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Stigmatized as ‘head hunters’ the tribals of Nagaland,
considered wild and uncivilized, have nevertheless a lifestyle that
is fascinating and unbelievable.
The north-east of India
is a region of ethnic diversity inhabited by an innumerable variety
of tribes professing a wide range of religions, culture, languages
and social systems. Among them is the tribal group called the Nagas.
Nagaland – the home of Nagas emerged as a new State of India in
1963. Nagas are not a single homogeneous people but a composite of
some 18 tribes speaking about 30 dialects. And yet there are distinct
features of similarity amongst them. They are a hardy people, warlike
and sternly elemental. They have common food habits, strong
resemblance in the various items of their dress as also their mode of
agriculture. Until 1958, they practiced head-hunting which earned
them both the curiosity and stigma of the outer world. They are, by
and large, gay and carefree with an extraordinary capacity for
enjoying life.
Before Christianity
entered their lives in 1851, they believed the doctrine that
attributes spirits to surrounding inanimate objects and to natural
phenomenon. The Sema tribe of the Nagas had an innate belief in an
unseen higher power that regulated human destiny and, as such, was
entitled to obedience, reverence and worship. They believed in
three separate categories of spirits. The foremost of them was the
Creator holding dominion over the process of creation. The second
category related to the spirits of the sky such as angels and the
third consisted of the group that inhabited the earth among human
beings. While the Creator was beneficient and benevolent, the spirits
of the second and third categories were malevolent and had to be
propitiated with sacrifies and rituals. The Nagas have a deep faith
in the soul which transmigrates after the death of person. The head
being the receptacle of the soul was, therefore, regarded as an
object of immense vitality and creative energy. Head hunting was
propelled by the desire to acquire a head for retention in one’s
house or village which would, as a result, be blessed with human and
animal fertility. The head of a woman with long hair was specially
precious, as it would stimulate an abundance of food crops. The taker
of a head gained fame for prowess in the art of war and was,
therefore, sought after by young girls.
The practice of
head-hunting was accompanied with a variety of other social and
cultural activities. It stimulated the carving of wooden heads marked
with prominent features and mobile expressions which were worn like
medals by the proud, successful head-hunters. Dancing, drinking
(local rice beer) and merry-making followed the head-hunt.
Head-hunting also
inspired the weaving of special textiles of choice colours and
designs for use as shawls by the head-hunter to identify his
heroism. Strong and vigorous figures were carved in bold relief out
of wood and fixed to the baskets of the warriors, indicating the
number of heads taken. Such wooden figures were also kept in houses
as prized trophies.
Dances were also inspired
by head-hunting, especially after a victory over an enemy village.
Dances are, in fact, a regular feature of Naga life which signify
rhythm, physical robustness and flexibility. Naga dances are
invariably group dances – solo performances are non- existent.
They put on their traditional regalia in full finery including the
weapons of war- spears, hatchets and self-made muzzle loading guns.
The Naga tribes have a
marked community and cooperative spirit. Thus for events demanding
considerable labour and physical input such as house-building or
preparing the cultivation field for agriculture, the entire village
manpower gets mobilized. This collective spirit enables them to share
the burden of the unfortunate handicapped individuals or those
impoverished by disease or inadequate resources.
Their daily life is
governed by an ancient tradition of a customary code of laws which,
although unwritten, are universally understood and zealously
pursued. The village councils among the Ao and Angami tribes
representing a democratic apparatus made up of village elders or the
chieftains’ rule as among the Konyak, Sema and Chang tribes,
function as court of trial and justice against crime. The judicial
process which is simple, quick and final rests on the truthful
nature of the criminal. For example, an Angami cultivator once used
a stone to drive out a cow that had intruded into his field.
Unwittingly, it lamed the cow. Before the aggrieved owner of the cow
could report the offence to the village council, the cultivator
voluntarily confessed his misdeed to the council and accepted the
punishment.
