The recent spate of ex-communication of Ao citizens by Ao senden is burgeoning to an alarming proportion. It has raised more questions than offering solutions. The Ao Senden being the highest decision making body of the Aos, it has been created with a spirit to safeguard the rights of the individuals to foster relationship and unity among the Aos and with other fellow Naga tribes. The chungliyimti civilization and its inception of the Ao Naga customary laws, the Aos has been entrenched their customs and traditions with truth, justice and social efficacy from generation to generation as one cannot tainted this for his selfish gains either political or social trend. The Ao Senden decisions are taken purely based on Ao Naga practices. However, today the actions of which often conflicts with the popular government mandated under the Indian constitution or with traditional village government are observed.
Traditionally, each Ao village used to be a sovereign village nation with its citizens answerable to it and the village accountable to the citizens. No external formation had any role in the administration of the village. This traditional village governance structure called the Putu Menden, Samen Menchen are headed by Ungri, Tsunger and its subordinate is recognized today under the Indian constitution. The Putu Menden/ Samen Menchen with full mandate of the respective villages has the legal authority to punish any wrongdoing citizen under the customary law following the norms with intimation on the culprit family or clan (kidong) in order to witness the case. The punishment may range from fines, stripping of official positions in the village, confiscation of property, physical labour and in extreme cases, corporal punishment. Ex-communication of a citizen from the village is also one of the extreme and rarest of the rare kind of punishment. Such cases can be counted on the finger till date. These practices are judgment of sacred and are executed in realistic which cannot be misused.
Having said this, it has been observed that there are certain technical difficulties in acting upon this decree of ex-communicating an Ao citizen by Ao Senden. Had this diktat come from a village to which the person belongs, the action could have been rendered tenable. Also, if Ao Senden regards an Ao village as subordinate to it, and the village accepts the superiority of Ao Senden over it the village should first ask/direct the village Putu Menden to disown its citizen, which could later be ratified as per the constitution of the Ao Senden.
As I assume that the debate will continue further, I will conclude here by emphasizing a couple of important points
1. The Customary law and practices which are almost uniform among all the Ao villages. Therefore it is imperative today to carefully study whether the actions of Ao Senden excommunicating an Ao citizen is sanctioned by the Ao Customary law. If the answer is positive, then their action is justified under Article 371 A. If not, then the community is setting a very dangerous precedence which will have adverse impact on the socio-cultural scenario of the Aos!
2. We have seen instances in the past when disagreements erupted between Ao Senden and different Ao village establishments. Time has come now to settle all pending issues between these entities in the best interest of community living. And to do this, the deliberations at the Federal Assembly or Presidential Council of Ao Senden are not adequate. To make the discussions more meaningful and the decisions acceptable to all, consultative meetings with adequate representations from all Ao villages/ General Body and all sections of the community will be an urgent necessity.
