8 written from their own experience, some of them are composed for nationality, and some of them are composed by describing the natural beauty or environment of Assam in those time. These are not exists now. On the other hand, songs are losing its essence through its fusion. The fusion part leads sometimes different meanings which makes the Assamese song different from its old essence. As the songs of DY-Medley are re-recorded by the singers from new generation who are not belongs to that kind of environment or perception, the song’s essence has become very much changed. The new generation’s singer only relies on the voice qualities, romantic passion, free mood, high amount of music which is very much clear in the DY-Medley platform. Here is a discussion about a song which can be analyzed in terms of its changing essence through singer’s passion and feelings. The song Moinajan moinajan is originally sung by Dr. Bhupen Hazarika. The genre of this song is like bihuhuriya or tune similar to bihu song. Lyric says about the real life of Assamese people. Song is led by the singer using instruments like Tabla, Guitar, and Harmonium etc. in case of new version song; it is fusion with a bihu song by using advanced or electronic musical instruments like Octapad, guitar, keyboard, drum etc in DY-Medley. Song is re-recorded by Kallul Barthakur and the bihu part is led by Pompi Gogoi and also a co- singer adds additional music in the background. (The comparison between these two versions – old and new shows that the songs presented by the singer are mostly erotic in nature.) As in the original song is sung by only a male singer that expresses the male perspective of the society, nature, and beauty. But in case of new version, it seems like song is limited with these two singers, they just shares their feelings within them and they are not concerned with the lyric of the song while the original version is beyond that. The program DY-Medley relies on the popularizing the song as much as possible standard, having high quality voice as well as noise, bass rhythm etc. Coming to the next part which is video. The program relies heavily on digital culture, digital technology. Songs were already recorded and for introducing global flavor in a local place these are highlighting through the studio space, lighting, color, decoration and gesture of singers as well as instrumentalists. Use of lighting system is fascinating which makes the program similar to a bar dance room. Electronic musical instruments are being used in such a way that these are enough to be discarded by the orthodox old-fashioned listeners as noises. Emphasize is given more in electronic sound and less on human voice. Rhythms created by these instruments, characteristically, often seduce audience to dance.

9 DY-Medley deals with a unique space for telecast its programs. It gives a unique platform to its performer and audience that can be termed as “global space” within a local space. The program dedicates a space for its performers in a decorative way. This is a platform where music from diverse community of Assam and India as well are re- mixing and fusion and these are showcasing widely. The platform is decorated with the help of high amount digital objects that makes a sense towards giving a flavor of advanced technological environment that makes it a digital world having clear sound, clear image, funky symbol, concrete image etc. It follows the notion of heavily urban, modern and advanced art form which is exists in globally popular music video like MTV, the world wide music television. Lighting is very important for any kind of video production like film, music videos etc. It is important in terms of its using pattern that for what purpose and on what context it is using. Lighting criteria rely on visibility, creating mood for instance, if little light is used it would create a dull and sad feeling in the video. On the other hand if lots of lights are used it gives the impression that it is a happy and enjoyable moment. The visual depictions of DY-Medley videos are very much relies on using of lighting and color for each of the song’s visual apart from its audio. As ‘listening to music with colored illumination can provide a deeper appreciation of the music than listening alone’ (Moon, et al. 2012). An important element of visualized music is the visuals of human body: human body movement, gesture, attractiveness etc. DY-Medley’s visualizations are interesting from the perspectives of visual analysis. Since it is a program based on local and global mixed together, it has a unique style of making visual. The singers are represented in their specific passions while singing the song in a way that brings in a western mode of music singing (and listening too) such as singing by holding the microphone with a different body gesture, wearing headphone dancing with the rhythm and giving expression through eyes, face etc.

10 Figure 1: A scene of performance space, reflecting decoration styles, color-schemes, lighting and mood.

While analyzing the media text, representation is important. Media portrays particular groups, communities, experiences ideas or topics from a particular ideological perspective. There is an important part to analyze while studying visual culture of DY-Medley that is ethnic representation through the music. It is important to see in worldwide that ‘all countries learnt to cultivate their songs as real necessity for the preservation of ethnic and cultural traditions, independently of the progress made in the field of musical or literary creation’(Hesmondhalgh and Keith, Popular Music Studies 2002, 35). We can see there are some community songs which are used by the program DY-Medley for fusion. Community song has its own ethnic value that fits with a particular environment, tradition and performance space. The visual of the song Sonowal kochari bihu, carries by DY-Medley on the bihu song of Sonowal Kochari community by giving a tag to the whole video as bihu special. We can see that in this video some of the ethnic objects are represented. It is a kind of representation of ethnicity or local in the global space though it is not fits with global space. The singers themselves are the member of Sonowal Kochari community. They are Dimpi Sonowal and Jayanta Sonowal. They represent their culture by wearing dress like muga sador-mekhela, and used gamusa on the head which is considered as traditional way of dressing of Sonowal Kachari community. On the other hand male singer wears jeans and shirts having traditional design or work on it that gives a flavor

11 of modernity that has influenced in this global world in many aspects of human life. They try to represent their identity through the song as the song’s dialect is from that particular community. Through their dress pattern they try to give an image of traditional dress of Sonowal Kochari, but their wearing style is fully modern rather than traditional. The other co-singers also wear sador- mekhela to keep the norms and values of Assamese society, culture and traditional as well. Use of instruments is important here. Though the dhol is represented here it is dominated by the advanced electronic instruments while visualizing these things by human, there are some other objects that are represented in a way. In the background of the stage a japi with a is depicted to give a flavor that the show is based on tradition of Assam and these are essential part of Assamese culture that has to be representing for outsider in a global space. Song has got a different flavor as this is a local song which is presented in a global space.

Figure 2: A scene of the visual arrangement of a DY-Medley performance space as well as ethnic representation.

Conclusion It has been opined that the hybridization process in music is worldwide. We can say that the process of hybridization has been in existence from the very beginning in any kind of human product. However, it became visible with different connotations in the age of economic

12 liberalization, cultural homogenization and identity politics. It is the outcome of the issues of identity politics and economics. The process of addition of new music, new voice, similar lyrics of different music genres etc. which is adopted by DY-Medley, (is seems to be) a sense of judgment towards giving the value to the glorious and significant past of Assam which existed in the songs of late 19th century. With the evolution of time, people started to feel an anxiety about their old evergreen songs and started to collect and preserve them. In the era of advanced technology, adaptation of new media, electronic devices like mobile, tablet, computer, brought up a culture which can be termed as digital culture. Emergence of these media compels radio services to change their programs as people (youth) prefers mostly to visual kind of thing nowadays. Earlier the old songs were recorded in radio and people used to listen them through radio programs like xuror xat xori, xuror panchoi,geetanjali etc. People listened to and enjoyed these songs with very excitement, as those programs were not repeatable like facilities available in today’s media equipment. So, the behaviors and way of listening of the people were changing with the advanced technological facilities. Nowadays people’s attachment towards enjoying or listening song and feeling its lyrics are not much closer than the sense of listening and enjoying songs by people earlier. Because advanced technical devices provides facilities to listen or watch any music or video any time anywhere. One can pause the video or track in mid time of watching or listening them; one can forward the part which they don’t like. One can download the song which one likes most, anytime anywhere etc. This is a process through which human being are transferred what is called as trans- humanity. People became digital beings. This process is fulfills by DY-Medley. Secondly, DY-Medley emphasizes on ethnic representation through the fusion of the different . These fusion music genres are different in terms of their distinctive rhythm, harmony, dialects and meaning. Songs are used for fusion with Assamese modern song to go with its rhythm. Here it is clear the existence of the sense of celebration of difference. Through the process of fusion, community songs are de-territorialized to some extent. It refers crossing the own “local” boundary. The fusion songs, which are mostly folk, crossing their boundaries as these are local art exists in a specific area, particular community, which is being represented in a global space that changes their authenticity. Understanding authenticity is a kind of sacredness of any cultural form, pure or as it is. The song of DY-Medley plays an important role towards it. For instance- Bag rumba is a traditional dance cum music performance of Bodo community of Assam,

13 performed in a group with traditional musical instruments during Baisagu- a festival of the Bodos in the Bishuba Sankranti or mid-April. When this performance is performed only by singing with electronic instruments it occurs as modern song. So the purity is changed except its lyrics or dialect. One another aspect is commodification of folk songs. From the perspective of communities of India as well as Assam, it is important to see that how folk songs are commoditized. Understanding commodification of folk song, there are some issues like change of authenticity, standardization, commercial exploitation etc. folk songs of different communities are now standardized and these are using for commercial purpose by giving them extra flavor, while they have their own ethnic significance and sacredness through DY-Medley. It seems like the program consciously telecast the technical part as it is a part of consumer culture. This is visible in the lighting system and decoration of whole background. While the program represents local or traditional or rural in the global or modern or urban space, it enables change of authenticity of an object or motif. The program heavily relies on ethnic representation through music, instruments, costume of the singers and use of ethnic object for decorating the entire background. It can be said that now people used to listen folk songs and enjoys their tune and rhythm. So with the perception of audience, this program uses folk songs of different communities for fusion with modern song. That’s how local mixes up with global and creates a way for being modern what is called as alternative modernity. We can define it as a sense of cultural show off to people who are not the native of Assam in case of Assamese folk songs. On the other hand it also used some other genres like Punjabi songs, classical songs, western English song etc. which are de-territorialized. As a result of hybridization of Assamese music, particularly the folk songs of different communities of Assam, it is an undeniable thing that these are using for commercial purpose which made them as commodity product. Ultimately profit is earned by the outsider or media people, and except the member of that particular community having leadership quality, profit is not goes to the community. It can be said that Assamese songs are remixed and re-recorded in the program DY- Medley, by giving greater emphasis on electronic drums and bass frequencies. This process of Assamese song remix is a compromise between the durable lyric and melody of the older Assamese song and the rhythms of contemporary global dance music genres. Today’s generation

14 wants nothing but the best in terms of sound quality. But it is debatable to some extent. Because some people may think that these are corrupted version of the old songs. When it is a matter of remixing or fusion of the songs of late19th century, it is like giving them a good quality product which is rich in lyrical and rhythmic content. It is like enhancement of an already popular product. References

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16 Contextualizing the Photographic Text: A Critical Analysis of the Visual Representation of the Nagas1 Chakri Bhodhimani

Abstract The reading of a photograph may be considered to be a transformative journey in the sense that while in the process of negotiating meaning our own understanding of reality is substantially altered. The reading of a photograph thus invites us to deduce its validation as a metaphor to construe the existing world. But for cultural studies, in order to understand the process of generation of meaning, we need to read a photograph not only in terms of its immediate material existence but also to take into account the context which helps to impart meaning to it. With these in mind the objectives of this paper are to analyze the construction and the politics of representation of the ‘tribal’ through visual imagery.

Keywords: visual culture, camera, photograph, representation, ethnicity, Nagaland, tribe. Introduction Of our five senses, it is sight that gives us the most comprehensive information. It is, for most people, more important than hearing, taste, smell or touch. The majority of us rely to the extent of neglecting the other senses (Lacey, 2009:6).The preoccupation of imagery that we previously experience, knowingly or not, conveys visual message towards our way of seeing. It is seeing that binds together our fancy and intellect; it is the act of seeing something that has become the ultimate marker of the veracity of a truth that we seek to establish. Having said this, it is to be mentioned that the act of seeing can never be decontextualized from the place or time in which it is located. Further, one always makes sense of the unseen through the perspective of one’s a priori experiences. The visual can convey social facts and meanings. We construct this meaning on the basis of the experiences that we bring to the reading of a particular text. In other words, the visual convinces us of its veracity by producing a set of reality which we appropriate within the realm of our prior experiences. When we speculate on the fundamental mechanism of a camera we believe that it allows for minimal human intervention so that a photographic image can be seen to represent “facts”.

1 This is a slightly altered version of an article that is slated to be published in the Damrong Journal of the Faculty of Archaeology Silpakorn University. Vol. 15 No. 1 (2016).

17 Photography allows communication across time and place by transmitting cultural codes and elements into definite forms. The comprehensive patterns of information encoded in a photograph consequently stand for a slice of reality which is being agreed upon by the onlooker. In his essay The Ontology of the Photographic Image (1945), André Bazin writes, “[T]his production by automatic means has radically affected our psychology of the image. The objective nature of photography confers on it a quality of credibility absent from all other picture-making (1945:13).” Photography came to occupy the slot that was vacated by the perceived failure of painting (broadly used) as a means of capturing the essence of reality. The photographic frame, it was felt, has the relatively greater ability to comprehend reality. Also, a photographic image allows the visibility of the invisible-those aspects of life which had not yet appeared in the arena of visual culture and everyday life earlier. It also grants the onlooker the sense of being a witness to an event. Having said this, Bazin’s explanation is debatable at this juncture in the sense that he believes that the absence of the photographer in the operative mechanism of the camera ensures the trustworthiness of the image. But in saying this, he ignores the fact that the photographer always photographs his images from a particular subject position to organize the components and put them together in the frame. There is no doubt that the very act of seeing is a political act. Everything from the selection of subject-matter to the moment of capturing an image is political where the photographer brings his subjectivity into play. That is to say, in spite of the photographer’s intent to negate his subjectivity, he has to see things from a particular vantage point so that he can allow the spectator to join him/her in the process of meaning-making. It is the responsibility of the photographer to make available for the spectators a range of meanings from which they may choose. And yet, the process of creation of meaning is never uncomplicated. A photograph is a site for the negotiation of meaning - the meaning that the photographer brings into play and the meaning that the spectator discovers. As a site of signification, one may think of a photograph as a communication system that generates various currents and cross-currents of meaning between the transmitters. Yet, the making of meanings can never be a decontextualized process; every act of interpretation has to take into account the importance of the location where the image is created and circulated. Today, we have come to be more and more reliant on photographic images to communicate. There is no doubt that photographs play a considerable role in shaping human

18 thinking. We can look at a photograph as both a product of mass media (imposed from above) as well as a popular form of cultural product (signifying human agency). In any case, a photograph has to be investigated closely for the way in which it manifests the relations of power. The select codes and elements enclosed in a photograph are subjected to a close scrutiny thanks to the rise of information technology. The reading of a photograph may be considered to be a transformative journey in the sense that while in the process of negotiating meaning our own understanding of reality is substantially altered. The reading of a photograph thus invites us to deduce its validation as a metaphor to construe the existing world. But for cultural studies, in order to understand the process of generation of meaning, we need to read a photograph not only in terms of its immediate material existence but also to take into account the context which helps to impart meaning to it. With these in mind the objectives of this paper are to analyze the construction and the politics of representation of the ‘tribal’ through visual imagery. Of particular interest would be the representation of women in Nagaland in photographs. Besides this, it is necessary to raise some queries with regard to photographs: what kind of visual representation and perspectives are accommodated in photographs that we come across in the course of human history? Also, we need to consider: what could be the result of ways of perceiving photographic image that were too familiar and unaware of? Definitely the onlookers’ understanding of communication made through the photographic image is of one’s own volition, built precisely on specific experience, knowledge and belief. On the other hand, in employing textual approaches to photograph, it is primarily relevant to identifying the codes that seem to be natural because the meanings made out of the text are inconsistent. Accordingly, there can be no natural significance of a photographic image, but the naturalized one, which takes over the onlookers’ sight. The naturalized codes and elements in photograph are therefore conventions; they are based on certain social values in a particular community, say, location of culture. The way one justifies the necessary compositions in a photograph could perhaps be varied but it is oriented based on the professionals’ viewpoints and likewise that of the common readers’. The latter though are not being trained in terms of technicality; however, they are informed by the visual rhetoric that is already available in the arena of visual culture. In this sense, it is seemingly right to say that a metaphorical connotation of an event which one comprehends is made out of one’s visual taste, not merely by the natural sensory organs but the set of reality produced by the texts.

