: In this column we will be featuring the writings by award winning women journalists in India found in the collection of the book ‘Making News Breaking News Her Way. It is a publication by Tranquebar Press in association with Media Foundation, New Delhi which instituted the annual Chameli Devi Jain Award for an Outstanding Women Mediaperson in 1980.
Tiamerenla Monalisa Changkija
New vistas in journalism in Nagaland
[dropcap]J[/dropcap]ournalism has several dimensions and with today’s rapidly changing human equations, newer ones keep emerging. Despite limitations of education and exposure, I have tried to look at Naga society professionally. This society is dynamic, constantly moving forward as well as backward, often simultaneously. For me it is in a perpetually multi- directional motion, a characteristic not peculiar to it, but one that is often ignored when issues concerning it are discussed, not least the Naga political movement, also known as insurgency.
The Nagas live with different realities in different worlds of time and space because of the differences in the kinds and levels of education, exposure and experience. We, Nagas, are homogenous racially but not so politically or culturally. This has enabled various forces and factors to impede our development as a modern and stable society. Modern education came with the advent of American Baptist missionaries in the nineteenth century. Unfortunately, it was aimed at making Nagas good Christians, giving up heathen and pagan ways to become loyal subjects of the British Empire. This entailed cessation of activities such as head-hunting that would imperil peace and harmony under British rule. Modem education was indeed a blessing but it was designed more to make us docile tribals than to inculcate modernity. Even today, we have more theologians than carpenters, cobblers, engineers, doctors, teachers and other nation-builders.The value system embedded in such an education has left an indelible mark, and today we can see how political ideology is mixed up with biblical verses and theological doctrines and positions. Even today, we have people who believe that Naga sovereignty has been pre-ordained by God. This belief has been easy to pass down to children growing up within the confines of their villages but, meanwhile, Nagaland has seen rapid changes in the aftennath of World War II and with the departure of the British. A new generation of children has grown up in towns and semi-urban areas, which has enabled them to see and think beyond the confines of the village. Thus was created another Naga society.
If we juxtapose Naga society with Naga politics today, we can begin to understand the dynamics of what is happening in terms of a clash of ideas and political cultures. I would define over-ground state politics similarly. Interestingly, whether in the rural or urban areas, the minds and hearts of the vast majority of people are now focused more on education and economic empowerment rather than on political empowerment. This has changed the calculations of both underground and over-ground politics and intensified the struggle for supremacy between them. The Government of India is well aware of these developments and it plays various economic, political, cultural and military cards in turn to ensure that Nagaland remains an integral part of the country.
Howsoever diluted, Naga culture and traditions which are protected by Article 371 (A) of the Indian Constitution drive the Naga society. And we, Nagas, as a people, have found it convenient, especially economically, to play multiple roles, particularly by playing the political card to secure benefits from a constant state of disorder. A state of flux suits us well. This also suggests that the Naga people are frightened of change and have found comfort in the status quo. The role and responsibility of the Fourth Estate in such an environment is very complex.
It is not easy to make people understand that a state of flux is inimical to development and progress; and that this state of flux is not the same as being ‘socially fluid’, a term sociologists use to describe a dynamic society. One of the problems we confront is that while Naga society yearns for change despite being chary of it, it is equally unwilling to let go of the debris of the past. So, yes, Naga society is a partially dynamic society r -partially because, while in some ways we are socially fluid, in several other ways we do not really ‘thrive on change’; another term sociologists use to describe a dynamic society.
Change is frightening to sections that aspire to power in Naga society. In the forefront is the political class, which can be nationalist, regionalist, over-ground, underground and in- between at the drop of a hat, as the situation demands. The political class and the economic elite in Naga society are conjoined twins. Their interests reign supreme and all political, economic, social, cultural, traditional, religious cards are played to protect these interests. The agenda of the powerful and the moneyed has not changed since colonial times, and today’s aspirations for an equitable, corruption-free, empowered, liberated, emancipated, progressive and technologically innovative society are still a distant dream for the Nagas.
Against this backdrop, it is unfortunate that our intellectual class is yet to design dreams and carve a direction. While the number of women and men acquiring high university degrees is increasing by the day, there is no commensurate blossoming of new ideas to improve the lot of the ordinary citizen. Our ideologies have not moved since we came into contact with the British. Are we then averse to the very idea of change?
A cursory look at our literature, visual and performing arts, indicates that, even today, we nurture what our forefathers internalised after being introduced to Christianity. One of the newer traits we have internalised is victimhood. While Naga society is very assertive of its identity, we are not quite sure what our identity is, other than not being ‘Indian’. We have lost two generations of young people, especially boys, to drugs and alcohol and today we find our young people easy prey to the flesh trade and other social ills and evils.
The Nagaland government legislated thirty-three per cent reservation for women in all municipal bodies in 2006, but this is yet to be implemented because tribal hohos (organisations), comprising only males, oppose reservation for women in such bodies on the ground that traditionally, women have been barred from the decision-making process. Municipal bodies do not come under the purview of traditional customary laws, but patriarchal Naga society resists change, especially if it alters power equations and concomitant economic benefits. No political entity, over-ground or underground, dare risk displeasing the all-male tribal bodies whose patronage is important to attain and remain in power. The Government of India has turned a blind eye to gender issues in Naga society even as it conveniently remembers other provisions of the Constitution vis-a-vis other aspects of Naga society.
