A long drive in the region

Across the Chicken Neck – Travels in Northeast India

Nandita Haksar

Rainlight

RUPA

2013

Share some snippets from different parts she moved along – some on account of their pertinent questions and some my bias towards forests.

Some words that describe the book

Pluses

Well-researched, gives a feel of the region, puts forth facts without fear ~

Minuses

Amateurish at points, too much of 'I' factor, can do with editing ~

Nagaland

Around me I see many tourists, Indian and Western, furiously taking photographs of the cultural troupes. What strikes a discordant note is that all the hundreds of photographers and tourists, not a single one bothers to pause and speak to any of the dancers. No one seems to want to hear their stories, to share their concerns, or to understand the difficulty of keeping alive a culture which has lost much of its meaning under the onslaught of organized religion. I am also disgusted by how the officers of the Indian security forces are brought by their soldiers to have photographs taken with the Naga performers. This is unashamed voyeurism.

Manipur

When I expressed my desire to meet Irom, he said that the jail authorities do not allow anyone in without going through a long process, one even her mother has to undertake each time. I had gone to the then chief secretary of Manipur; D. S. Poonia, an acquaintance from my JNU days, who told me it would not be possible for me to meet her. When I had asked what rules applied to her jail visits, he had replied, “Mine”. It is extraordinary that I was allowed to meet Mohammed Afzal Guru, a man convicted of conspiring to attack the Indian Parliament, in jail, but was prevented from meeting Sharmila, a woman protesting in the classical non-violent way.

Jaintia Hills ~ Meghalaya

Impulse, a Shillong based NGO, has estimated that there are 5,000 privately owned illegal mines in the Jaintia Hills in which up to 70,000 children from Assam, Bangladesh and Nepal engage in what is known as rat-hole mining; a graphic, apt description of the hot, humid and dangerous work.

Khasi Hills ~ Meghalaya

Mawphlang is involved in a unique REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) project run by a US based NGO – CFI (Community Forestry International). As part of the project the sacred grove as well as 150 hectares of forest adjacent to it are to be protected. In return, annual payments at the rate of 20 dollars per hectare for the high value core habitat and 10 dollars per hectare for the adjoining forest will be paid. According to CFI the Mawphlang project will generate an annual income of 6,200 dollars in addition to reducing overall carbon footprint. The West has found a clever way of continuing to live unsustainable lifestyles while making people of the Third World grateful for the pittances they hand out.

Garo Hills ~ Meghalaya

In the past, the most important item of trade was cotton. In 1839 alone, the Garo bartered some 50,000 maunds of cotton with the Nagas. But with the arrival of the British – who flooded the market with foreign textiles, closed down the cotton mills of Bengal and demarcated international borders – trade was badly affected. The British also banned the Garos from the elephant trade by passing a law which made the colonial rulers the only legal owners of elephants in Garo Hills.

An earlier post on cotton here.