19 The Case of Writing with Light: Practices and the Construction of the ‘Other’ in Photographs The creation of identity involves a process of constant reinterpretation of ‘Self’ and ‘Other’ in- and outside society which is informed by changing historical, social, intellectual, and political processes (Paech; 2014: 9). Commonly, the relationship between the self and the other is reciprocal, but the other in this sense is only understood as the unspoken and powerless. Every so often, the other comes into existence because of being made by the self; we only apprehended the other in terms of self but when we visualize the self, we do not essentially require referring to the other. This involves the way how one deals with the “represented”. A steady intent look taking from the position of the self, thus, offers a power and intention of controlling the other to the spectator. This political project of othering has something to do with the construction of Western knowledge that subjugates the “rest” as the other inflicted by the colonial intervention. Likewise, in the arena of visual culture, the imagery of the “rest” is also made by the modern historical construction of knowledge, arrogated by idealism of the West. In case of photography, Michaela Paech writes about the process of constructing the visual imagery of the Africa: The mid-nineteenth century expansion of colonialism coincided with the emergence of photography. Colonial photographs depicted images and scenes from colonial settings. They significantly facilitated the process of constructing the ‘Other’ outside Europe through touring photographic exhibitions and a Victorian passion for collecting photographic prints of others. The abundance of images from the African continent invited subsequent interpretation and gave birth to ethnographic studies. Applying the concept of the colonial ‘gaze’, […] what Western consumers constructed with colonial images […], they facilitated colonial discourse as a complement to the ‘truth’ otherwise supported by museum displays or head trophies. Consequently, the colonial appropriation has circulated the replication of stereotypes about the African simplifies the onlooker not to be aware of the complexity of perception of images which does not stand alone, but are accompanied by the social and political contexts of the images. Photographs are necessarily images of the past, and as we phenomenologically incorporate them into our bodily field, we do not necessarily feel this incorporation of the past as a fracturing of our present (Chaudhury, 2012: 189) because we are governed and familiarized by these images, and inclined to believe that the versions of truth the images stand for are sensibly accurate.

20 Another example that photographs can capture the moment of otherness and that of moment can be drawn to the period from the late eighteenth to early nineteenth centuries corresponding to the great wave of European, Japanese and Chinese to the United States: […] It was really a city within a city. Aware that Americans were curious about these people whose language, dress, and customs were so different from their own, a San Francisco photographer became determined to portray these people to the outside world. This photographer, Arnold Genthe, had come to San Francisco from Germany to tutor the son of wealthy parents. He had been highly educated in his native country and was both an accomplished painter and musician. Almost from the moment he arrived in the United States he began his attempts to depict Chinatown’s inhabitants visually. (Sandler, 2002: 77).

Locations of the Tribal: A Case Study of India The term “tribe” reflects a discursive phenomenon; it can have a wide range of views depending on one’s standpoint. Even within the practices of anthropologists and ethnographers the word “tribe” can have different connotations. One of the common views on the term is that: a tribe is historically or developmentally outside the domination of nation-state system which is dependent on natural resources which assumedly to be sufficed for their social maintenance. Let us place this view up against the following view of a British anthropologist and indigenous rights activist Stephen Corry who delineates tribes as

[T]hose which have followed ways of life for many generations that are largely self- sufficient, and are clearly different from the mainstream and dominant society (Corry, 2011).

It is indeed clear that the term is a contested one in the public domain. It is very important to look at the process through which the various meanings of the term have been naturalized and the kind of substantial debate that it has generated. One of the points of focus of this paper will be to look at the closest meaning of the word “tribe” that we can approximate and also to look at the people who are referred to as the “tribal” through various processes of appropriation of meaning- making. Likewise, in this paper, I will discuss the possibility of having a common connotation or broad definition of the term which could be employed in different spheres. I will then try to explicate how the circulating knowledge of the word is being understood in different contexts

21 particularly in the case of North East India. At the end of the paper, I will attempt to investigate the fabrication of myths and stereotypes of the tribal pertaining to the Nagas. Tribe is a social construct which has no constant meaning. While the word “tribe” is used to describe a group of people the understanding of this process is very often delusional, leading people to believe that the concept associated with it is fixed and rigid. The seeming timelessness of the notions of tribe and the tribal has shaped our understanding of reality: we therefore tend to believe that the fact that a particular community is “primitive” is an unchanging truth. The community that is identified as tribal has to carry the baggage of primitivity with it. In the postcolonial phase India adopted the framework of a modern nation-state and democracy. After the decline of the British Empire, the new sovereign state was faced with the compulsion to unify its people. Generally, the political structure of the British administration was adopted by India. The Indian state followed in the footsteps of the colonial rulers, particularly in terms of its policy towards the tribals:

The need to concentrate on tribals became all the more serious when in 1950 we [India] took Community Development Programmes. The Constitution of India brought out a new set of values. It emphasized the need for the integration of the tribals into the national mainstream. It became clear to all that in independent India if nation-building has to be done in right earnest; there cannot be two features for one nation. […] The tribals had to be compensated in terms of development via constitutional safeguards and guarantees.2

At this juncture the tribal was said to be different from the non-tribal, though the tribals in India cannot be generalized as a homogenous social category. They are distinctive from each other for the most part. The notion of difference between the tribe and the non-tribe was based on the binary of the non-Hindus and the caste Hindus. The philosophy behind the constitutional safeguards provided to the tribals makes it imperative that independent India takes care to ensure that the resources of the tribals of India’s North East remain with them. It is understandable that the North east of India is strategically very important for the nation’s security as it shares more than a few international frontiers. India has successfully constructed the category of the tribal based on the clues left behind by the colonial masters. The idea of tribe in India has been involved with political administration and governance associated with the problematic issue of geopolitical territories in India. The term

2“Tribals: Conceptual Clarification and Their Problem”.

22 “tribe” has been used since the British rulers introduced it in 1872 to describe a few selected communities in India (Abbi, 2008). The credential of those communities was hypothetically understood as criminal tribes up until other official terms were introduced a few years after Independence. Some were criminalized because of their inability to register themselves into the system and they were assumed to have immoral tendencies which, at times, disturbed the British Empire. To cite an instance, in the case of the Thuggie, they were preparing for a revolt against the British rules. The Act of Criminal Tribe was cancelled in 1952 when the Government meant to de- notify them by introducing the new categories: for example; the Scheduled Tribe, the Nomadic Tribe and the Denotified Tribe. However, the technical removal of these terms has failed to abrogate the act of labeling and attaching social stigma to these groups of people. While India has continued to use the terminology of tribe and the tribal, in other Asian countries, other terms have been used to assign to communities with a distinct way of life. For instance, the term Bumiputera is used to describe the native Bornean and indigenous population in Malaysia while the term nationalities is officially applied in Nepal for indicating indigenous groups. None the less, these terms are demarcated by the political appropriation of the policy makers mainly in order to control and exploit the ‘unfit’ population. In Assam, the ‘Tea Tribe’ category has emerged in relation to different ethnic and political constraints. The Tea Tribes of Assam have been demanding the political status of Scheduled Tribe (ST) in the same way as other Adivasi communities in many parts of India. But in Assam they are not considered the same since generally the grant of ST status in the state is limited to communities who have a different ethnohistory; thus, the Tea tribe community finds itself alienated from both other ethnic groups in North East India and their clusters of relatives in central and eastern India. The granting of ST status to North East India’s Adivasis is a highly political complex issue as it evokes the question of indigeneity of the “natives”. At the same time, the Tea tribe community has become the permanent resident ‘outsiders’ of the region leading to their tragic persecution in India’s North East. Instances of such persecution would be the Beltola incident in November 2007 and the massacre in three districts of Kokrajhar, Sonitpur and Chirang in December 2014. In most cases in India, collective groups are deemed to be more important than the individual. The groups rely on the idea of communalism which would never resolve the issues like those of the Tea tribe community and the Bodo’s demand to carve out half of Assam. The question of belonging and indigeneity at this time does not count on how the natives perceive their

23 indigenous features as a consequence of a simpler social category, that is, a tribe or a band. Instead, the conflictual form of a tribe depends largely on the influence of national states and sociopolitical competitiveness. Above all, the tribal may be seen as an altered form of backwardness and primitiveness which has arrived to contest the unchallenging project of the nation states and the discrimination amongst its citizens. Yet, the preconception of the tribal has as its essence the idea of the savage Other. But they are, accordingly, not just being understood as the primitive form of social group in India, but as instances of those who are yet to be appropriated within the dominant structures. Ironically, in the case of India’s North East, the people celebrate the fact of being a tribal in the location. But it is to be kept in mind that not all arrangements of tribal communities in the region have been equally conquered. The situation amongst the tribal states and the non-tribal state are dissimilar for the tribal who reside within. In a tribal state like Nagaland, the indigenous Naga tribe such as the Rongmeis constitutes a minority. But most of their populations are residing in the territory of Manipur which has been protesting against the addition of the Rongmeis in the list of the official Nagaland’s tribe. Though, they have been living in Nagaland as long as the others, only the majority of them (in Manipur) can enjoy ST Status. In this sense, the idea of Nagaland as the land/state of the Nagas is not viable, and it collapses due to the state reservations. Therefore, the constructed notion of the tribal cannot be generalized. To a great extent, the notion of the tribal varies from place to place as it needs to take into account the ethnic and political history of the location. The umbrella equipment, that is, the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India seems to have been enlarged beyond purpose. Rather, it has given rise to political turmoil and unrest in the region. Myths and Stereotypes about the Tribal: A Case of the Nagas Assuming that such topological stereotypes cost us more in terms of the richness of our understanding of places, how are we to contest their dominance? (Appadurai, 1988: 46). It is noteworthy that the images of the native are constructed, more or less, in relation to the early intellectual contribution of colonial ethnography. The term native is closely connected to the term tribal, specifically in the nature of anthropological discourse. In response to the query Who is the “native”? We shall consider what Appadurai (1988) points out: The quick answer to this question is that the native is a person who is born in (and thus belongs to) the place the anthropologist is observing or writing about. This sense of the word native is fairly narrow, tied to its Latin etymology. But do we use the term native

24 uniformly refer to people who are born in certain places and, thus belong to them? We do not. We have tended to use the word native for persons and group who belong to those parts of the world that were, and are, distant from the metropolitan West. […]. Proper natives are somehow assumed to represent their selves and their history, without distortion or residue.

The statement mentioned above suggests that the representation of the native is confined by the ones who primarily studied about people outside their own society, and the captive knowledge produced by them came to be the dominant representations of the community with the help of repetition. Besides, the natives were also keen to showcase their selves through these representations. It is undeniable that certain stereotypes have been reproduced out of academic texts. Thus, it is important to accentuate the alternative works (for instance, feminist ethnographic work) about the people of the place to bridge the gap between knowledge and the practitioners and the people, as well as, to bust the myths and stereotypes enclosed in the society. Under this circumstance, I will take the example of the myths and stereotypes about the Nagas and Nagaland to pinpoint the elusive construction of these phenomena. The Naga as a tribal of India has a stain attached to them as a result of their social practice in history, that is, the practice of headhunting or head-taking. One may raise the question whether the ancient Naga people were barbarous and the headhunting wars were committed due to their barbarianism (Singh, 2004: 6). The head-taking practice amongst the Nagas in the past history has generated stigma, associating them with violence, a myth that was fostered by their prolonged struggle against the central government. In addition, the typical stereotype of Naga youths is merely generalized under the term Northeasterners, especially for the case of Northeast migrants in metro cities. The stereotypes that attached to them, along with the backward and head-hunter, women are often referred as they are chinky and sexy. Importantly, ‘chinky’ is not used by Northeasterners to refer to themselves or each other. In other words, they have not claimed ownership of the epithet. Most respondents found the term to be deeply racist and reflective of ignorance and hostility (McDuie-Ra, 2012). Moreover, the image of sexiness emotionally involved to Northeast women has led to many incidents imposed on not only Naga women, but also the others who have immigrated to metropolitan cities:

25 This case was also remembered because in the aftermath, blame for the incident was directed at the murdered woman for allegedly inviting the attack. In a case from October 2007, two women from Nagaland were subject to sexual advances by their boss. When the women resisted, they were suspended from work without pay. In January 2008, a gang of more than 20 men attacked and sexually assaulted two sisters from Manipur in the internet café the two sisters ran. In October 2008, a female Naga student was murdered by another student (a non-Northeasterner) when she resisted his sexual advances (McDuie-Ra, 2012: 106).

However, the problems struggled by the tribals in and from the region are not homogenous, especially in case of upper-class tribals who are able acclimatize to the socioeconomic changes. There is no conclusive justification that cases of stereotype and racial violence being imposed on alone on the Naga; without location-specific they are simply assumed to be one of the “backward” Hill tribes of North East India.

