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Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Inside Camp Hebron

So we're back in Camp Hebron--headquarters of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland ( Isak-Muivah) faction. Formed in 1980, they are in a struggle with the Indian government for a greater Nagaland. Their primary demand is the formation of a Greater Nagaland with areas that has Nagas in the Indian states of Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and also some portions of Myanmar. NSCN-IM considers these areas to be part of Greater Nagaland or Nagalim.

Singing for the cause of Nagalim--Greater Nagaland.

This is an NSCN-IM military training session in progress. And that is Azeno looking into the camera. A 22 year-old cadre, she is here to "serve the nation".

As I have mentioned in my previous post, the NSCN-IM has been in a ceasefire with the government of India for the last 13 years. Other than minor technical yes or nos not an inch has moved forward in the Indo-Naga peace talks in all these years. And no one seems bothered about it, other than the occasional statements. Since 1997 there have been sixty rounds of talks that have been held in Paris, Bangkok, Zurich, Geneva, some unspecified location, Amsterdam, Hague, Dimapur and New Delhi. As I write this post, the present round of talks is being held in New Delhi.

The cadres go through a full training cycle for our cameras. They repeat, some sections of the drill for our filming. Don't know how many cameras they have faced before. Inside the camp the cadres seem trapped in time fighting for a sixty three year-old cause that probably holds little meaning in 2010.

These are some of the cadres at the camp. I don't know if they have much of an option but to stay with the "council".

Young cadres of the NSCN-IM at Camp Hebron. " We are serving the nation and NSCN-IM is the right choice" --that's their line. Everyone in the camp believes in this.

After an extensive shoot, once we are done, the cadres are allowed to go back to their camps. They are most happy and relieved to be over and done with this sudden filming session.

Almost at the end of the filming. Self-styled Lt Rex with my cameraman Mukut Medhi.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Still Talking

On March 2, Thuingaleng Muivah, Chairman of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland is supposed to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Muivah reaches Delhi from Amsterdam tonight ( 11.30 pm IST/27th Feb). What are we expecting? Nothing probably. There have been 50 rounds of talks between the Government of India and the NSCN-IM, in Amsterdam, Paris, Bangkok, Geneva among other locations. So far, no one has been able to achieve anything. The ceasefire between NSCN-IM and Government of India ( signed in 1997) is still on. Everything seems to end there. Asia's oldest insurgency or movement for recognition of the Naga identity still continues in Nagaland. I took this photograph at the NSCN camp in Nagaland, few years back. I will be visiting this place again on Monday ( March 1), just to get an idea what people are thinking not just inside the camp, but also in Nagaland about Muivah meeting the Prime Minister. How much relevance does a Muivah visit still have?

The photograph above was taken at the NSCN-Unification faction camp in Nagaland. It was a faction formed by Azeto Chopy. I visited this camp in 2008--the year of state elections. Lack of unity among different groups is also one reason why the Naga talks have often failed. (NSCN-Khaplang is another prominent group that needs mention.) But lack of unity is of course not the main reason for failure to arrive at a solution. The games played by the Indian government, Intelligence Bureau, Indian Army for votes and making one faction fight another are well known.

Link to an old post when I visited this Camp in 2008

http://orijitsen.blogspot.com/2008/04/nagaland-elections.html

Friday, February 19, 2010

Report Card

A poster of Indian leaders in the classroom with no teachers (classroom pic below)

This classroom has no benches and right now no one introducing these students to the alphabets. There is one teacher. She runs from one classroom to another, taking two classes simultaneously

It is more than learning your name, and going by an all India Educational Survey conducted by Union Ministry of Human Resources Development these children are at the lowest rung of the education ladder. According to the survey, out of nearly 3 lakh school teachers in Northeast, only 45 % teachers are qualified to teach. The India average is 87 %. In this school in Assam with nearly 300 students there is only one qualified teacher out of a staff of four.
Our Education Minister, Harvard-educated Kapil Sibal wants a uniform syllabus across India, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has directed state education department to include computer science as a compulsory subject. But with schools and classrooms like this, it will require more than computers and a syllabus, for these prayers to be heard.

Our filming began with a retake of the school prayers.

This is my favourite photograph

ADDENDUM: This is a link to Shailendra Pandey's essay Too Tired To Teach: They travel long hours---On Foot, Carts And Cycles, Leaving Home And Kids. Photographer Shailendra Pandey Tracks The Lives Of Women Teaching In Government Schools in Uttar Pradesh ( View the Slideshow also)

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main43.asp?filename=cr270210too_tired.asp

Friday, February 12, 2010

Farewell to arms?

