-Elika Assumi

We look different, we dress different, and there is also a slight hesitation in the way we build relationships with people especially outside the community. One wouldn’t be wrong in labelling some of us insular. And yet, in my opinion there are underlying reasons to the way in which we live within the university and in the city which we consider to be outside of our ‘home.’ There is always the sense of being an outsider and this has more to do with the way we look, coupled with our experiences from our native hometowns. This experience of being the outsider is embedded in the gazes, the pinches, the gibes of forever being addressed as “chinky” and jeering phrases referring to the way we look. Recently, a friend of mine from Nagaland mentioned how she feels that men don’t stare at her as much when she wears salwar-kurta, be it in the university or in the city. And I couldn’t help but agree with her.
Having lived in Hyderabad for about a decade now makes me an elder of the Naga community in the city. However, when I first arrived in Hyderabad, there were not more than 100 Nagas (including the members of the families settled here) and most of us were university students. It is a fact that the population of the North Easterners has been steadily increasing in the South Indian cities. Just as well, the number of Naga students coming to Hyderabad for higher education has seen a rise in recent years1.
In CIEFL, our initial introduction to campus politics was rather awkward (in retrospect), the reason perhaps was a difficulty in identifying with certain causes represented through the existing minority group – Dalit Adivasi Bahujan Minorities Students’ Association (DABMSA). As Scheduled Tribe (ST) students, by default we were members of DABMSA and were expected to subscribe to its politics. However, I believe that as Nagas by origin, our specific politics is shaped by our history with India. We failed to respond to some of the causes presented by the representative body and most often the difficulty lay in accepting the DABMSA mode of politics in the university. Nonetheless, another reason lay in our failure to politically mobilize the North Eastern students. Our exposure to students’ politics back home, at least for the Naga students, has only been at the level of community building (student events, seminars, etc.) and policy making (adhering/allegiance and abiding to apex students’ body constitutions) or negotiations and talks to resolve students’ issues. I would say that it was only after coming to Hyderabad that we were able to define what it meant to be a scheduled tribe student, and the different issues one faces in institutions of higher education. However, we were not fully equipped to confront the new problems we were faced with. And although, there were student bodies in the university that represented our issues, the modes of confrontation with the administration were very new territories for us. We still had to learn the political ways of working as ST students from the North East in the university outside of our ‘home.’ And therefore, we morally supported the SC, ST and minorities group in the campus, yet over time our participation also waned as most of our problems inside the campus as well as in the city were addressed through the Naga elders’ council and through the Naga Christian Fellowship (NCF).
There are many instances when the elders’ council stepped in to settle students’ issues, be it academic, personal, or legal. A recent incident was the rape of a Naga student from Osmania University. As soon as the elders’ council was informed of the incident, the girl was moved to a safer location in order to protect her identity. It was also through the timely help from some Anveshi members that she was able to receive further medical aid. At that time, there were many organizations and groups that wanted a statement from the Naga community, however, the elders’ body acted on the fervent request of the family members for anonymity and to prevent the issue from the confrontations of public gaze and “morality.” The case was initially registered at the local police station by the girl along with some of her friends. During an interaction with the girl, she seemed very strong in her statement and wanted to take the matter to court. However, without her family’s support, the case was eventually ‘abandoned’ in spite of the North East Forum agreeing to undertake the issue. At that point, the elders of the Naga community took a step back from further involvement in the matter, given the pressure from the girl’s family who wanted to withdraw the case. It seemed futile that although the girl had mustered enough courage to register a complaint, her plea for undertaking the legal path for justice was silenced by her family. No doubt that the family acted in the way they believed to be in her best interests and no reasoning would change their minds, but it seemed very clear to me why they acted in this manner, and  that there is a resounding familiarity of such narratives from several other women.