“To Hide-To Show”: A Reading of Photographic Texts on the Nagas The content of every photograph is history. It shows the moment of the image's origin that is always located in the past in comparison to the moment in which it is viewed (Dant and Gilloch, 2002: 6). A photograph thus represents the desperate attempt to resist the passing away of an event by freezing it in time, giving an event the status of something that transpires unceasingly. At the same time, it has the ability to set up the context of the event, conveying to the onlooker its concurrent time and space. The dimension of time and space makes the illustrative elements in the photograph have no “original” meaning- something which, it in fact, never had—but that meaning is arrived at by the onlooker individually. Having said this, it can be claimed that the meaning of the photographic image is to be understood only through the perspective of the onlooker’s subjectivity; in other words, the onlooker brings into play the experiences offered to him/her by the cultural location to which he/she belongs. A photograph therefore never speaks for/of itself; it is the onlooker who imparts some kind of meaning to the photographic image and he/she generally magnifies the meaning that he/she constructs from the vantage point of his/her subjectivity, obliterating the possibility of alternative meanings. Having said this, it is necessary to keep in mind that the intentionality of the photographer also plays a role in shaping the meaning of the

26 photographic text; in spite of the fact that the reader has the freedom to interpret a text from his/her vantage point it is also undeniable that the photographer provides the broad contours of the image itself. Thus, I believe that while the onlooker does have a more active role to play in the post- Barthes phase, the photographer does not completely disappear either. In search of the constituted meaning of the photographs on the Nagas and Nagaland, I mean to develop an argument by beginning with the institutionalized images that generate dominant meanings for understanding and reaffirming the sense of Nagahood. In other words, the argument will lay emphasis on the supposition that the photographic images have set up the possible ways of articulating the understanding of the Nagas. Interestingly, when one observes the photographs about or on Nagaland there is a pattern that emerges. We would like to make the claim here that irrespective of the sources of origin of these photographs, they are dispersed with great gusto, aided by the tools of information technology. However, after the establishment of the state of Nagaland, she started to make forceful claims about the necessity of the nation state coming to her aid in respect of development. This necessity to join the process of development of the nation state implied that the Nagas were forced into a situation where they had to take care of the distinctiveness of their culture as well. Thus, the Nagas, faced with the perceived threat of cultural homogenization, felt the need to conserve the characteristically distinctive essence of being “Nagas”, culturally and politically, so as to establish on firm grounds the sense of Naga ethnicity. It would be fair to state at this stage that this last point is not taken for granted by relying solely on photographic images, but with the intention of scrutinizing issues of the Nagas and the politics of representation through the artifact of photography. Thus, in order to awaken our visual unconsciousness, it is very crucial to examine our ways of seeing which are constructed by certain contexts. The still photographs given here, however, are considered not just texts alone; on the other hand, my contention is that a photographic text is intertexualized in lived reality. It is not unaccompanied by the others, the things that lie outside the frame: instead, it needs at least a location to exist and requires a body to proceed, yet takes for granted the onlooker’s visual literacy. It is also necessary to mention here that I have at no stage overdramatized the importance of photography in shaping and molding public opinion or views. But I do believe that it provides one of the most powerful mediums to forcefully impose a way of seeing on people at large. Neither do I believe that people lack agency to discriminate between photographs. The very fact that this

27 study has tried to posit a critique of the conventional ways of looking at the Nagas through photographs implies that I do believe in the ability of the onlooker to resist the imposition of dominant meanings. One of the institutionalized sources that have helped to shape the ways of looking at the Nagas, apart from the very authoritative forms of contemporary media, is the state museum. Located in the capital city, Kohima is home to the Nagaland State Museum established in 1964 by the Naga Institute of Culture, and few years later the Department of Art and Culture of the state government provided the aid in renovating and upholding the museum in 1970. The main building for exhibition is comprised of a basement, the ground and the top level. One of the recommended destinations for visitors, the museum appears to present comprehensive (but select) information about the evolution of the Nagas in general. Commonly, what are ideas behind and functions of museum? The major characteristic of a conventional museum is that it exists in the form of a building containing mostly of materials and objects selected by the authorities/experts. These objects try to present a spatially and temporally selective representation that stand for the grand narratives of the place they are oriented to, for instance, representations of the past, the life of a community, and its moments of glory. Additionally, this type of conventional museum does not locate objects in situ but are displaced to make them ready for the spectators’ look. Furthermore, the very idea of a traditional museum is based on the uniformity of projection of material cultures. The museum in this sense entrusts the governmental funding, hierarchical structure, and professional staff as its exclusive arbitrators. This is common to most state museums in India and it can be seen as an attempt to preserve the dead tradition by providing its linkage to the contemporary phenomenon of decolonizalization in India—the museum thus becomes a location where the past is used for the sake of “national” interests. Inside the Nagaland State Museum, the ground floor contains life size statues and replicas and several portraits, along with a collection of agricultural implementations and weapons and equipment; these are set up to generally showcase a way of life before the pre-colonial period in the Hills. The philosophy of the museum rests on the idea of Indian pluralism. The top floor of the museum is exclusively devoted to photographic gallery which narrates a select version of the historical moments of the Nagas. This National History Gallery was officially inaugurated by the Governor B. K. Nehru in August 1973. During my visit in April 2015 I found that there are six

28 segments within the room packed with black-and-white photographs. It begins with the tagline of the first segment ‘1944: Kohima During and Aftermath of the World War II’. The anonymous photographs with no caption together formulate the significant contribution of the Nagas during the WWII. Overall, it signifies that the Nagas had extensive relationships with the British who ruled India, and thus the Nagas and their land belong to India. This sense of perception has a momentous continuity until the last segment. Moreover, the lack of authorship in this segment suggests that this imperative moment does not belong to any specific person but it is a collective moment that we all share. This sort of anonymity also suggests a sense of neutrality and objectivity to convey the idea that since the onlookers and the people depicted in the photographs share a common history of bloodshed and traumatic violence. Thus, in one stroke it allows the appropriation of the land and the people within the broad ambit of the global discourse of the horrors of WWII. The second segment represents select collections of Gordon P. Means, an eminent scholar whose major work was on South East Asia, apart from several other photographs on the Nagas. In the latter part of Means’ life his collections on the Naga was accepted as “Naga Heritage Collection”3by Achilla Imlong Erdican (a Naga from Chang community married to Albert G. Erdican and the editor of Means’ Tribal Transformation: The Early History of Naga Hills (2012)) who approached the Government of Nagaland for this matter. In fact, Mean’s collections occupy two segments in the gallery. Some are shown along with captions such as ‘Naga Fortification at Jotsoma Village’, ‘Wooden Craving in front of a Morung’, and ‘Sema Chief’s Grave’. The other segments illustrate the engagement of Nagaland with the central government of India such as ‘1977- Rano Shaiza, M. P. Nagaland with the Prime Minister Morarji Desai at the Agri Expo, New Delhi’, a series of Republic Day celebration moments with the magnificent ethic decorations portraying the Naga’s way of life, and other photographs that portray the inclusive developments of Nagaland in terms of education, religion, infrastructure and so forth. Quite a few of this bunch of images have caught my eyes not merely because of the image composition but because these were the ones that I had seen elsewhere. One of thosestriking photographs allowed me the scope to reminiscence about the Nagas. Tracing back to the very day Nagaland became a part of the Indian state, the images of the then President of India were captured in various gestures. This included the moment he was

3History: Reward and Burden of Preservation (SundayPost, 2015)

29 watching with intense interest a variety of Naga folk dances. In Figure I there are no less than six frames. One has been deliberately put out of the frame by me.

Figure 1: ‘State Inauguration Day- 1 December 1963’ What draws my attention in this are not the images on the right side but the image of the President figured in this photograph (I had encountered this particular image earlier but in a color format). The President is in the kind of formal attire that is generally worn by north Indians. What strikes the onlooker in the first place is the fact of the contrast between the attire that the President was wearing as against the ethnic garments that he, was perhaps, honored with at the beginning of the function. The Naga ethnic costume on his body appears to be inconsistent and out of sync with the locale. This way the political relationship between the Nagas and “mainland” Indians will work out in a way where the photograph connotes: I am not completely compatible with you. However, if we look closely at the possibility of having a different interpretation of this event, we may say that it was a historic moment to offer a kind welcome for the newPresident of the Nagas. This is so because once Nagaland became a state, the system of chieftainship of the village-state system gave way to the modern nation state. The headship of the tribes would now be transferred to a Chief Minister who could belong to a different tribe; the Prime Minister, the Governor, or even the President stand as embodiments of the new structure of political hierarchy.

30 The museum presents a political history of the state of Nagaland but it does not have any reference to the Naga extremists. It also confirms that the other groups of the Nagas who were not in part of the political extremism have approved the compassion of the Indian Union since before the establishment of Nagaland. In the speech by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, President of India, on the inauguration of the state of Nagaland on December 1, 1963, he said, “I have great pleasure in inaugurating the new State of Nagaland. It takes an honored place today as the Sixteenth State of the Indian Union. Indian society has always been a multi-lingual, multi-racial and multi-religious one, having a variety of racial and ethnic group (in Sharma, 2006: 251).” This statement was officially made at the moment of culmination of the sixty-seven-year-old Indo-Naga conflict. It was a speech that indicated that the rest of India would accept the differences within their own geo-political entity and accept the people of the new state as their own; however, the project remains questionable until today. Let Me Tell You a Story: The Endless Effort of a Cultural Outsider One of the most powerful anti-colonialist discourses finds its place in Edwards Said’s Orientalism (1979). To him [Said], this representation (of the East by the West) was a discourse, that is, a creation and management—politically, sociologically, militarily, ideologically, scientifically, and imaginatively—of the ‘East’ by the ‘West’ that was deeply embedded in notions of cultural hegemony (Pachuau, 2014). Following this, the West determined the “Orient” in the subjugated and inferior position, that is to say, the image of the Orient was made by the West, as its other. The influence of colonial gaze is thus very important in the modern historical construction of the Middle East, South Asia and Far East. Having said this, however, in the light of Said, the image of the West is not reciprocally constructed by the Orient in return. The West conceived of the Orient as embodying all that is outside its precincts of civilized life. This sort of an attitude is reflected in the views of a number of Western intellectuals who have studied the Orient. Emphasizing on North East India, Sanjib Baruah (2014) rereads Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf’s works on the region by indicating that the intention of von Fürer-Haimendorf was not to serve the colonial power especially in case of the Nagas, excepting his later work on the Apatanis of the North-East Frontier Agency as an assignment to the British Empire’s military purpose. What's more?

31 It was his interest in so-called remote pre-contact primitive societies that took Fürer-Haimendorf to the Nagas, and later to the “Apatanis and their Neighbours.” He went to the region first with an interest in “the relatively unknown parts” of the Naga Hills. That sitting in Vienna he distinguished between the known and the unknown parts of the Naga Hills, reflects the fact that there was a long tradition of ethnographic studies of the Nagas by British colonial administrators and military officers before Fürer-Haimendorf entered the scene.

It was noteworthy that though von Fürer-Haimendorf did not practically take an interest in the Naga’s struggle for freedom which was going on at the moment of India’s independence, but his study and collection on the Nagas had a massive involvement in the “savage” minds and massive impact on the outsiders. And yet Haimendorf’s ‘anthropological work and the collection he brought together with all of its rich facets allow us to describe him as a chronicler of Naga culture (Baruah, 2014: 40).’ This was true to the extent that during his own travels among the Nagas, Schicklgruber found that that many of them look at their past through Fürer-Haimendorf’s lenses (Baruah, 2014: ibid)

Figure 2: “The Ang of Sheangha Chingnyu (second from right) and Ang of Chui (centre left) share a bamboo tube of local rice beer with von Fürer-Haimendorf (front left), 1937 (Glancey, 2011).”

32 Most documentary works currently archived at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) represent many ethnic communities from North East India, especially the Nagas. Some are accessible online; some are not disclosed on the site. Many are cited in a number of books and academic writings. Figure 2 is cited from Jonathan Glancey’s Nagaland: A Journey to India’s Forgotten Frontier (2011). In his book, Glancey is trying to explain his romanticism when he was young since generations of his family had association with India and the North East in the days of the Raj. His account of the Nagas is a return story of a man on self-imposed exile, a story in which the narratives are full of pathos built on his sense of attachment to the Naga Hills and the naked tribes living there. The book encompasses around previous interpretations of several personalities such as J. P. Mills, Peter van Ham, Timothy Allen, and Christophvon Fürer-Haimendorf. In this photograph (Figure 2), von Fürer-Haimendorf is in the midst of a group of Naga men sitting relaxed and “share[ing] a bamboo tube of local rice beer”. The caption supports von Fürer- Haimendorf’s routine as an anthropologist who is romantically attached to the native’s practices in order to be able to carry out the elucidation from their worldview. How are we certain of the rice beer in a bamboo? The well-known practice of ethnic communities in the region preparing fermented rice beer ensures that we have no doubt about what he was actually drinking. This commonsense meaning of the sign does not acquire the accuracy for the onlooker since it is already culture-specific. Moreover, by then the major Naga tribes must have been familiar with the white who introduced innovative materials to them such as cameras and films. In this moment, the photograph was snapped by another person a year after his arrival on the Naga Hills, has made von Fürer-Haimendorf become a prominent subject matter of the scene/frame. It stands for the indissoluble boundary between the outsider and the insiders. Ironically, the image should convey the sense of von Fürer-Haimendorf as the outsider; instead, it others the four Nagas in the frame for the reason that in this image the camera and its artefact is culturally and politically adjacent to him rather than the Naga men. Before the above photograph was captured, von Fürer-Haimendorf had a chance to initiate himself to the rituals and festivals of the Konyak Naga. It was on 18 December 1936 when he returned “…from a punitive expedition conducted by the British against the Kalyo-Kengyo (Khiamniungan) village of Pangsha. From this tour he brought back head-trophies, some of which

33 he had collected from the head trees in the villages he visited on the way. A large group of Nagas from different Konyak villages had accompanied him onto the expedition as porters (kulis). Coming back to their villages, both Fürer-Haimendorf and the returning villagers were greeted as head-hunters. The skulls or fragments of them were given to the villages and received by performing head-receiving dances. Through this “payment”, Fürer-Haimendorf was able to document ceremonies that - under normal circumstances - weren't possible anymore at that time, as head hunting was prohibited in British administered areas (SOAS Library: 2015).” A series of his documentary works with the help of the British administrators, particularly J. P. Mills, who took him under his arm, therefore allowed him to capture the scene of Naga’s ritual which, in this sense, perhaps was close to what the Konyaks used to practice before the imposition of the prohibition. It was obvious that the head-receiving dance would be performed differently when there was no presence of the outsiders. However, the ritual performance was at that time different from what we are used to today. The head-receiving dance, accordingly, was associated more closely with what I shall call, “head-taking” kind of practice, than a barbaric head-hunting. There was no an evidence to account for these practices in the pre-photography era, von Fürer-Haimendorf’s collection has provided a primary source of historical studies on the Nagas as well as built up the strength oftheir historical past which was different from that of the rest of India.

Figure 3: Head Receiving Dance at Wakching, © SOAS Library, University of London.

34 Therefore, this photograph is a cultural and historical artefact of the Naga’s past andif nothing else, it governs the ways the current generations look at their own collective past. It is because of the social convention of indigenous religious practices in the Naga Hills that we get to know about the ancient beliefs associated with “head-hunting”; this kind of practice could also be seen in other ethnic groups, such as, the Apatanis of the NEFA (presently Arunachal Pradesh), the Ilongots of the Philippines, and the Taiwanese aborigines, etc. Despite various accounts of head- hunting/head-taking practices in Asia, the renowned one for this seems to be the Nagas of India. Prior to the massive conversion in the Naga Hills taken over by , the Nagas practiced their indigenous religion. In the light of their worldview, the head-receiving dance (Figure 3) was not disconnected from the material conditions of life which is not idiosyncratic but holistically attached to other social mechanisms. In the image the boys and the young men were ready to welcome and celebrate the success of the warriors who were returning from the punitive excursions. This partial moment of the event or the performance was a means of initiating social morality to the coming-of-age members. Thus the indigenous religion which the ancient Naga people followed opened the way for ethnic culture and projected their behavior towards new ethnic upgrading to their moral conducts (Singh, 2004: 9). It brought them values such as honesty, sincerity, simplicity, truthfulness, obedience and commitment to the community life (Singh, 2004: ibid). Determinately, the boundary between the sacred and the profane, or else, religious and non- religious sphere was not resilient. Today, the predominant religion in Nagaland is Christianity which has had a role in constructing of formation of Naga political identity in the first place. The introduction of Christianity to the Nagas was successfully done in the area of Ao Naga by American Baptist missionaries. The very first Baptist Church, the Molungkimong, was established in 1872. Since then, together with the proposition of British Rules, the churches have enormous engrossment in modern Naga’s way of life in terms of formal education, economic benefits, nationalistic sentimentality, etc. As S. K. Barpujari (quoted in Misra, 2014: 114) states:

Christianity and Western education brought in new values based on individualism which posed a direct challenge to the collective life-pattern of the people. The introduction of currency and the development of a money-economy ‘afforded opportunities to individual to amass personal fortunes and for a few to collect their hands the means of production

35 formerly disturbed between many, and the persons who succeeded were often those with no hereditary responsibility for the welfare of their kinsmen and fellow villagers.