These are the faces that had unleashed a reign of terror in the Karbi Anglong district of Assam for the last 6 years. Four hundred and eight militants of the Karbi Longri National Liberation Front laying down arms hoping to talk about 'self-rule" with the UPA government. Each surrendered militant will get 2 lakh rupees as a one time grant from the state government and will move to designated camps. I met Habe Tokbi the chairman of the outfit. "No one can guarantee. If problems are not solved, then? After independence sixty years is over. But no development in Karbi Anglong", he said. More than 10,000 square kilometres of Karbi Anglong lie trapped in underdevelopment and terror.The Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council is present in pen and paper. Corruption, clashes between Karbis and Dimasas and attacks on Hindi-speaking migrant labourers from Bihar and Nepal have held back any progress. It is also unfortunate that it takes a militant group, a government to legtimise violence and talk development at a so-called arms decommissioing ceremony. Something that takes place often, almost as a routine in some states of northeastern India.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Music from the margin

(H Kerious with his grandson)

H Kerious Wahlang is a poet/ Khasi (folk) musician based out of Meghalaya. A self-taught musician, who makes his own musical instruments, Kerious stays in a village near Shillong. He has been on All India Radio since 1979. Kerious is okay with rock'n roll but wants people to listen to his music also.His voice is divine. His poetry beautiful. When we reached his home Kerious cancelled another appointment and stayed back for a recording/filming session. Kerious got emotional after his performace with the marangthin ( seen here in photograph) and broke down.

Making Music

(Lou Majaw/Shillong, January, 2010)

Anjum Hasan in her essay, Shillong, Bob Dylan and Cowboy Boots captures the spirit of music in Shillong and the magic, music and madness of Lou Majaw. " Shouldn't a singer who takes the risk of living entirely by an image of the 1960s western pop musician, who genuinely considers himself an artist, who displays a great deal of cheek and naughty humour, who sings with seductive charm, be the most sought after role model of Shillong's west-infatuated youth? But he isn't. His concerts are only attended by faithfuls, and are rarely sell-outs. I don't know how many young people would be able to identify his songs. He is recognised on the streets of Shillong less for his music, and more because he has great style......And the west is near, and yet so far. Bob Dylan could be a local hero, the way devotees sing happy birthday to him each year. But despite these birthday parties, he will never age. The words of his songs will remain frozen in memory, Cowboy Boots will do Dylan-voiced imitations every 24th of May, while all around him life in Shillong ebbs and flows to the rhythm of some other, less audible music."

True to his promise Lou Majaw, arrived with his six year old son. Majaw, in his signature shorts and shades walked in like a rock star. And without wasting any time started to sing. A self taught musician, he has been walking along the long and winding roads of Shillong for the last six decades, spreading the spirit of music

Shillong's western music soundscape and indeed India's has always had a definite space for Majaw. He started his career in Calcutta in the Sixties. Majaw shot into prominence with the Great Society, a seminal band that was formed in the late 70s. "I came across Bert Cooper. He was a drummer. There were two of us. Then I came across Arjun Sen. That's how the Great Society was formed. We made a contribution to the field of music, through poetry, music. that's it" But what would make a permanent impression on the rest of India, would be the Bob Dylan concerts Lou decided to organise in Shillong in 1972, to celebrate the birthday of Bod Dylan. Majaw's dream is to sing on stage one day with his son. His son is called Dylan.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Resistance

(Manjula Rabha)

(Birobala Rabha)

These are some of the faces from Thakurbilla village. Post office: Borjhora in East Garo Hills. When iPods, LCD screens, Macbooks and Big Bazaars are ruling India, almost unknown to the rest of the country, some women in this village are slowely but surely fighting superstition, age old beliefs and witch-hunting and the brazen murders that take place in the name of witch-hunting. Leading the fight is Birobala Rabha. She is around 75. Birobala was one of the one thousand women nominated in a group for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. We visited her village for filming a report. There was warm food, adda, music and stories. In 2010, when urban educated India are immersed in the "art of living" , Birobala and her village appeared to be refreshingly, utterly, wonderfully resistant to regressive beliefs. Also with Birobala is Manjula Rabha. Manjula lost her mother to witch-hunting and she has given her life to this cause. She is also a poet.

Manipur: Schools reopened after 6 months. Government employees are now on strike in the state.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Inside Camp Hebron

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Still Talking

Friday, February 19, 2010

Report Card

Friday, February 12, 2010

Farewell to arms?

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Music from the margin

Making Music

Monday, January 18, 2010

Resistance

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