Political power and economic clout are with the men though they may hold diverse and conflicting political views. In fact, divergent political views and ideologies are just strategies to further enrich themselves. So although originally economics was not the basis of the Naga movement, it today is the main, perhaps the sole factor, that guides it. The common people are too engrossed in eking out a living in this inequitable social environment to fully appreciate the reality. Our newspapers are full of political propaganda with little space devoted to the woes of ordinary citizens, which the state administration attributes to the Centre’s neglect of the state and region. Government employees find a good excuse in the ‘undergrounds’ for their non-performance. There is little that is not on sale.
In a society in which people think it is normal to have two birthdays, one biological and the other ‘official’, sometimes the entire concept of the Fourth Estate, a free and independent Press becomes superfluous. What does one say to people who think that it is permissible to be dishonest in some areas, but at the same time are intolerant of other’s dishonesty? True, journalists are not supposed to solve society’s problems but, at the same time, today, when the common man looks up to the media as his only hope, how do we make him understand this reality and convince him that unless he changes there is no hope for him? How to change a tribal for whom the traditional and the cultural is sacred? How to change a person at whose head the gun is perpetually pointed?
Nevertheless, if Naga society endures, it is because of strong community bonds supported by a set of equally strong traditional structures.
The Nagaland print media draws inspiration from the seeds sown in the 1960s. Until the 1980s, there were only weeklies, which contributed tremendously towards the growth of the dailies that came up in the 1990s. I started writing for NagaIand Times, a Dimapur weekly, in April 1985, when I came home for primary data collection for an MPhil on Rural Development I was pursuing at Delhi University. Writing was seductive so I dropped my academic pursuits. Since journalism was neither controlled by the government, nor by the underground, nor over-ground political class, or the traditional centres of power, we were the much-maligned pariahs. It is not as if these weeklies did not have political ideologies and affiliations. The Dimapur-based Nagaland Times and Ura Mail, both defunct now, were the mouthpieces of two political parties. I had columns in both.
Working for party organs, but trying to de-politicise public- interest issues and create awareness amongst our people was a challenge. I took up issues such as health, education, women and gender rights, environment, army atrocities and harassment, poor roads and communication systems –issues that concerned the people. Threats and physical assaults on journalists were routine. And both over-ground and underground elements resorted to the same methods to ‘teach us a lesson.’
When I started my own newspaper, Nagaland Page, from Dimapur in May 1990, I changed the perspectives of our readers and made them realise that development issues were actually political by nature and were of greater importance than ‘politics’. So issues such as the absence of teachers and medical personnel from schools and health centres, and absenteeism from government officer were front –paged. Other newspapers followed suit. Rapes and reports of domestic violence were also prominently featured, compelling the police and district administration to book the culprits. Photographs and reports of roads inundated by monsoon rains or buried under landslides, Water-logging in low-lying towns, the absence of drainage systems and the dismal state of urban sanitation Were regular Page 1 news.
Hearings on rape used to be the sole prerogative of tribal courts or unions. Till as late as the 1990s, rape was adjudicated by customary laws, until we created awareness that our daughters and sisters were worth more than a pig or the few thousand rupees fine that were imposed on rapists after which they Were set free. Women’s groups in Nagaland are today actively pursuing women’s empowerment as intrinsic to development. The perceptions and perspectives of both the government as well as underground factions have undergone a sea change.
I have used (misused) my professional status to seek funds for an alternative school for Working children. This is now a thriving institution. I have also tried to procure funds for non-Naga women who ardently wish to read and Write but have had no luck because our people are still too obsessed with the locals-versus-non-locals issues. An editorial I wrote around 2000 criticising the way students would call for bandhs on the slightest pretext led to a gherao of my office. My point was that bandhs adversely affect students and are harmful for the economy.
The new vistas of journalism I have written about above, are opportunities and challenges inherent in situations like those in the North-east and in Jammu & Kashmir for journalists to reach out to the people, not only through the printed word but also by communicating with them on a one-on-one basis, participating in their lives and trying to ease hardships through recording and sharing their narratives. To me, ‘new vistas of journalism’ means playing by ear, and making rules along the way to strengthen the very best of the modem and progressive democratic and development ideals. Every soil must produce what is most suitable and essential for its social environment.
Tiamerenla Monalisa Chyangkija is among Nagaland’s leading journalists and the founder-editor of Nagaland Page, a daily newspaper published from Dimapur. She is a founding member of the North-east Editors’ Initiative, and a poet and writer of distinction, whose work has been recognised by the Poetry Society of India. She is a member of the Planning Commissions Working Group on Women’s Empowerment. The North-east Zonal Cultural Centre and the Indian Red Cross. Tiamerenla Monalisa Chyangkija won the Chameli Devi Jain Award in 2009. She shared the award with Shoma Chaudhury.