The doctrines of American Christianity led to increased cultural tension in the transition of Naga’s societies. “The Morungs and Feasts of Merits” were negated in opposition to what Naga’s Christianity should be. Moreover, another aspect which perhaps needs to be considered is that the practice of animist rites had given the Nagas a degree of freedom which naturally stood in the way of the success of institutionalized religions (Misra, 2014: 116). The influence of the church in Naga politics has often been rather exaggerated and a study of the Church’s role vis-à-vis the Naga underground movement reveals that its influence has gradually been on the wane (Misra, 2014: 116-7). As can be considered from this point, the traditional social relations of the Nagas are not entirely amputated by the assertion of modern religious belief, yet associate with the construction of their worldview.

Figure 4: “Heroin flows into Tuensang from the nearby hills of Burma” © Delhi Press Patra Prakashan Pte Ltd.

In Figure 4, the image is combined with an online article on a journal of politics and culture ‘The Caravan’ titled The Prince of Tuensang: A Maverick Pastor Battles HIV in

36 Nagaland. The essay authored by a freelance journalist Nida Najar was published on 1 April 2013. The remote area of Tuensang, suffers from the lack of medical infrastructure and facility, and HIV pandemic is taken care of by the churches braving the narcotic industry of the Golden Triangle (Myanmar, Lao PDR and Thailand). The problematic areas have apparently fostered the widespread use of alcohol, drug and human trafficking in the Christian-majority state. The tension between the church and the locals about the continuation of such practices is carefully concealed. The Nagas have been living in both sides of the interstate frontier (Myanmar) along with other ethnic communities such as the Singpho (Kachin area of Myanmar), the Padaungs, the Tai Khamtis etc. Likewise, apart from the Khiamniungan area in Tuensang district, the same group of people settling on the side of Myanmar still has a connection with the Naga Indians beyond the geopolitical boundary. But the strong state-religion of Nagaland has, however, sentimentally reconfirmed and strengthened the boundary. Figure 4 carries a sturdy image-caption. We are invited to view this picture from the point of view of Nagaland; the other side of the boundary, represented by the hills of Myanmar is tricky and deceptive. The central image in the photograph is that of the Holy cross and the church which helps us to create the border between the two sides. The leading lines or the eye-lines in the composition are gradually drawn narrower from the bottom to the top of the image ending with the light shade of the sky which barriers the Indo-Myanmar border in distant. The connoted meaning here is that the church will take a stand, contend and invest in this kind of issues and beyond to assist the far-reaching Naga territory. Above all, it is for one to see that it was not only the colonial administrative policy that brought “sophistication” and “modernity” to the Naga Hills, but also the influence of Christian missionaries to ensure the subjugation of the natives in order to “civilize” their “pagan” way of life. Naga societies today are not necessarily “primitive” or “barbaric” anymore. If the social organization of a tribe is based on common descendance, the Nagas are not “tribals” anymore. It is common knowledge that there are more categories of social stratification in India which than any binary of tribal and non-tribal can encapsulate. Specifically, however, in North East India the idea of the tribal as a constructed category seems to be decisively voluntary, authoritative and overbearing, though this category was created by the cultural outsiders. Interestingly enough, the way the cultural insiders define themselves as a distinguished community is not probably justified anymore. This is because, instead of employing the ideological role of race or commonly shared

37 culture as a counter hegemony to other dominant social units, the Nagas enjoy contesting their identity by appropriating that much fabricated category. Thus there is not just a discourse that is being produced about India’s North East by the cultural outsiders, but there is a powerful discourse that has emanated from within the region itself.

Figure 5: “Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Governor of Nagaland, B.P. Acharya(left),at the inaugural function of the Hornbill festival in Kisama Heritage village in the outskirts of Kohima on Dec. 01, 2014.–by Ritu Raj Konwar

The Nagas were never united on the basis of linguistic categorization. Each village’s language happened to be unintelligible in terms of verbal communication; even villages presumed under the same tribe have a distinctive variety of language and cultural traits. Then, what makes them similar in the eyes of the cultural outsider? The answer is not just that they shared the “barbaric” practices such as head-hunting, and that they reside in the foothills of the East Himalayan range. But it is for the sake of administrative convenience of the colonial masters (a policy handed over to the Indian modern nation-state) that they generalized about the people living in the “peripheries”. As Sanjib Baruah (2005) observes, “[Thus, in] the case of the Nagas, ethnographers and missionaries engaged in what Julian Jacobs and his colleagues describe as a struggle ‘to make sense of the ethnographic chaos’ they perceived around them: hundreds, if not thousands, of small villages seemed to be somewhat similar to each other but also very different,

38 by no means always sharing the same customs, political system, art or even language (quoted in Baruah, 2005: 102-3; Jacobs et al., 1990: 23). In the present day, the Nagas celebrate their sovereignty and statehood in the interior of the frontier Nagaland strengthened by the dominant culture of the state legislature. In one way or the other, this political phenomenon has assured the de jure citizens of Nagaland, particularly the Naga communities while leaving out the “other” Nagas outside the state and in the other side of border line. This event has been agreeably encouraged by the central government whose prerequisite is to keep Nagaland on track. In Figure 5 we see the biggest annual celebration of ‘Naga heritage’-the Hornbill festival— which was formally inaugurated by the Prime Minister in December 2014. Ankotong Longkumer, a Naga anthropologist, noted about this event that ‘Modi’s presence was all the more interesting as his audience was comprised of not only Nagas and various official dignitaries, but also included international tourists, who had come not simply to listen to Modi, but also to visualize and participate in the Hornbill Festival. The confluence of these audiences along with Modi’s presence highlighted the fact that Nagaland symbolized the color and diversity of India. He came to celebrate, but importantly, he also came to promote a new vision of the Union government’s approach in Nagaland (Longkumer, 2015)’ Several Naga social organizations submitted memorandums to the Prime Minister at this time, including Zeliangrong Heraka Association (ZHA) on the demand that ‘their leader, Rani Gaidinliu (1915-1993), must be honored and recognized by imprinting her image on coins; that an independent Rani Gaidinliu Central University be opened in Nagaland with a department dedicated to the promulgation of the “eternal religion and eternal culture of Nagas” which will also benefit the 287 tribes in (Longkumer, 2015). Based on the visual elements in the image above (Figure 5), I will primarily focus on the disintegration of the Naga culture in the transition of Nagaland. It is important to observe how the Prime Minister is symbolically and physically embodied and how the “periphery’s” material culture finds its way into the event. The merger of Nagaland to the Indian Union is without doubt any longer; this, in spite of the movements led by factions such as the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) as it seems that the public prefers a process of peaceful negotiation with India. In this image, the facilitation of the Prime Minister with Naga ethnic textile and headgear is an instance of a very reductive act of Naga nationalism. And, this political agenda has to be publicly announced in the midst of a greater audience for the popularity of the festival. Yet this

39 connotation has been alive from the very moment that we discussed earlier in the context of Figure 1, and then disseminated as a platform for the civic-minded Nagas who were initiated into the idealism of India’s “unity in diversity”. Moreover, Modi’s costume in the official ceremony is markedly striking as the evidence of softening the boundary between India and Nagaland, where the latter is seeking for an alternative political faith. Here, the figure of the cultural outsider is visually and symbolically transformed into the native’s attributes. The Prime Minister is thus being challenged by this cluster of political project that conquers him the premise for Nagaland’s new political conviction. Consequently, in this case, material culture is not only decently appropriated through a nostalgic capitalization of the “savage’s” past but it is rectified in the political situation with the help of the public’s visual imagination. The ethnic textile and other cultural traits neither serve the purpose of conscious needs in everyday life like in the old Naga days, nor as the image resistant to the Indian state. But at present these cultural traits-as the cultural apparatus that controls what we see —are disintegrated from traditional culture, and inclined to work for the sociopolitical assertion of the Nagas. Additionally, as a result of the politics of cultural appropriation, the modification of the material culture is accustomed and found its place in circulation of visual imagery.

Recapturing the Visual Past: An Attempt by a Cultural Insider

The reproduction of images provokes the onlooker to absorb the visual codes that are deliberately highlighted in the transfer of meanings. Images are made to stand for the part of reality which is privileged to be the object of focus. The reproduced images thus reinforce the myths and stereotypes for the onlooker as well as limit the collective belief of the producers. Being considered from this point, Dant and Gilloch analyze the following for the work of Roland Barthes:

Barthes’s early writing on photography also responded to the compulsion to read images circulating in the culture. His interest was not primary in the photography but how images communicate within a cultural space. For Barthes, the photograph is able to present us with the social and material world through its power to convince us that, whatever else the image evokes, there is a simple correspondence to a reality in the past, “an awareness of its having-been-there” (Dant and Gilloch, 2002: 4; Barthes 1977c: 44).

40 A cultural space is usually conceived as (in the state of Nagaland) having a long ethnohistory of isolated nationhood which is claimed by its cultural nationalists. For this reason, the idea of Greater Nagaland is conceived in cultural terms. The transmission of ancient cultural practices in state-sponsored festival and cultural tourism was seen as an attempt to perpetuate their “exoticness”, supported by media mechanisms. Also, it is worthwhile to take into consideration that, as I discussed earlier, the reflection of these past and ancient cultural practices have developed through the lens of cultural outsiders. And now, I will try to make an argument that these ancient cultural practices have practically and functionally been dissociated from the context thanks to the sociopolitical adaptation of contemporary Naga societies.

Figure 6: Photograph from the Hornbill festival used on Directorate of Tourism’s website

The Hornbill is an annual festival held in the first week of December. It has become a site of cultural performance that brings together various communities in the state to construct the idea of cultural distinctiveness of Nagaland. Surrounded by this, of course, the most recognizable performance commonly found amongst the major tribes is that of “head-hunting”. The head-taking practices and rituals of the Nagas I cited earlier (relating to Figure 3) was a part of their socially and epistemological worldview, not apart from the Naga’s social life and organization. Similarly, other kind of rituals and festivals were practiced differently in the past which had an intimate connection with their lived experience. For example, ‘[In] early spring, the Angamis celebrate a week-long festival called Sekrenye to ensure good health of the community

41 during the coming year. Boys and girls belonging to the same age group, wearing elaborate ceremonial dresses, assemble in rich men’s houses where they sit for long hours on separate benches and sing traditional songs. The girls hold in their hands very handsome drinking mugs made of one solid piece of wood with a spoon in it. These mugs…are made by young men…as a gift to be given to them [the girls] during this festival (Ganguli, 1993: 21-22). Though, the description of Sekrenye is romanticized by trying to style the exotic imagery of the Naga’s past. None the less, from this account, one can gather that the content of this festival does not function like days of yore. Besides, the indigenous religious practices, rituals and festivals of the ancient Nagas we see today are merely reinvented, which aim at other social affair, such as, cultural tourism, political and ethnic interests and so on. In this sense, the Nagas genuinely internalize not only the role of racial ideology in detaching themselves from the rest of India, but also accept the marketization of their culture—the interests in the past for contemporary usage. The subjectivity of the cultural outsider/insider in the case of the Nagas and Nagaland has been softened in recent times for many reasons: internal migration, the appropriation of the state and its cultural resources, the shift in religious belief system, as well as the unstoppable process of transnationalism have all aided the softening of the border. Whether one is identified as a cultural insider or outsider will also depend on the location in which an event is taking place: for example; even though the Rengmas are Naga but many of them are residing inside the territory of present Assam, the preoccupation with self-identification may diminish their assurance of being Naga under this circumstance. The event of trans-subjectivity is thus fluid and unestablished and it varies due to the necessity of ascribing oneself to an identity, which is as much spatial as it is ethnic. Conclusion Today, the “pictorial turn” has come to play an important role in our everyday life. Increasingly, we are inclined to rely on the visual rhetoric as a mode of communication. Social and cultural facets are being represented by the visual codes and elements which have become commonplace, unchallenged, and “natural’. These visual codes and elements, however, are constructed with the help of the already existent myths and stereotypes of the cultural location of the reader, the author, and the subject. The familiarity of perceiving and communicating through visual imagery makes those mythical and stereotypical ideas stronger and familiar too close in fact, for close scrutiny. In case of the state of Nagaland, the visual imagination about the place and the people are shaped by the preconception of a number of discourses and texts such as the constructed notion of

42 the ‘tribal’, institutionalized heritage, the narratives of unconventional warfare, the modern religious values, as well as the ideas of the feminine “tribal” body. The forcefulness of contemporary media has placed photographs at an advantageous location as one of the powerful cultural apparatus of the Nagas for showcasing their cultural and asserting political value, and also to contest and construct their sense of identity through visual arena for different purposes. However, it is worthwhile to be aware that these values are not simply “out there”, but retrospectively fabricated. It can reasonably be surmised that, one way or the other, the construction of knowledge about the Nagas’ past has been established through photographic texts as these have become authoritative historical accounts of the Nagas at present, where they see their own past through the lens of the cultural outsider. For example, Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf’s collection of visual documents on the region consisting of approximately 24,000 images, amongst others, has captured a moment of ‘primitive past’ from the “unknown hills” of the Nagas. The archivality of Naga’s rituals and their folk life has shaped historical accounts and justification of Naga’s nationhood for the struggle of freedom during and after the decline of colonialism in India. In the process the pre- colonial past is completely obliterated. On the other hand, in order to investigate and make available the Naga way of life before the era of photographic mechanism, would be a hazardous task if we are to rely exclusively on the accounts of oral traditions, as these are also constantly changing and evolving. Thus, the visual rhetoric about Nagas through photographic texts has developed to be dominant representations which generate certain connotations thanks to the cultural discourse made available by the cultural outsiders such as, the central government agencies, the media professionals, the academicians, and so on. On the contrary, the reproducible knowledge from visual imagery advocated by the outsiders has imitated and circumscribed the collective social values in case of the Nagas. The awareness of losing the “savage” past of the Nagas correspondingly encourages them to recollect and reconcile again the past, but in a different formation. The state, for this matter, has encouraged the cultural politics of reconstruction of Naga life, not for the sake of the people, but the political assertion of Nagaland. The transformation of the “savage” to the “civic-minded” Nagas obviously tells the difference and discontinuity of Naga society, but this way, the visual machinery has helped in connecting this disjunction of Naga cultural practices. The way of seeing is thus recomposed through ethnic elements such as textile and material cultures which undoubtedly not

43 serving as in the pastime, including the transmitted values from ritual to festival. This re- composition of visual codes and elements is also a strategy appropriated by the state in order to lure its people away from accessing the other possible ways of seeing their own version of Naganess. Subsequently, the visionlessness of seeing is often replaced through the dominant visual narratives that are being circulated in Naga visual culture. Additionally, with the help of contemporary media forces, the Nagas have undertaken the task of cultural reassertion. But this act of contesting identity politics, for the Nagas, has visually processed through the images of the quintessential Naga women and their feminine body. The visual representations of Naga women were constructed since the rise of colonialism in India’s North East. At that time, the visual components in the imagery of the Naga women had immense significance associated with the narrative of ‘primitive other’ which illustrated the fancy of the “Western” value, the value of determining feminine body that is entirely different from the way of seeing western women. This dissonance derives from the fact that the image of Eastern women is created by the West, which is not the reflexive actuality about the women in this part. To conclude, on the lookout for reading closely the visual representation of the Nagas through visual imagery, it is important to retrace the political history and ethnohistory of the Nagas so as to identify the changing pattern of Naga visual culture. In addition to the politics of presentation of the Nagas in the present day that was effectively used by the state and institutionalized sites of preservation of culture, such representations are also strengthened by the manipulation of visual representation of women in Nagaland to which their feminine body becomes a site of identity contestation and assertion. However, one can expand the site of visual representation that may not be limited only to the photographic text and the tendency to seek the alternative interpretation from the onlookers. There are a number of processes involved in the making of visual representation that deserve a close analysis.