According to a recent finding released by the National Crime Records Bureau’s “Crime in India Report 20122,” Nagaland is the safest state in India for women. A total number of 23 cases of rape were reported in 2011, but reduced to 21 cases in 2012. Nonetheless, we ought to keep in mind most rapes and acts of sexual violence, humiliation, etc. go unreported. Furthermore, in Nagaland, the stigma of rape is augmented given the social ‘benchmarks’ for women, notions that are largely influenced by Christian morals. In a society where sex before marriage is considered a depravity, rape is definitely a taboo – no one even talks about it, such that the discourse of rape is practically absent. There are many cases in Nagaland that I have heard of where victims of rape were sent away to live with relatives in other cities to ‘hide’ them for some time, while cases go unreported as the family chooses to conceal the incident. And even if the incidents are reported, most of the time the matter is resolved between the two parties outside of court. In addition, several criminal cases, including murder, are undertaken in the local village councils through customary laws where perpetrators often get away with a lenient fine, or written/verbal apologies3  and the most extreme punishment amounts to being exiled from the village or tribe for some years. Therefore, to account for the low rate of crime against women in Nagaland as a triumph seems to be a shrewd mode of subterfuge to suppress the discourse of rape in the state itself. Keeping state apparatuses aside for the moment, we have begun to realise that it is more difficult to talk about the issue of rape within the ambit of civil groups, most especially in a religious group like the NCF (an entity that is an active participant of civil society in Nagaland politics) in a city like Hyderabad.  This brings to the surface the difficulties of the NCF working as a representative body for the Nagas. In the light of such complications presented by the changing modes of functioning in Hyderabad, a resolution was passed last October to bring about an association of Nagas in the city. This association’s main objective is to undertake such cases for and on behalf of the Nagas in Hyderabad – be it welfare, crisis management, issues relating to students, legalities, etc. Clearly, the politics of home is not very different from the politics of the city we have decided to call our ‘new home.’
Perhaps in Hyderabad, the Nagas have had an informal way of resolving certain situations, unlike in Delhi where an organized network of North East support centres and helplines exists. There is also the matter of keeping things under control where specific issues are not publicized, while some have said that the Naga students in Hyderabad ought to politicize our issues more firmly or perhaps even articulate our views in the public domain4. However, circumstances call for different approaches towards resolution. And that has been the strategy so far for the Nagas in Hyderabad, but it definitely will change in time when one considers the arrival of more Naga students in the city and with the new association in place. Undoubtedly, with more people, our issues are bound to alter. Therefore, I believe the next step for the Naga students’ community in Hyderabad would be in strengthening relationships and working together with minority students’ organizations who would understand the issues we face and the fears we have because of our position as Naga students outside of Nagaland. This is not just for the Naga community alone; there have to be spaces in the universities wherein the varied issues of the North East are discussed widely, and an interest in our politics is created beyond the fetishization of our music, food, urban style or fashion.
Elika Assumi is a student at English and Foreign Languages University
Notes:
1. This increase was significant with the introduction of Bachelors and the Integrated Masters programs in the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) and the University of Hyderabad (UoH) respectively, and admissions in to the colleges of Osmania University. Apart from these universities, a recent welfare scheme initiated by the All Assam Students Association (AASA) and the Eastern Naga Students Federation (ENSF) under the Free Higher Professional Education Scheme for National Backward Minority Students has ensured that annually 300 seats would be reserved for students from Nagaland in engineering colleges and nursing schools around Hyderabad. Most of the students of these universities live on campus (in hostels) or in rented apartments around the city.
2. See http://ibnlive.in.com/news/shame-map-of-india-states-with-highest-rate-of-crimes-against-women/416615-53.html (accessed on 9th November 2013)
3. See http://thohepou.wordpress.com/2008/05/27/settlement-of-case-as-per-naga-customary-law/ (accessed on 9th November 2013). Also, http://www.thesundayindian.com/en/story/rarest-of-the-rare/34/5391/ (accessed 9th November 2013) for account of a settlement by the Naga customary law.
4. After the recent rape incident of a Naga girl from Osmania University, the elders’ body chose to screen the issue from media exposure. No formal press release of the incident was given. Some have remarked upon this action/decision rather critically.