Randomrandom: Nagaland

Showing posts with label Nagaland. Show all posts

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Nagaland, before elections

Photograph@Arijit Sen -All Rights Reserved

We travelled to Nagaland for a report before the Assembly elections in the state's 50th year.
This photograph of cadres belonging to the NSCN-IM, a Naga rebel group in a ceasefire with the Government of India for the last 15 years, was taken during an earlier visit to their headquarter near Dimapur.
This is the link to the Nagaland news documentary

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Inside Nagaland

We took National Highway-39 and crossed Senapati district. Crossed Mao Gate. Reached Kohima. From Kohima travelled inside Nagaland to meet Thuingaleng Muivah in Pughoboto for a long interview. In this photograph my cameraman with Muivah after the interview.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Waiting for Jesus

Noticed this is in Ukhrul. In fact in a lot of other places as well.

From Ukhrul we travelled to Somdal, then travelled back to Imphal. From there to Senapati district of Manipur and then to Kohima. This is the news documentary we did on the 68 day Manipur blockade.

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

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Kohima Orphanage VI

This is a link of a short video report on the Kohima Orphanage and Destitute Home:
http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/85659/mothering-orphans-despite-troubles-she-is-a-real-hero.html

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Kohima Orphanage V

Kohima Orphanage IV

Zaputuo with the kids. (and below) Zaputuo and her daughter Nebanuo at the Kohima Orphanage and Destitute Home.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Kohima Orphanage III

"For every Naga born in his generation and the subsequent generation, fear, anger, frustration, persecution and the sound of gunfire have been his/her companion for their entire lives"---Nagaland and India: The Blood And The Tears. Kaka D Iralu.

Kohima Orphanage II

This is Zaputuo Angami with a 11-day old baby abandoned by her parents.

Kohima Orphanage

This is the first post on the Kohima Orphange. More to follow.
Kevizenuo, is a member of the Kohima Orphanage Home. (photograph)

The orphanage was started by Mrs Zaputuo Angami in 1973.
Zaputuo Angami, who was the widow of an army jawan, and a mother to a year old baby girl, took a decision, that changed the whole course of their life. Today, Zaputuo is 85.

The home has about 80 children. The home does not have any monthly income. Funds are almost zero. They survive on donations. They wear borrowed clothes, cheap shoes. Daily meals are rice and dal, (that people donate) and two cups of tea. Because of no funds work on weaving of Naga shawls and Mekhlas, dry flower arrangements, that the inmates used to learn/do, have stopped.

The Home has established a Govt primary school upto class IV. Three teachers are also employed. But after school the children have to study on their own. During school session every year it becomes extremly difficult for Zaputuo and her daughter Nebanuo. With little money they have to buy books, shoes, uniform( if possible).

Day starts at 5 o'clock in the morning, that includes prayer, lunch, dinner and study. "Unfortunately,there is no structured playtime in the routine as there are no playgrounds or play items".

If you want to help them, please leave a message with your contact on the blog.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Nagaland

Off to Nagaland on 18th. The photograph was taken during the assembly elections in the state earlier this year.

Monday, May 26, 2008

Pangs of Adoption

This is a photograph , I took, in a school in Dimapur. We were travelling in Nagaland, for a 30 minutes on the state before the elections. Dimapur, now, wears the look of a dead town. Continous factional clashes between the NSCN(IM) and NSCN(unification) have turned the town in one of the most dangerous places to live in. ( more on Dimapur and the Naga factional clashes later)

One of the most respected journalists of the country, Patricia Mukhim has written an excellent article titled: Pangs of Adoption in The Telegraph, Guwahati edition. Ms Mukhim writes in Northeast India's tribal societies the death of one or both parents does not necessarily make a child an orphan. She says, members of the extended family quickly take the child or children under their wings and life goes on an usual. But she points out, how times are changing. "The pressure to conform to modern value systems where church marriages are sacrosanct and those who do not meet up to those standards and fall by the wayside are actually ex-communicated is forcing deviants to go for abortion or disown and abandon a child born out of wedlock. Hence the growing number of abandoned kids.."

Full article: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080526/jsp/northeast/story_9317041.jsp

Friday, April 25, 2008

Nagaland Election Day

Kohima

We were there for a shoot at the Kohima War Cemetery in Nagaland. It's a symbolic memorial commemorating the memories of the officers and men who sacrificed their lives during World War II. It's maintained the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The famous inscription written on the War Memorial stone reads:
When you go home
Tell them of us and say,
For your tomorrow, we gave our today

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Kohima Sunrise and a village

Just before the elections in Kohima and in Kigwema village in Nagaland

Nagaland Elections

We were there in Dimapur and in Kohima and some areas around Kohima before the elections. The Democratic Alliance of Nagaland won. Some pictures from the NSCN (unification) camp taken during the shoot. This underground camp, when we visited, was yet to be recognised or designated by the government. It was just before the elections. Right now in Nagaland the situation is getting bad with the cycle of violence and counter-violence that had almost stopped existing, starting again.