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48 The Karbi Community and Chomangkan Ritual RubiramTimung

Abstract The present study is an attempt to analyse Chomangkan, the death ritual performed by the Karbis of Assam, and also about its origin and changing pattern of the ritual. In addition, this work is also an attempt to explain why the Chomangkan ritual has become an important event among Karbis. The characteristics of Chomangkan practiced amongst Karbi are different from other tribal societies in the state of Assam as well as the rest of India’s North East which marks the cultural distinctiveness of the Karbis from other communities.

Keywords: death-identity-ritual-festival

Rituals can be considered as an instrument of social integration which has many functions, in response to both, at the levels of individual as well as for the society as a whole. The ritual ceremony of Chomangkan is involved in beliefs on the life-cycle, for example, the birth and death of an individual. According to Arnold Van Gennep’s Concept of ‘Rites of Passage’, it is said that the actual idea of Rites of Passage emerge as an attempt to interpret the ritual events in marking the various social changes experienced by members of society as they progress in life. Many cultures use their religious beliefs to explain these periods of changing status and to organise the rites in a religious way. The Karbis has been performing the death ceremony from many generations. It was ‘Thireng-Vangreng’, who taught the Karbis the elaborate rituals of the death (Lunse Timung, 1999). However, the death ceremony ‘Chomangkan’ came to be known after the death of ‘Thong Nokbe’. The ritual is performed for their ancestors in Heaven. The importance of Chomangkan has been traced down after the death of ‘Thong Nokbe’ (Karbi warrior) who served in the army of Khasi King. According to Charles Lyall’s account on Karbi oral tradition and socio-cultural facets in ‘The Karbi’ (1997) the word ‘Chomangkan’ is compounded from two words: firstly ‘Chomang’ refers to the ‘Khasis’, and secondly ‘Kan’ means the ‘dance’. That is to say, the terminology signifies the dance that was celebrated by the Khasis at the cost of Karbi warrior’s death. According to oral tradition, later on, Thong Nokbe revolted against the Khasi King for the atrocities towards his people. The Khasi army killed the Karbi warrior and had a grant celebration, merry making and danced for the success in killing him. The dance continued for several nights.

49 Later the Khasi King felt pity for the as they served in the army of Khasi King and the King pleaded the Karbi people to arrange an elaborate death ritual of the Karbis. Afterwards, all the essential resource required for practicing the ceremony was be provided by the Khasis (Lunse Timung, 1999). The concept ‘Rites of Passage’ was first developed in the study of pre-literate and tribal societies but has, subsequently, come to be widely used in other social contexts, including those of complex modern societies. In 1908, Arnold Van Gennep published a study of what he called ‘Les Rites de Passage’, a theory for interpreting changes of status in human society. Society was composed of particular social status with individuals passing from one status to another by passing over thresholds and moving through passages. Society took individual by the hand and led them from one social status to another (International Encyclopaedia of Marriage and family, 2003). Correspondingly, in this study, in order to understand the spiritual continuum relating to death and life amongst the current generations of the Karbis, and the changing pattern of the ritual practices, the arguments and analyses will be grounded on the concepts of ‘Rite of Passage’ and the close investigation of influential factors that changing values of the Karbis in understanding of death and life: from ritual to festival. Death and Society

Death is an irreversible and immutable event in human life, a subject which is often avoided in day to day discourses. Anthropologists in their yearning to know more about this phenomenon have not left this topic untouched. The issue that assumes importance here relates with the anthropological study of death and the need for elaborate rituals to commemorate the death (Zaman, 2003). According to Hertz (1907), “to make a material object or a living being pass from this world into the next, to free or to create the soul, it must be destroyed’’. As the visible object vanishes it is reconstructed in the beyond, transformed to a greater or lesser degree” (cf. Handelman, 1985). Death is a permanent departure of the soul from the body. Although the soul still lives on, it has a world of its own. The dead are supposed to have an effect on the living based on the kind of death the deceased had experienced. With the passage of time the idea of eternal solace for the dead through ceremonies began in many societies to appease the dead. The appeasement makes the dead saviour of the living so that no harm or disaster befalls the society. This yearly performance of rituals became a cult. Although the death rituals deal with continuity and with purity or integrity, it is a serious occasion but not necessary a sombre one (Zaman, 2003). The dead refers to

50 the person who lived and died as human being. It has been believed from the very beginning and even at the present time that the dead are thought to continue living in nether-worlds, on earth, in heaven and in other environments. Many cultures see the dead as so present and active in the world that they are the powerful forces to be reckoned with. The dead are still the loved ones that were alive. Almost universally, the dead are thought to move through different stages of death mainly in two broad categories: 1. The recently dead, regarding whom the psychological issue is separation and the ritual issue is pollution and 2. The established dead, regarding whom the psychological issue is integration and the ritual issue is spiritual power. After physical death the body begins to decay, the family in order to supplicate the soul and help on its journey. The last rites and physical removal associated with preparation of the body is handled quite differently around the world. The body among Miao in Southeast Asia lies for three to twelve days and that in Zoroastrianism the funeral takes place on the very day of death (Taylor, R.P, 2000).

Among the Karbis of Assam, the funeral takes place depending on the type of dead, if it is a natural death then the body lies for two to three days and if it is an uncertain dead like accident and suicide, the funeral of the body must take place on the very day of dead keeping in mind the family and villagers so that the evil parts associated with it does not hamper to those that are living. It is believed that failure to properly bury the dead results in grave danger to the living thinking that otherwise the deceased will appear in the forms of demons or ghosts. In India, mistreatment of the dead is the invitations of the ‘Bhuts’, who vamperize the livings. Some people look forward on to death as a good thing as they believe that some kinds of death are desirable than others. A ‘bad death’ is generally considered to be full of pain, long suffering, lonely or pointless and its reverse is a ‘good death’ (Taylor, R.P, 2000). Death is viewed as an event giving rise to another kind of existence. It is nevertheless a most unwelcome event. According to the Sulod, a group of mountain people living in the interior of Panay Island in Philippines, death is not the end of everything. They are aware of the fact that no one lives forever in this world. They believe that after the death, he or she assumes a different form but continues to exist as a separate entity and personality (Landa, 1964).

51 Likewise in the Karbi community, it is believed that an individual is reborn in the same clan of his or her own family. The departed cannot return anymore once it steps into the journey of the dead, leaving no footprints or any trace of them and simply vanishes in the midst of air. This is what makes thinking of death dreadful to all people.

The Karbis at a Glance The Karbis are one of the ethnic groups of North-East India residing particularly in Assam. The Karbis belong to the Tibeto-Burman linguistic family. They are found in the districts of Karbi Anglong, , Sonitpur, Kamrup, Morigaon, Sibsagar, and North Cachar Hills etc. Some reside in the border line of states of Arunachal Pradesh and in Nagaland and Meghalaya. The Karbis inhabit in the hills which is isolated by the Brahmaputra on the North, Dhansiri valley on the East and the Kapili and Jamuna valleys on the west and south. Some of the Karbis have settled in the plains of Nagaon and Kamrup and they plough in rice fields. Karbi Anglong was earlier known as the ‘Mikir Hills’. The name Mikir was given to the Karbis by the Assamese and the Nagas. The Karbis when migrating from Murimurong entered Assam passing through the Naga village. The Nagas called them ‘Mikir’ in their language. Literally ‘Mi’ means ‘Man’ and ‘Kiri’ means ‘gone before’. So the word ‘Mikir’ means ‘Man who had gone before’(Charles, 1997). The Karbis call themselves ‘Arleng’ which means man in general. The name ‘Karbi’ is derived from the word ‘Thekar Kibi’ which means social ritual to purify the birth of a new born baby. According to Sri Jognyaram Gogoi, a writer from Karbi Anglong, the name ‘Karbi’ was derived from the word ‘Me Akar Kibi’ where ‘Me’ is meant ‘fire’ and ‘Akar’ meant ‘spark or flame’ and ‘Kibi’ meant ‘to keep it’ is because in the earlier time the tribe used to keep fire in the hearth. In due course of time they came to be called as ‘The Karbi’ (Bey, 2009). Death Ritual as Cultural Metaphor The Karbi community believes in the spirit of their ancestor and the re-incarnation of the soul. When a person’s soul departs he is reborn into his family, belonging to the same clan of his surname. Even a female retains the surname of her father’s clan after her marriage to another clan, and at her death, she must be cremated in the specially assigned location known as ‘Tipit’. One of beliefs of the Karbis is that there is life after death. So whenever a person is dead in a family, the funeral is the most important ceremony performed by the Karbis. But in the case of a child who

52 has been born dead, such a child is buried without any ceremony. Again in the case of those, who die due to some bad diseases, they will be buried shortly after death, but the funeral service is performed for them later on (the bones being sometimes dug up and duly cremated). Furthermore, the members of the family attend the funeral of the deceased performing all the rites associated in their belief system for the safe journey of the soul in the kingdom of heaven. The uteri (refers to death singer of the Karbi who is an elderly expert woman) sings hymns in all the deeds done by the deceased person while he/she was living throughout his/her lifetime. Along with this, the Duero (a male expert) chants some mantras for the heavenly abode of the soul. After that the dead body is carried by four members of his family to the funeral ground and then finally being burned down. But the people have in mind that the soul of the dead will be reborn in the form of a child into any of their family who belong to the same clan. It may be into his/ her own son or other closely related ones. So when a child is born the members of the family invite or take the child to the priest and then the previous birth of the child is explained by the priest. Chomangkan Ritual The Chomangkan is primarily a death ceremony. In the earlier times it was not a festival but as time changed it has developed and took the form of festival. This particular ceremony depends on the economic means of the family. In earlier times when a person is dead the relatives of the family joins them and they cook and eat separately from the official member of the dead family. The official male and female must go across a stream to cook and eat. The eldest woman of the family washes and lay out the corpse. A convenient day is fixed for the service for performing Chomangkan dance. Rice beer is prepared. The village lads are summoned about 8’o clock in the evening. They bring their drums and beat their drums at the front yard of the house. After a while they dance in pairs going round twice in circles. This is called Chomangkan (khasi dance). Since then people began this death funeral ceremony at a regular level giving rise to a new kind of festival known as the Chomangkan festival. The festival now can be celebrated by only those belonging to a wealthy and rich family since the cost for the festival demands high economic status of the family. Culture of every community in the world develops on the basis of religious beliefs. The Karbi culture is also an outcome of religious belief. Ideas and influences of different communities like the Kuki-Chin and Syntengs are present in their religious institutions as well as

53 they have affected the social structure of the Karbis in a very significant way. Later the Hindu influence also brought in concepts like Boikunth and Narak. As per the Karbi mythology, the soul of the departed person goes through imperfect way. The soul cannot go to the Chom-Rongsopi or capital village of Chama, the soul only goes to Coma. So the soul stays with sorrow and miseries. To relief from the poor conditions, traditional performances are done which is called ‘Death Ceremony’ or ‘Chomangkan’ in the Karbi. In the earlier times, the death ceremony was been done immediately after the person expired. But at present times it has been modified due to environmental and economic conditions. The date and time are not fixed. The type of death ritual is divided into six categories such as Kan Phla Phla, Lantuk, Harne, Nodak Langtuk, Hongvat Ingdeng Kethom, Mirko I kelo (Sar Lunse Timung). The present study is based on the Kan Phla Phla Chomangkan. In the first day of Chomagkan, the family collects the bones of departed soul from the cremation ground, followed by performance of kanso and kanpi dance. The main day (last day) of the Chomangkan is the Thekup-Karkok. The Uchepi perform the task of cleaning and washing the house where the effigies of the deceased has been kept. All the clothes inside the kut are being washed and cleaned by the Uchepi. Before the cleaning of the Kut (house), the food is cooked outside the house. After the food has been prepared, they all eat and drink on outside (Hong) the house. After that the works of the Uchepi is over. She is to be honoured and offered by the owner of the Tirikam. She is given farewell by the family with some money and some other stuff like clothes. All the guests of the deceased family sit together. The Nihu of the family gets much privilege. The Nihu (maternal uncle) of the family gets some money, clothes, salt and a knife and a pair of spade for cultivation which is compulsory. Apart from this he can ask for money for buying some of his basic requirements. If the family has got some money they give some money to him for buying his things. Those who offer money to him act as if they are very old so while giving money to him, they take the help of stick for walking and giving money one by one. Moreover, small pigs are sacrificed depending on the number of Chomangkan performed for the departed soul. They cook it and it is eaten by the respected guests like the Duhuidi and his assistants, Nihu, Ingjir-Arlo, Soso-phili, the village headmen, the family of the deceased and those who have been involved in the celebration of the Chomangkan including the Risomars and Okorjangs. They all eat and drink together. After that all the guests and relatives are given farewell

54 by the family. This is how the fourth day of Chomangkan festival called ‘Thekup-Karkok’ concludes. By applying Arnold Van Gennep’s rites of passage, it is evident from the Chomangkan ritual that in Karbi community death is not believed to be antithetical to life. Unless they perform Chomangkan festival, the soul of the dead person would not get peace and rest in a temporary place. This shows the worldview of Karbi community through their death ritual. The continuity of clan system among different group which has spread in the vast areas of Assam shows the assertion of identity through their specific Chomangkan festival. In addition, it is mandatory that all people, who belong to Karbi community, should attend the Chomangkan festival. Chomangkan is a death ceremony performed by the Karbis for invoking the souls of the departed persons in a family. The opinion of the people is the essence for understanding the death ceremony of the Karbis. From the very beginning, the funeral ceremonies have been performed in a very elaborate manner. The death ceremony or ritual requires a large capital which very often is difficult to gather. The opinion of common people is always taken into account at a larger context on how they see into it. Many people say that only the souls of the rich goes to heaven and the souls of poor people, who cannot perform Chomangkan for their departed families, their soul wanders into the unknown world of the dead. It is as if only the rich gets the privilege of entering the Heaven. Again in the ceremony of the Chomangkan, there is frequent use of slang words in the main event. The use of these slang words in Karbi is known as ‘Kapa-er’. The slang words stands for the reverse for the deceased in their land of dead. Everything is just the opposite between this world and the other world. Supposing, while welcoming back the souls to earth, the Ubokpi serves them food and drink with her left hand, but for the dead it would occur as if serving them with her right hand. The uses of slang words or adultery words are the good words in the land of the dead. So the aged man thinks whether in the coming future, the younger generations are going to accept this culture of using the slang words as it is said that at the present time the use of such words has been reduced by the huge masses. The student’s youth association in has totally banned this practice of culture in Chomangkan as according to them it is a bad sign of celebrating the ritual performance of death. Another point is that since most of the people are educated how are they going to revive their culture and in what form. Most villagers, those who are living in the plains of Assam are not performing the death ceremony for decades. So the people living in the Hills of Karbi Anglong

55 have a great fear, as the people in the plains, are killing their traditional cultural practices by not performing the death ceremonies for their ancestors. The youth and aged man living in those villages have not seen Chomangkan in their life, even once. Whether this is a negative or a positive sign is a serious question to the people. Again since it has not been performed in the plains of Assam the culture is getting extinct and also this may lead to the loss of oral traditions because the younger generations who are educated might not find it acceptable to learn it from their elderly people which they may think as a waste of time. They may also think that the practice of such ritual might not safeguard their future. Therefore, the people taking part in Chomangkan are mainly the concerned about the expenditure they have to meet if they are performing any kind of Chomangkan which also require money for the families’ daily bread and butter; again only the rich would get the privilege of entering the gateway to heaven.

