There is a less publicised annual 'festival' which is way older than the Hornbill Festival describable as "Yimchunger / Tikhir Slug-fest". It is an unending saga of a relentless struggle by the Tikhirs for their separate identity from the Yemchunger Tribe which has caused bloody skirmishes and loss of lives over the years along the way. It is a complex high tension emotionally charged confrontation that has been recurring every year for the past couple of decades and has consistently caused law and order situation in Tuensang and Kiphire Districts. The Government ought to have been better prepared to tackle this kind of Church or a student initiated conferences rather than take a last minute fire fighting option. Yet again the Government has been caught with its pants down. Considering the fact that this is an un-healing sore, one would have also expected that the Government by now would have given serious cognizance and taken some concrete steps to give its verdict as to whether Tikhirs should be recognized as a separate Tribal entity or not for better or for worse... rather than allow this festering hatred to grow amongst brothers unattended to for so long. This is identical to our accusing the Government of India of their callous indifference towards our Naga political issue.
As an Administrative Officer posted to Kiphire a long time ago when it was still an Additional Deputy Commissioner Sub-Divisional out-post, (1983 to mid-1986), my Officers and I had suffered undue discomfort of dealing with this intense law and order problem during January 1984 and onwards. This story has been recounted in my recently published autobiography titled "Encountering Life" (at page 163-171) and therefore is not being repeated. However, apart from the core 'identity' issue, the point being registered here is that this highly aggravated emotional and physical confrontation is normally being enhanced beyond limits because both Yimchungers and Tikhirs (Y & T) are in the habit of selecting villages/ stations that have their mixed population. There is a very serious subconscious misconception amongst them that the group which succeed in holding such Church/Student Conferences in such mixed inhabited village/station gains greater legitimacy of claim over that establishment. Having identified this to be the nucleus issue from the perspective of law and order maintenance an administrative order was issued to both Y &T forbidding them to hold any religious or Student Conferences in a mixed populated village/station. Violating this dictate would result in such conferences being disallowed with full administrative force. As a result the pre-located Tikhir Student's Conference at Phokphur that year was disallowed on ground that this was a mixed populated village. They were however given an option to choose a Village that was entirely inhabited by Tikhirs alone. The Tikhir students gracefully opted to shift their Student Conference from Phokphur to an alternative Anatanger Village in 1984. The attempted opposition from the Yimchunger was with less degree of aggression and finally petered out before the conference was held... after the Deputy Commissioner Tuensang had assured the Yimchungers that he would personally chair a coordination meeting between them (Y & T). This was simply a successful fire fighting conclusion but certainly not a solution to the core issue.
This is where the Government needs to sensitively take stock of the gravity of this situation and take an immediate gutsy stand on a war footing and constitute a High Powered Commission carefully inducting unbiased, uncompromisingly fair minded people from: (a) legal setup with experience (b) administrative setup with experience; and most importantly (c) few respected retired DBs from other major Tribes (preferably from Tuensang/Kiphire Districts) to assist the Commission to analyse the traditional/ customary implication and points of argument that will invariably come up in the due process; This Commission must be given sufficient time to traverse the difficult length and breadth of Y & T inhabited areas and have full legal authority to dig deep into the matter of traditional history and be prepared to declare its verdict without fear or favour.
On a long standing controversial issue such as this, it will extremely be a difficult task to find an entirely amicable solution acceptable to both the parties. It simply means that the Commission would need quality time expenditure to thoroughly understand the traditional, emotional and psychological background of the two conflicting entities through honest interaction on both sides of the Y & T fences. Once the verdict is made public the follow on objection/ agitation from either side of Y & T may be anticipated as a short term reaction but will become less sustainable in the long run, once the rationality of a well considered verdict of the Commission is upheld by the Government. The ground reality would also be absorbed by Y & T eventually. The basic prerequisite for this Government without Opposition is that it must firmly make up its mind and find its apolitical manhood to let this happen. This is a problem the Government of Nagaland has allowed to fester for too long a time. It's about time for a final settlement.
Khekiye K. Sema IAS (Rtd)