The Nagas live amidst
mountains that slope forth into an endless succession of spurs and
saddles traversed by innumerable rivers, streams and rivulets
carrying clear gurgling water from the lofty springs lodged in the
natural catchment areas of the Patkai Hills. The territory is rich
in flora and fauna, particularly orchids such as the Blude Vanda, the
Red Vanda and the various species of Dendrobium, that bedeck the
lush green woods. The Phek District of the Chaksang tribe is
particularly picturesque with its groves of pines.
The Nagas produce a
variety of food crops but their modes of agriculture differ from the
evenly grade and irrigated terraces of the Angami tribe to the
primitive, laborious and destructive ‘slash and burn’
operations of the Sema, Konyak and Sangtam tribes. They grow paddy,
Job’s tears, maize millet, chillies, oil seeds, pulses and a
number of beans. Among the vegetables, cucumber, gourd, and pumpkin
are common. The seeds of chenopodium murale and the leaves of
a wild aubergine are used to produce yeast. Rice bear, locally
brewed, has nutritious value and is used in three forms: as
fermented liquor, infused beer mildly fermented. Before drinking,
Nagas generally pour a few drops on the ground or blow upon the
surface of the drink to drive away the spirits.
Their food consists of
rice or millet accompanied by vegetables, fish and meat. Nagas are
fond of chillies and can fill their mouth with chillies and nothing
else as if they were chocolates. No part of the animal body is wasted
in that they eat the skin, and intestines too. Creatures with soft
bones, such as birds and frogs, are eaten in total, bones and all.
Their diet is strengthened by a sub-tropical array of fruits.
Oranges, particularly of a sweet taste and heightened citric flavour,
flood the lower hill ranges of the Ao, Angami and Lotha tribes.
Papayas and guavas are plentiful and pineapples may weigh as much
as five to six kilogrammes. Nagas do not eat crows because these
birds eat human corpses; the owl is shunned because it is an
‘idiot’; the brain-fever bird is also shunned lest the
consumer should acquire its incessant reiterated outcry. Such
prohibitions apply to certain other animals and birds, the list being
longer for women than for men.
Illness is treated by the
use of herbs and animals apart from religious and magical
proceedings. A wound is treated with chewed tobacco or chicken’s
gall. For fever, a grasshopper type of insect is toasted and eaten.
Diarrhoea is treated with the leaf of a local shrub. The flesh of the
black squirrel looks after a headache, while the bitter red flower of
a creeper can terminate a cold and cough.
Certain Naga tribes –
the Aos and Semas, claim special kinship with the tiger and the
leopard. Some of them believe in a twin-soul relationship with them.
When a headman of an Ao village fell on the ground with an acute
prickly sensation in his sides, he had an explanation for this. He
said that his twin-soul tiger companion was passing through a jungle
of prickly bushes and shrubs. This phenomenon which is much more
than mere lycanthropy extends over a number of individuals.
The last two decades
have, however, brought a sea change among the Nagas. A string of
colleges and hospitals have been built and State transport vehicles
ply over a network of roads bordered by shops and emporia selling
the latest consumer goods. Nagaland now has radio and television
transmitting stations and its government and private enterprise have
embarked upon tea cultivation and the manufacture of paper, sugar
and liquor based on local raw materials. The modern industrial
culture has overtaken the past.
With the spread of education and
expanding opportunities for development, a band of Naga doctors,
engineers and administrators constitute their own professional
cadres. Modern urban centres have appeared at the capital, Kohima,
and the seven District Headquarters. The older traditions and ways
of life have given place to jazz and jeans. But they continue to
display their corporate spirit, moral and physical toughness, open
heartedness, generosity and a warm hospitality. In the remote corners
and the rural sector, however, the evidence of the earlier rich
socio-cultural heritage is markedly in evidence. The caves and
hollows of their mountain habitat continue to resound with the sound
of their songs and the powerful stamping beat of their earth-shaking
dances. Above all, they remain a dynamic, life-loving people.
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