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56 Culture of Co-existence: A Study of the Relationship between the Tiwas and the Environment in the of Assam Gargee Phukan Abstract The article discusses the relationship between man and environment in the context of the Tiwa community to bring out the folk beliefs and practices of the community which are also related to agriculture. Issues like the impact of shifting cultivation and its impact on the environment, community fishing and the animal sacrifices which are made at the time of various religious ceremonies with particular reference to the plain Tiwas who reside in the Morigaon district are taken up for consideration in the study. I found that there are some unique characteristics in the Tiwa community in terms of their relationship with the environment; various sacred places play an important role in maintaining an ecological balance. Tribal communities have a symbiotic relationship with the flora and fauna of the forest. The value of the forest goes beyond questions of survival, satisfaction of their wants and commercial exploitation. Because of it, the tribal communities have an inbuilt concern about nature and its importance in the tribal customs and traditions. Keywords: Tiwa, folk belief, agriculture, environment, tradition Introduction All community life involves methods of grouping and grading people for the effective carrying out of the various types of activity demanded by their common existence. Community life also involves systems of beliefs and procedures by which activity can be guided and controlled. Social control includes the general system of technical and empirical knowledge by the aid of which people manipulate much of their environment and also the systems which regulate magical and religious behavior in particular. Social control is a regulative factor in community life. From the day of his origin, man has constantly been trying to adjust himself in accordance with his surroundings. Similarly, human societies have since their inception been developing mechanisms of managing the natural resources to meet their needs and greed, according to the values and norms, that have grown among the members of society through time. These norms, values and procedures became embedded in the social structure of each community, and, helped its members to manage the natural resources on a sustainable basis. Moreover, many species of plants and animal life are interdependent for their sustenance, growth and development. Such mutually beneficial interdependence is called a symbiotic relationship. Thus, environment plays an important role in the formation and development of society and culture. The environments, natural,

57 man-made and social are deeply and intricately related creating a relationship often referred to as the “eco-system”. The Tiwas (a scheduled tribe) are an indigenous community of Assam in Northeast India. Their original home is believed to be in the Tibet region, but their migration to the plains is shrouded with mystery (Thakur, 1985). In Assam, they have been living in both the hills and plain areas. Tiwas are primarily agriculturalists; rice is the staple food and locally brewed rice beer called Chu is a popular alcoholic drink. Tiwas are expert in bamboo, cane and wood works (Thakur, 1985). Tiwas observe elaborate festivals, which are closely linked with the worship of different deities. Tiwas have been living in both the plains and hill areas in Assam. Concentrations of the plain-Tiwas are prominent in Nagaon, Morigaon and Kamrup districts, while the Hill-Tiwas are mainly confined to western most part in the Hamren subdivision of . Tiwas living in the hills of Karbi Anglong district constitute the Hill Tiwas. The article includes the relationship between man and environment of the Tiwa community to bring out the folk beliefs and practices of the community and the folk beliefs which are related to the agriculture. Issues like the impact of shifting cultivation and its impact on the environment, community fishing and the sacrifices which are done at the time of various religious ceremonies with particular reference to the plain Tiwas who reside in the Morigaon district shall be taken up for consideration in the study. Historical Background of the Tiwas The Tiwas or Lalungs inhabit the Nagaon, Karbi Anglong, Kamrup, Morigaon, and Khasi-Jayantia hills of Assam and Meghalaya. Formerly they lived both in the hills and plains. Now-a-days the Tiwas of the plains are going through a transitional phase from the matrilineal to the patrilineal forms of societies; in contrast, the hilly Tiwas are still maintaining their tradition. It is a fact that the ancestors of the Tiwa people of the plain are the Jayantias. The strong reason behind this is that the language of the Tiwa and the Jayantias are almost the same. Again the rituals, religious beliefs are also similar. But the dominance of in the plains has resulted in certain changes. The Tiwas are divided into twelve exogamous clans: Morrong, Madan, Moloi, Dafan, Hukai, Amehi, Kush, Chalang, kokher, Amchong, Deofang, and Loram which are further divided into sub-clans. They use surnames like Deka, Raja, Bordoloi, and a few others. Community endogamy is common though inter-communal marriages are found nowadays. The community professes Hinduism; Lord Shiva is the supreme God. Besides they worship a number

58 of benevolent and malevolent spirits of “Ghar-bura”, “Zeto”, “Deuri”, and “Heri-Konwari” who are their spiritual guides. They are non-vegetarian; fowl and pork are their delicacies. Pork and chicken are essential items in their socio-religious ceremonies. They take locally brewed rice-beer in their day to day life and as well as in the religious ceremonies. It is offered to God also; guests are also entertained with rice- beer, chicken and pork. The Tiwa or Lalung are a tribal community inhabiting the states of Assam and Meghalaya of north east India. The Tiwas are closely associated with the principality of Gobha. Gobha Raja belongs to the Tiwa clan and his territory covers more or less the entire Tiwa cultural realm. The Tiwas are one of the major tribes of north east India, which performs mosaic performances. Most of their folk songs and dances are associated with various types of beliefs. The lullabies of the Tiwas reflect their belief in rebirth, which is one of the chief beliefs among the Tiwas. Apart from this, the folk songs and dances are performed to praise the God of agriculture. It is believed that only if they make her happy, she will create a healthy harvest. The role of king, known as Gobha Raja is very strong among the Tiwas and has been so from the ancient time. It is believed that the king is possessed by the deity, which is why he is called ‘Deuraja’, meaning ‘the king who is related to their ‘Deity’. Tiwa is the only tribe of north east India that has intercultural relationships with the Khasis and Karbis, Bodo and Kachari. It is believed that they are in a sibling relationship. Many legends surround the history of the Tiwas, making their origin rather uncertain. (Thakur, 1985) The ‘Tiwas’ are one of the major ethnic groups of Assam. Their main concentration in Assam is found mainly in Nagaon and Morigaon district. They are Indo-mongoloid people and more specifically had originated from the Bodos bearing flat nose, straight hair and wide faces with scanty beards and moustaches. As the Lalungs landed on the plains following the course of the river Brahmaputra, they introduced themselves as ‘Tiwa’ to the inquisitive non-‘Tiwas’. It is quite probable that ‘Tiwa’ derives its origin from the term ‘Tibbatia’ meaning people hailing from Tibet. In course of time this ‘Tibbatia’ might have changed into ‘Tiwa’. It is believed that in ancient times the three great divisions of the Bodos namely ‘Tipra’, ‘Tiwa’ and ‘Dimasa’ lived along the banks of a lake near Tibet. In course of time they entered Assam through the north east passes. The local people could not pronounce ‘Tifra’ and thus in their tongue ‘Tifra’ became ‘Tippera’. ‘Tiwas’ introduced themselves as ‘Tiwa Libing’ or ‘Tiwa Libung’. In course of time the prefix ‘Tiwa’ was eliminated and in place of ‘Libing’, Lalung came to be used.

59 Lalung concentrations are mainly found in the district of Nagaon and Morigaon in middle Assam. They are spread in Kapili, Mayong, Bhurbandha, Kathiatali and Kampur Development Block areas of Nagaon and Morigaon District and the Nartiang Elaka of Jowai Sub-Division of Jaintia district of Meghalaya. Besides there are a few Lalung village in Dhemaji areas of Dhemaji Sub-Division of , Titabar areas of Sub-Divisions of and Sonapur areas of . The Lalung villages of Morigaon, Nagaon, and Karbi Anglong district are situated in the hilly areas or in the foothills. It is to be noted that the topography and ecology of the plains and hills have influenced the Lalungs considerably so much that certain aspects of socio-cultural life of the hill Lalungs became distinct from that of the plain Lalungs. Thus food habit, dress, pattern of the houses, agricultural pattern etc. of the hill Lalungs are different from those of the plain Lalungs. The Lalung villages of Morigaon and other plain districts are not exclusive areas. They are inter-spread with non Lalung villages can be approached by a well-organized road communication. (Sarma, 2014) People often use “folk belief” to refer to superstitions, and unorthodox religious and medical practices. This view of folk belief reinforces a perception of already marginalized people as more exotic and backward than previously imagined. Understood in this way, folk beliefs and practices provide valuable clues into how people construct their worlds and bring meaning to experiences. (Bado, 2011) Along with traditional beliefs and practices, each group creates new forms of folk belief through exposure to unfamiliar terrains, conditions, and other groups. Folk beliefs thus reflect a dynamic process of tradition making, with plenty of room for individual variations and stylistic differences along with cross-cultural sharing within the region. Folk belief takes on a regional flavor through the response of people to their immediate natural world. Ethnic communities are frequently formed on the basis of shared languages. The members of an ethnic community share a common sense of identity, in which the notion of common origin plays an important role. A completely formed ethnic community is a social organism that reproduces itself primarily through ethnically homogenous marriages and the transmission of, for example; language, culture, traditions etc. Ethnic communities which are subjected to change in the course of such ethnic processes as consolidation and assimilation strive to establish their own social territorial organization in order to achieve a more stable existence. (Bado, 2011).

60 Tiwa beliefs regarding agriculture: The Tiwas believe that ploughing the field should start in the month of “Magh”. The first day of the ploughing should be a holiday. Ahu rice should not be sown on Tuesday or Saturday. After cropping Ahu rice one must bring a little bit of soil from the field and keep it in the granary. During the time of harvesting many beliefs and practices are witnessed. There are certain beliefs in respect with paddy cultivation. The spreading of seeds should start on Monday and harvesting on Wednesday. A ceremony is observed in connection with the beginning of the process of Ahu paddy cultivation. On the stipulated date the head of the family invites the neighbours with their ploughs. Thus with the assistance of the neighbours, spreading operation is completed on the auspicious date. That day the family must take special curries prepared out of gourd, plum, and chicken. ‘Chu’ forms an essential item on this occasion. Apart from agricultural folk belief, they have belief regarding time, weather, guests etc. They do not perform certain deeds on certain days such as cutting hair, bamboo etc. on Tuesday and Saturday. They do not eat some vegetables on specific days. If they see a pair of birds in courtyards they believe that some guest may come. ‘Dhanar Muthi Lowa’- The families among whom the ‘Barghar’ of the ‘Bangsha’ is established, have to observe certain customary rules regarding sowing and harvesting operation. They observe one festival at the time of sowing which is known as ‘Dhanar Muthi Lowa’. The ‘Gharbura’ and the ‘Hari Kunwari’ cleans the house early in the morning. Some rice powder and leaves of ‘Banmala’ tree are soaked in a bowl near the ‘Thuna Khuta’ of the ‘Barghar’. Then the ‘Gharbura’ takes a small chicken and prays to the lord. The bird is sacrificed over the mixture of rice powder, ’Banmala’ and water. The blood is smeared in the ‘Thuna Khuta’. The ‘Gharbura’ takes the seeds kept near the ‘Thuna khuta’ and proceeds to the field where he spreads those in the field at first with left hand and then with right hand. The other villagers are also invited to the field to plough the fields. It may be mentioned that this ceremony is used to designate one as ‘Borzela’. A few elderly persons wrap some balls of soil in a cloth and hang it on the shoulders of the prospective ‘Borzela’. His hands are tied on the back and he is required to proceed to the house that has arranged the ceremony. He comes to the ‘Barghar’ and sits on the eaves till the members of the family receive him with due honour. He is honoured with a chicken and a pot of ‘Chu’. At noon a feast is

61 arranged. At the time of eating the mixture of ‘Banmala’ leaves, water and rice powder is sprinkled over the persons. It is believed that the mixture is the boon given by Goddess ‘Lakshmi’. “Nara Siga Khowa”- On the last day of harvesting the relatives and neighbours also assist the individual households. On the very day after one month (or according to the convenience) a feast is arranged where the villagers, who take part in the harvesting are invited. ‘Chu’ is also arranged. This is called ‘Nara Siga Khowa’. People possessing more than 15 bighas of agricultural land seek the assistance of ‘Hauri’ (a traditional cooperative organization). The Lalungs begin their agricultural operation in the month of April when the preliminary ploughing is done. The first ploughing makes the furrows in the fields. This is essential because unless the earth is furrowed and the roots of the previous year’s harvested paddy are turned up before the onset of summer, the earth becomes very hard for subsequent ploughing. The second ploughing is done in the later part of the month of May. Side by side with the second ploughing of the fields the seedbed is made ready for sowing. Generally sowing is done in the month of June. For sowing, an auspicious date is selected in consultation with the astrological book that they follow. Before this date, the seeds are taken out from the store house and processed in water. The seeds are carried to the seedbed on the auspicious date by the headman of the family and are distributed. A scarecrow is fixed in the centre of the seedbed in order to scare away the birds. Ploughing of the plots is continued for the months of June and July. Thus regular plots are ploughed thrice with interval of 10/20 days between each ploughing. The plot is ready to receive the seedlings and transplanting starts in the later part of July and continues till September. The rice begins to ripe between the months of November and December and the village is busy in harvesting the paddy during these months. Harvesting is done by both the sexes. The operation is started on an auspicious date and the first bundle is carried home on the same day. The first crop called ‘Lakhimi’ is welcomed home with a song called ‘Ahoy Lawa’. The paddies stalks are cut with sickles and bunch are made which are left in the fields for several days to dry in the sun. A few days later the men folk make big bundles out of these bunches and carry these to their granaries on shoulders or on bullock carts. ‘Hauri’, ‘Mai Rawa’, ‘Mai Misawa’ By the middle of December the harvested paddy is collected. Those families which possess more than 20 bighas (about 7 acres) of agricultural land seek the help of the entire village

62 community, a system known as ‘Hauri’. The villagers cut the stalks of paddy along with the rhythmical songs. This is called ‘Mai Rawa’. The community harvesting is always associated with dance and merriment. The young people carry the paddy bundles by singing ‘Mai Misawa’ songs. Separations of the grains from the stalks are performed by two methods. The first and the most popular method are with the help of bullocks. Some big bundles of paddies are spread in the courtyard and two or four bullocks are allowed to make rounds over it. When the bullocks make hundreds of rounds extending over two or three hours, the grains are separated from the stalks. The men folk remove the stalks and gather the grains, while the women folk remove the chaff with the help of winnowing fans. ‘Mai Pathala’- The second method is easier and is generally preferred by the younger people. A group of young men dance over the paddies spread in the courtyard with the rhythmical tunes of ‘Khram’ and songs. This is called ‘Mai Pathala’. The storing operation continues till February. Hunting and Fishing- Among the Lalungs continuity-hunting is fast disappearing. It was reported that sometimes certain individuals indulge in secret hunting. Bow and arrow, dao and fire-arms are used for individual hunting. Fishing is very popular and very frequently carried out in the winter season. People go out for fishing individually or in groups. In group fishing the Lalungs adopt the following methods: Bare hand method: The villagers adopt bare hand method conveniently in the winter season when the water level of beels and drains recedes. In small pools of water they effectively apply the free hand method and grasp the fish in water blind folded. This method requires alertness and practice. Using fishing implements: In winter season the beels and streams have scanty water. Groups of people go to a beel or stream and construct artificial barrier with mud. After that the entire group of people suddenly jump over the barricaded water and catch the fish with the help of fishing implements like ‘Pala’, and ‘Juluki’. During summer season fishing nets are used for individual fish catching in the rivers. Bamboo traps are also used in the paddy fields to catch the stray fishes that emerge just after the first heavy showers. Fishing traps like ‘Chepa’.’Dingora’, ‘Cek’, ‘Dalanga’, ‘Pacha’ are used.

63 From ancient times, every community has a tradition of conserving patches of land in each village, which contain palm leaves or bamboos and are considered sacred, and sometime, sacred groves were dedicated to some deity and kept free from all exploitations. The groves are identified by different local names in different parts of India. In north eastern states, the name differs from tribes to tribes. Whereas, most of the plain tribal community example- Deori, Tiwa, Sonowal Kachari, Rabha etc, call them as Thaan. Similarly, in some areas groves are regarded as abode of the spirits of their ancestors, often referred as burial groves. The religious attachment to the sacred groves varies a lot among different communities. Among the Tiwas, there is a provision of common granary where each family have to contribute about 35 kg of paddy after the harvest. In time of crisis, the individual family may borrow paddy from this granary, but they will have to return it with an additional amount of 17 kg per 35 kg of paddy. The Tiwas also need a variety of wild paddy, which is grown only in the hills, to perform a ritual. During Lakshmi Puja, they select few pre-pubescent girls, who are given the task of collecting a particular type of paddy from the hills. This type of paddy grows naturally in the midst of stones; since the shape of the place is almost like a Jakoi i.e. fishing basket and is commonly known as Jakoi Sila Dhan. In the meantime, the villagers collect a handful of grain from each household and gather it in a common place. Then, the wild grains which are collected from the hills are mixed with it. These grains are again distributed among the families, who then preserve the grains for the next year’s cultivation. It is believed that this act will give a good product to each household. As they are aware about its customs and beliefs, they take care for the growth of this wild paddy in the forest. Such incident naturally reminds us the man-nature relationship. (, 2009) Shifting cultivation of the Tiwa community: Shifting cultivation is regarded as one of the traditional methods for cultivation in hilly areas of tropical regions in which forest vegetation is cut and burned on site. The site is cultivated for food crops and when the final crop is harvested; the site becomes fallow and is allowed to regain its natural forest cover. Shifting cultivation also known as Jhum cultivation, have a rich traditional ecological knowledge base and remains an important component of North East India. Vegetation and land characteristics of North East India are heavily influenced by Jhum activities which have greatly amplified in recent decades with increase in human population, resulting in severe fragmenting of previously undamaged forest tracts. (Kaneria, 2012). Shifting cultivation is symbolised as a distinct stage in the history of economic development of the mankind and a

64 primitive system of land-use particularly practised on the hill slopes of North Eastern Region (NER) which is locally known as Jhumming which is a system of cultivation representing the indigenous form of agriculture. The cropping patterns in Jhum cultivations are mixed cropping vary from tribe to tribe within a region. The farmers of shifting cultivation grow food grains, vegetables and also cash crops. (Sakia, 2014) This is practiced in the following sequence  Selecting a forest patch and clear; fill the vegetation normally in December and January.  Burning of the vegetation. Small, cut-trunks portion and roots are normally not removed. The herbs, shrubs and twigs and branches (slashed vegetation) are burnt in February and March.  Sowing of seeds, by dibbling, generally of cereals, vegetables and oil seeds in April-May.  Continue cultivation for a few years.  Abandoning the cultivated site and shifting to other forest sites.  Returning to the former site, and once again practice shifting cultivation on it. (Phukan, 1990) Ecological problems due to shifting cultivation: The current practice of shifting cultivation in eastern and north eastern regions of India is believed by many to be an extravagant and unscientific form of land use. For instance, Upadhyaya (1995: 5) points out that “under the present circumstances of social and economic change, shifting cultivation is not a viable solution in the long run”. The evil effects of shifting cultivation are devastating and far reaching in degrading the environment and ecology of these regions. The earlier 15-20 year cycle of shifting cultivation on a particular land has reduced to 2-3 years now. These have resulted in large scale deforestation, soil erosion and nutrient loss, and invasion by weeds and other species. The indigenous biodiversity has been affected to a large extend. (Upadhyay, 1999). Having said this, there is also a belief among scientists and economists that shifting cultivation may not be so bad and harmful after all. Fox, for instance, argues that though traditionally it has been believed that jhuming and shifting cultivation harms ecological balance, it is a fact that “a new look at how forests fare under shifting cultivation (as opposed to under permanent agriculture) clearly demonstrates that efforts to eliminate the ancient practice have actually contributed to deforestation, loss of biodiversity, and reduction in carbon storage” (Fox

65 2000: 1). Thus, the practice of shifting cultivation which is prevalent among the Tiwas cannot be discarded as a pre-modern, unscientific form of cultivation anymore. Religious Beliefs of the Tiwas: The religion of the Tiwa is based on beliefs in some deities. Their religion can be considered as one of the branches of the Hindu religion. They are Saktas (except the Vaisnava converts) but their images used during puja are not the same as those used by other non-tiwa Saktas. The officials entrusted to perform religious ceremonies are ‘Loro’, ‘Deori’ and ‘Changmaji’. The ‘Gharbura’ not only presides over the pujas held in ‘Barghars’, he also offers oblations to the ancestors of a ‘Khuta’. Lord Mahadeo (Shiva) is their supreme God. He is a benevolent god who showers blessings upon those who worship him with devotion. All worships begin with a prayer to Lord Mahadeo. ‘Kailash Parvat’ is considered as the holy place for the Tiwa as it is the abode of their lord. At the time of performing any religious ceremony they pray to the God to bring the ancestors to Kailash-‘Kailash Maname’. They worship many deities and ‘Borghar’, ‘Thanghar’ and ‘’ are the places of worship. The Borghar has two altars, one for the main deity and the other for ancestors. Near the altars ‘Rongdoswari and ‘Maidoswori’ are placed. ‘Rongdo’ means rice and ‘Maido’ means paddy. Every year newly harvested rice is kept in a pot near the altar and that is called ‘Rongdoswori’. Similarly, new harvested paddies are kept in a pot near the altar and that is called ‘Maidoswori’. Pujas are held in the ‘Borghars’ where ‘Gharbura’ and ‘Hari Kunwari’ play the major roles. On the day of puja the ‘Hari Kunwari’ cleans the house, while the ‘Gharbura’ wraps ‘Batas’ full of betel leaves and nuts with banana leaves and places those in different places. Prayer may be performed either by facing towards the east or south depending upon the construction of the house. If the ‘Borghar’ is constructed in the east-west direction then the prayer should be held facing towards east, but if the same is constructed in north-south direction then the prayer should be performed facing towards south. The ‘Borghar’ is constructed as a very sacred place by the Lalungs. If any member of a ‘Khuta’ proceeds to a distant place, he offers prayers before the altar of the ‘Borghar’. Unlike ‘Namghar’, the ‘Borghar’ cannot be used for holding any ‘Mel’ or discussion. In their prayers the ‘Gharbura’ utters ‘Mantras’ which differ from clan to clan. The ‘Mantras’ are unwritten and the ‘Gharbura’ learns those from his predecessors. The Lalungs refer to the ‘Mantras’ as ‘Bedang’.

66 The Tiwas observe the following religious practices every year. The reason behind looking at these religious practices is to highlight the fact that these practices have very often evolved out of man’s attempt to make sense of the world around him. For the Tiwa, living in the precincts of his ancestral village, living a life that is separated from the environment is unthinkable. ‘Deo-Sewa’: ‘Deo-Sewa’ is normally observed in ‘Kati-Aghon’ (October-November) when new areca nuts are ready for offering to the deities. In some villages, this ‘Sewa’ (or worship) is observed in the month of ‘Bhada’ (August-September).On the day of the puja the ‘Barghar’ is cleaned by the ‘Hari-Kunwari’.This puja is observed in order to make the villagers self-sufficient with the bare necessities for the year. ‘Kalika’ Puja: ‘Kalika’ is worshipped in order to get an increased yield of the crop as well as to improve the health of the people. The puja is observed in the month of ‘Kati’ (October-November) to propitiate goddess Kamakhya. ‘Bhakat Sewa’: Every ‘Khuta’ observes ‘Bhakat Sewa’ in the month of ‘Aghon’ (December/January).Early in the morning the ‘Gharbura’ offers prayers to the presiding deities of the ‘Bangsha’ with betel leaves and nuts. After the puja the elderly persons of a clan sit in the courtyard of the ‘Barghar’ facing towards the western direction. The ‘Gharbura’ of the ‘Bangsha’ and other members sit in front of them. Plates, (Bata) of betel leaves and nuts and a pot of ‘Chu’ are placed before the elderly persons of the clan. Then the ‘Bhakats’ or the elderly persons of the clan pray to God and to the ancestors to bless the villagers with peace and plenty for the year. ‘Ai bhagawati’: The pachorajia Lalungs worship ‘Ai Bhagawati’ with great reverence. It is believed that ‘Ai Bhagawati’ brings peace and progress for the villagers; therefore she is worshipped by the women folk every year in the month of ‘jeth’ (May-June). ‘Than Worship’: Besides the ‘Bangsha’ or ‘Khuta’ worships, the entire village community observes certain pujas during a year. Such community pujas are observed in the ‘Thans’ which may be established in a village or in a cluster of villages. During puja, sacrifice must be offered to these deities. But nowadays in many villages sacrifice is not offered in the ‘Than’ puja. Instead of sacrifice, ‘Nibut’

67 or ‘Naibedya’ is offered which contains gram, banana, and betel leaves and nuts etc. Thus ‘Vaisnava’ influence is noticed in their traditional puja system. ‘Hogora Puja’: ‘Hogora Puja’, also called ‘Basanti Puja’ is observed mainly by the Lalungs living in the foothill areas such as Kathiatali, Kandali, Deosal, and Manpur as an annual religious festival. This puja is observed in the ‘Samadi’. It may be noted that ‘Samadis’ are fast disappearing from among the plains Lalungs and thus ‘Hogora Puja’ is also disappearing in the plains. This puja is observed for flourishing crops and the same is concluded by planting trees. Besides these the Lalungs perform ‘Lang Thun Puja’ (for construction of a house), ‘WasiSawane Puja’ (cutting of thatches) in different occasions throughout the year. ‘Kalikajari’: The elderly Tiwa believe that on the western boundaries of the Mikir Bheta Mauza there was ‘Than’ where goddess ‘Kali’ was worshipped. A legend prevalent among the Tiwas reveals that one Sri Runu Bordoloi was able to win confidence of the Ahom King by capturing a garlanded white elephant belonging to His Majesty. To commemorate the valour of Runu Bordoloi the king asked to dig one tank in the name of Runu Bordoloi. Even today one traces a tank called Runu Pukhuri in between Bhomoraguri and Longamukh. Incidentally it may be mentioned that the Lalungs have a proud tradition of capturing wild elephants.

‘Sokra Misawa Festival’: “Sokra misawa festival” is an important festival of the Tiwa community. This is a one kind of spring festival of Tiwa community. Sokra misawa is a Tiwa word. In the word “Sokra” ‘so’ means son and ‘kra’ means elder person and ‘misawa’ means dance. This festival arranged in the month of March and April in English calendar and in Assamese Fagun-Chait of spring season. So the festival must begin on this day. The main feature of this festival is that all the young boys and elderly people dance together and so it is known as Sokra-Misawa. The people perform the ‘Lungkhum’ and ‘Mahadeo puja’ before the formal dance. One pair of pigeon, one duck and one goat are sacrificed before these deities. Women do not take part in this; men can take part in the ritual only if he wears his traditional dress known as ‘Tagla’. Without wearing this dress no one can participate in this festival.

68 ‘Song Kong Puja’: ‘Song Kong Puja’ is directly related to cultivation. It is a cult of the deity to get good sunshine and rain for the welfare of the cultivation. They follow patharpura and patharpuri, the god and the goddesses of weather, with different mantras. Without completing Song-Kong Puja no Tiwa people can afford to go to the field for ploughing. If somebody does that, he is to give a fine of rice beer and red hen. ‘Wansuwa’: ‘Wan ‘means Pitha and ‘suwa’ means to grind. The dance and music of the puja is related to cultivation also in the time of autumn season. This festival and puja is used to hold once in every five years. It is a much expensive festival. In this festival comic relief is provided by using a joker (silika). He is given a lot of respect. The silika makes people laugh by his deeds and words. ‘Individual Household Worship’: Besides the community worships, the Lalungs observe certain individual household worships like ‘Baro Janiya Bhakat Sewa’ ‘Na Janiya Bhakat Sewa’, and ‘Sat Janiya Bhakat Sewa’. For these ‘Sewas’ ‘Bhakats’ of other clans are also invited who are entertained with a sumptuous feast. The ‘Barajania Bhakat Sewa’ is a costly affair as in this Sewa, twelve ‘Bhakats’ of different clans are to be invited and a feast with pork has to be arranged. In ‘Na Janiya Bhakat Sewa’ number of bhakats are limited to nine. The food items have certain specifications. Only white fish (Barali) and white vegetables (white water gourd) and red fish (Rohu) and red vegetables (Pumpkin) are used on this occasion. ‘Sat Janiya Bhakat Sewa’ is arranged with black fish (Sol, Magur, and Kanwai) and black vegetables (Sesame or banana sprouts).The ‘Bhakat Sewas’ are arranged for the general welfare of the family members. Besides these, the individual households perform other rituals to appease the evil spirits. ‘Sanidaka’ is observed in some families to appease the ‘Saturn’. ‘Moral Puja’: Some families observe ‘Moral Puja’ in the rear courtyard of the house. The courtyard is cleaned nicely and seven circles are made with charcoal powder, turmeric and rice powder. In the center of the circle an egg is placed. Betel leaves and nuts are placed in the lines of the circle and in between the lines earthen lamps are placed. The entire circles appear to represent nine ‘Grahas’ (Planets) with the sun in the centre. The Deori chants mantras and breaks the egg in the centre of the circles. If the colour of the yolk is black then it is considered as ominous. The ‘Maral’ Puja is

69 observed when a member of the family suffers from chronic illness. At the end of the puja, the circles are rubbed and the effected person is bathed on the place with magical water. Community fishing in Junbeel Mela: The Junbeel Mela is a significant example of maintaining the ecosystem through traditional, indigenous practices. The existence of a number of water sources (beel) and the cultural characteristics of a community fishing among the Tiwas have developed the community gathering initially, and later on, it gave rise to community fairs and festivals which also have historical significance. This Junbeel Mela indicates the impact the environment on community life and vice versa. Community fishing is also common affair among the Tiwas, particularly in the winter season, when the water level of the beels and rivers go down. Tradition of community fishing among the Tiwas has provided an opportunity in developing a mela (or fair) popularly known as Junbeel mela in greater Dimoria area with the passage of time. Originally, the kings of Gova, Dimoria, Neli and Khola collectively took the decision to hold this get-together. But, presently the Gova, Tiwa, Dimoria Raja solely declare the holding of the mela. The unique feature of this mela is that the Barter system is still prevalent in it. In the past, men’s needs were limited and they were mostly catered by the nature. But in course of time when community life developed, exchange of different products became a necessity. So, barter of goods came into existence. Significantly, exchange of goods takes place primarily among the hill tribes of Assam and Meghalaya and the plain people. The tribes barter edible products such as ginger, turmeric, chilies etc. and procure various traditional cakes, rice powder, dried fish etc from the plain people. (Barua, Conservation and management of Community and Natural Resources: A Case Study from North East India, 2009) Magico-Religious Beliefs in Respect to Death: The Lalungs believe that death is delayed due to illegal or unjust activities during the past years. It is also believed that one suffers at the time of death because of his participation in crimes although he might not have committed the offence himself. If a person dies with all his desires unfulfilled, his soul soon gets rebirth. If rebirth does not take place soon, then his soul disturbs the people in the form of evil spirits. The owl’s hooting near the house of a sick person is considered as ominous. The hill Lalungs can tell the cause of death by observing ashes. When the dead body is removed a heap of ashes is made in the place where the dead lay before carrying it to the cremation ground. The ashes are refined with the help of a sieve and the sieve is left over the

70 ashes. After returning from ‘Makar’ the heap of ashes is observed. If there is any footprint of human being then it is believed that the person died because of the magic applied by man. If however, there is a footprint of animal then it is believed that the cause of death is natural. Bursting of the bamboos of the pyre is considered as ominous for the members of the household of the deceased. Similarly bursting of the eyes indicates that the soul will not be freed from rebirth. The faces of the jealous, liar and sinner are not burnt easily. Also if anybody dies with a desire to see someone, then his face is not burnt. Someone has to place firewood in the pyre in the name of that person. A belief which gets circulation among the Lalungs is that the face of the singers of ‘Bhuyan Geet’ or ‘Barakulia Geet’ does not burn unless someone sings such songs in the cremation ground. Dying on Tuesday or Saturday is not considered auspicious for the family. After seven days of the death, the elderly members of the family go to the cremation ground and observe the cooked food and rice that are kept at the pyre at the close of the cremation. If the cooked and non-boiled rice remains untouched then it is believed that some near relative may die or natural calamities may occur in the village. A man may be killed by applying ‘Lakam’ (a poisonous herb). This ‘Lakam’ is mixed with betel leaves and nuts or with rice beer and the intended victim dies after some months. Death may be due to natural causes or due to magic. They consult ‘Giyani’ (Magician) to ascertain the cause of death. The ‘Giyani’ prescribes means by consulting the ‘Dhal Bidhai’ (a dice of magician). It is a taboo to enter the granary or the ‘Barghar’ during the unclean period. This period ends on the third or seventh day when the ‘Tamol Bata Phurua’ (offering prayers to ancestors) is observed at the ‘Barghar’. The soul of a person, who dies a normal death, not by suicide or accident, visits the house by taking the shape of a dove. A piece of banana stem is placed by the side of the dead body of an unmarried person while carrying the body to the cremation ground. Tiwa religion is not a code of sophisticated theological doctrine, or some teachings. It is an integral part of the overall pattern of social conduct in all spheres, secular and spiritual. Individuals, who play specific roles in the socio-religious activities, have no sanctity about them and their importance varies, according to the basic purposes of the ceremonies in which they participate. The religious ceremonies are intricately related to the different stages of cultivation of paddy.

71 Conclusion The environment plays an important role in the formation and development of society and culture. The environment is everything around us, man being the central point. With his knowledge and ability, he has also made use of the environment to build machinery and various constructions for his own comfort. Moreover, he has used society as a tool to pass on knowledge, thought and behaviour to himself and the following generations in order to live in the society happily and usefully. The mutual interdependence between nature and man plays a significant role in shaping a society. It is a fact that diversity in nature exists due to human culture, but it is equally correct to say that cultural traditions helped in conserving the natural diversities; both are the two sides of the same coin. In a small tribal society, the community life or man-nature interaction may easily be focused. Conservation of environment has been regarded important for development. To balance with the environment man has to adjust with the natural resources for their livelihood. Further such knowledge system, which is conceptualized as Indigenous Knowledge System (IKS), is handed down through oral tradition as well as through various sacred rituals, cultural practices and beliefs in which they remain embodied. During my field study, I found that there are some unique characteristics in the Tiwa community in terms of their relationship with the environment; various sacred places play an important role in maintaining ecological balance. Tribal communities have a symbiotic relationship with the flora and fauna of the forest. The value of the forest goes beyond questions of survival, satisfaction of their wants and commercial exploitation. Because of it, the tribal communities have an inbuilt concern about nature and its importance in the tribal customs and traditions. As the indigenous people live in close proximity to nature, they develop various conservative measures for the security of their community. Depending on the environment and cultural values, the procedures of utilization of natural resources vary from community to community. Having said this, it is also a universal fact that human beings are always aware of the need to balance the ecosystem and to maintain harmony with nature. No doubt the various socio- cultural beliefs and practices emerged in course of development of human society; but they also reflect the unwritten laws for their action. Different communities maintain their indigenous ways to manage the community resources in terms of food, storage, wild herbs and shrubs for their benefit. The sacred conservation practices, superstitions, religious taboos and prohibitions no

72 doubt play an important role in protecting the natural resources and thereby managing the ecosystem. In my paper, the two main issues which have the potential of generating conflict with the environment in the Tiwa are those of “Shifting cultivation” and the “Sacred Groves”. Land ownership is an important factor in determining the land use pattern under shifting cultivation. The land used for shifting cultivation is generally owned by the village community. Land is owned by the village community or clan and also in the cases where individual right to cultivate on specific pieces of land is recognized, the selection of the site for cultivation in a particular year is made jointly by all the people in the village. The jhum land in the village has a uniform period of rotation or cycle depending on the men-land ratio in the village as a whole. As a pressure of population in a village increases, this cycle gets adjusted accordingly. The productivity of shifting cultivation depends on the jhum cycle. The longer the jhum cycle, higher is the productivity. One of the demerits of jhumming also lies in the fact that while a hectare of land can produce crops only once in several years depending on the jhum cycle under settled farming the same yield can be produced under multiple cropping with scientific management under irrigation, producing two or more crops. Another environmental problem of jhum cultivation is that leaving the land to rest or in fallow for a year or more for purpose of recuperation means perhaps a great national waste. Thus shifting cultivation is one of the greatest threats to the biodiversity of the North East of India, destroying about 10 million hectares of tropical forests annually. It also leads to an adverse effect on ecology and environment. In the long run shifting cultivation nudes the hills covered by beautiful forest, drain the generative soil down the hills and generally increase the dangers of soil erosion. The soil which was built by nature over the centuries runs down the slopes in a matter of seasons leading to erosion, and loss of fertility. Having said this, the practice of jhum is intimately integrated with the socio-economic fabric of the rural society in North East India. It is generally accepted as a rather egalitarian mode of production, with women playing an important economic role, and almost completely lacking in feudal fetters. The practice plays a central role in uniting villages and clans, as well as integrating the people with local modes of commerce. It can also be said to be a positive trend, and there is a need to consider the importance of jhum to rural populations in North East India, as well as the

73 central role it plays in ensuring food sustenance through an egalitarian co-operative mode of agricultural production. (Saikia, 2014) In the past protection and conservation of the sacred groves were closely linked with the religious beliefs and traditional culture of the indigenous tribal communities all over the world (Malhotra et.al, 1997). The cultural heritage thus survived through generations, but preservation is now fast eroding due to change in social set up, increased consumerism for better living and change in the belief system of the people attributable to modern system of education (Rao, 1996). Therefore, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to protect sacred groves indefinitely only on the basis of religious beliefs. There is a need to revitalize the age old ethos of conservation culture of traditional societies by supplementing these with scientific knowledge about the crucial role these forest patches play in conserving biodiversity and providing large number of valuable good and vital ecological services to the people living around the sacred groves. Therefore, urgent interventions are required for the conservation of these forest patches.

Glossary Ghar-bura, Zeto, Deuri and Hari Kunwari:- Spiritual guides of the Tiwas. “Chu”:- Traditional alcoholic drink of the Tiwas. “Deo Raja”:- The king who is related to the deity of the Tiwas. “Lal”: Saliva. “Barghar”:- Prayer hall. “Thuna Khuta”:- A thread which is meant to be pure for the Tiwas. “Bor Zala”: Designation of the Tiwas. “Hauri”:- A traditional co-operative organisation. “Mai-Rawa”, “Mai-Misawa”:- Rhythmical song of the Tiwas. “Khram”:- Dhol. “Palo” and “Juluki”:- Fishing implements. “Jakoi”:- Fishing basket, commonly known as Jakoi Sila Dhan. “Loro Deori” and “Changmaji”:- Religious ceremonies. “Kailash”:- Holy place for the Tiwas. “Thanghar” and “Namghar”:- Holy places.

74 “Rongdoswari”:- Rice. “Moidoswari”:- Paddy. “Bata”:- Plate made of metal. “Mel”:- Discussion. “Bedang”:- Mantras. “Sewa”:- Worship. “Ai Bhagawati”:- A female goddess of the Tiwas who is worshipped by the women folk. “Than”:- Holy place for worship. “Samadi”:- A youth dormitory. “Wasi Sawane Puja”:- cutting of thatches. “Lang Thun Puja”-A puja which is done for the construction of the house of the Tiwas. “Sokra”:- (so)= Son, (kra)= elder person. “Misawa”:- Dance “Patharpura” and “Patharpuri”:- God and Goddesses of the Tiwas. “Wansuwa”:- (wan)= Pitha, (Suwa):- To grind. “Silika”:- Joker. “Makar”:- Graveyard. “Lakam”:- A poisonous herb. “Giyani”:- Magician. “Dhal Bidhai”:- A dice of magician. “Tamol Bata Phurua”:- Offering prayers to the ancestors of the Tiwas.

References Baruah, Indira. “Conservation and Management of Community and Natural Resources: a Case Study from North East India”. Studies of Tribes and Tribals 7(1): 39-46, 2009

http://www.krepublishers.com/02-Journals/T%20&%20T/T%20&%20T-07-0-000- 09-Web/T%20&%20T-07-1-000-09-Abst-PDF/T&T-07-1-039-09-183-Indira- B/T&T-07-1-039-09-183-Indira-B-Ab.pdf Accessed on 11th May 2015.

75 Borah, Manashi. “Culture Change in a Tribal Society”: A Study on the Plain Tiwas of Assam. PhD Thesis, Department of Cultural Studies, Tezpur University. 2009

Deuri, Maneswar. “Tiwa Samaj”. Assam Sahitya Sabha, Jorhat. 1983.

Gohain, Birendra. “Continuity and Change in the Hills of Assam”. Karbi Anglong District, Assam, 1994.

Phukan, Umananda. “Agricultural Development in Assam” (1950-1985). New Delhi: Mittal. 1990.

Saikia, Surajit. “Shifting Cultivation and Environmental Problems in North East India” in Journal of Economics and Business. Vol (1) No-1. 2014. https://www.esiangluit.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/P-JEBS-1.6.pdf Accessed on 11th May 2015

Sarkar, Rajib. “Socio-Cultural Profile of the Tiwa Community-With Special reference ‘Bunduragaon’ Kampur”. MA Dissertation, Department of Cultural Studies, Tezpur University. 2006 http://www.ijpab.com/form/2014%20Volume%202,%20issue%202/IJPAB-2014-2-2-142- 148.pdf Accessed on 11th May 2015.

Thakur, G.C. Sharma. “The Lalungs (Tiwas). Tribal Research Institute, Assam. 1985. Yadav, P.K, Kaneria, Manish. “Shifting Cultivation in North East India”. 2nd National Conference on Environment and Biodiversity of India. New Delhi. 2012 https://www.academia.edu/3067626/Shifting_Cultivation_in_North-East_India Accessed on 11th May 2015.

76 Fig: 1- Jhum cultivation

Fig: 2- Deforestation caused due to Jhum cultivation

77 Fig:3- Community fishing in Junbeel Mela

Fig:4- Traditional cockfight in Junbeel Mela

78 Fig:5- Barter System in Junbeel mela

Fig:- Grinding of rice done in Wansuwa festival

79 Fig: 6- Barat Utsav

80 About the Contributors

Leensasri Gogoi has completed M.A from the Department of Cultural Studies at Tezpur University. She has worked under the supervision of Dr. Parashmoni Dutta for her M.A dissertation and presently pursuing M.Phil in the Department of Culture and Creative Studies at NEHU.

Chakri Bhodhimani has completed his M.A from the Department of Cultural Studies at Tezpur University and presently working as a research assistant at Mahidol University, Thailand.

Rubiram Timung has completed his M.A from the Department of Cultural Studies at Tezpur University.

Gargee Phukan has completed her M.A from the Department of Cultural Studies at Tezpur University. She has worked under the supervision of Dr. Debarshi Prasad Nath for her M.A dissertation.

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