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The Role of Oral Tradition with Special Reference to the Thadou-Kuki Society

Article

By D. Mary Kim Haokip

Thadou-Kuki society is well known for its oral tradition that expresses valuable messages. The Thadous have a rich collection of folk literature in different genres that include folk narratives, songs, proverbs, riddles, tales, nursery rhymes, lullabies, war songs, sacrificial chants, etc. All forms of oral tradition in Thadou society contains various informational values on religion, history, customs and public practices, and information that has the values of local wisdom in the daily life of the community, as well as genealogical information or descendant of a family in the community. All of the information are received, developed, and derived and transmitted to the future generations through a wide variety of oral tradition. However, with the advent of education, modern entertainment, changing lifestyle and advanced technology, oral tradition has begun to be gradually abandoned and forgotten by the Thadou society. This has adversely affected the existence and transmission of the rich and valuable oral tradition of the Thadous. The aim of the present paper is to discuss the gradual decline in the role and status of oral tradition in Thadou society and the need for maintaining and preserving before it is lost forever. The paper argues for collective responsibility of every member to preserve and store this rich oral tradition. Additionally, documentation and information centres, such as libraries, archives institution, and museum can help to identify, collect, document the oral tradition and preserve the information contained in the oral tradition.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12780178

The Enchanted Community: Kaose and Doi (Witchcraft) Among the Kukis of Northeast India

Article

By Jangkhomang Guite

This paper examines the social history of kaose and doi among the Kukis of Northeast India. It begins with a discussion on two recent incidences of kaotom to show how the old belief continued to haunt Kuki society of the present. Then it went on defining kaose and doi, of their mythological origin, their characteristics, and the societal responses. In the final analysis, it discusses whether they exist in reality. From few historical evidences that we could gather here, this paper argues that the kaose and doi are largely the products of social and neighborhood tensions and community conflicts that engulfed the Kuki-Chin world during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In other words, the gaining popularity of kaose and doi during this time was largely centre on the conflicting political and social relationship between different social classes in the village community on the one hand and between different villages/clans/tribes on the other where the powerful utilised them as a tool to dominate, defame, and criminalise the weak. They are merely a civilisational tool in the hands of the powerful who felt they are cultured and civilised against the weak whom they condemned as ‘uncultured’ and ‘uncultivated’. The broad argument is that kose and doi is a mere social construct and does not exist in reality.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12780165

India-Bangladesh Connectivity: Implications for India’s North East Development

Article

By Rajendra Prasad Patel

Connectivity is cornerstone to move forward greater bilateral cooperation and enhance trade, investment, people to people contracts and economic opportunities for India and Bangladesh. Both countries have all ingredient of transport connectivity as historical, cultural and political administrative familiarity and geographical proximity and both have been growing at 6 percent annually over the last two decades. But despite having these ingredients, India and Bangladesh are facing serious connectivity challenges both physical and non-physical that have limited the pace of economic growth and development and poor transportation infrastructure and connectivity impediments have limited the North Eastern Region of India and Bangladesh’s opportunities to find markets for their products within and outside the region. This article discusses the rationale for connectivity between India and Bangladesh.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12780149

Oral Narratives of the Kuki-Chin People: The Saga of Legendary Galngam

Article

By Sheikhohao Kipgen

The ‘Kuki-Chin’ people have common historical memories, languages, belief, cultural practices and values. The commonalities shared by this kindred group are also reflected in their common folktales which give an impression of collectiveness of the culture and tradition. Due to geographical location and their dispersed settlement, slight variations in the version of the folktales have developed among the different groups with the passage of time. However, it shares the same meaning and context for all the groups living in different parts of the region and even across national and international boundaries. The common folktales are living testimony of their common ancestry, identity and culture that they belong to the same racial stock. In the midst of various folktales abound with their history, the story of the legendary Galngam is being focussed herein. Attempt is made in this paper that the true identity and image of a particular ethnic group can be achieved and asserted through their life and lore which is based purely on verbal literature or oral discourse.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12747869

Birth Ritual among Meitei/Meetei Sanamahi Community of Manipur: Meaning, Practices and Significance

Article

By Chingshubam Merathaba Meetei

This paper describes and gives the meaning, customary practices, contexts and significance of birth ritual among Meitei/Meetei community of Manipur under Sanamahism. Meitei/Meitei community is the predominant ethnic group of Manipur, one of the seven north eastern states of India bordering Myanmar, and Sanamahism is the traditional religious faith of this community. Like the followers of every world religion the followers of Sanamahism among the Meitei/Meetei community have been observing certain life cycle rituals since time immemorial. The present study describes and interprets the underlying facts and significances of customary beliefs and practices on birth of a child of the community through the perspective of Sanamahism. Doing review of relevant literatures and using the methodology of qualitative field research through interviews and discussion with, as well as through overt participant observation, the paper proposes that birth ritual of Meetei/Meitei community under Sanamahism is one of the important aspects of the socio-cultural life of the community; it has social, cultural and scientific significances, and it also plays a significant role in identifying the ethnographic description of Meitei/ Meetei community of Manipur on religious line. This proposition is explained throughout the paper first by describing all the relevant concepts of birth ritual, followed by analysis of all the aspects of rites and their meanings. The paper contributes to a broader understanding of, and discourse on, the theme and the fundamental basis of birth ritual of this small Meetei/Meitei community of India.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12747844

Analysis of Jhumias Rehabilitation Programmes in Tripura

Article

By Vanlalrema Kuki

Rehabilitation of the jhumias of Tripura became a priority for the state administration to achieve inclusive growth and development. The attempts started during Maharaja Bir Bikram reign by keeping aside a land reservation for jhumias settlement in different parts of the state. The successive state governments also follow the rehabilitation process through various programmes. The significant programmes included agricultural farming, colony scheme, animal husbandry, sericulture, pisciculture and most importantly, horticultural crops, tea and rubber plantations. The first formal attempt began in the 1950s in the southern part of Tripura. The government’s efforts initially appeared a failure because of the massive desertion of the programmes. However, the introduction of permanent-based cultivation of the horticultural and plantation crops as part of the schemes proved successful. Specifically, Block Plantation Scheme became a game changer in the gamut of the jhumias settlement programme, promoting the state as the second largest rubber producer in the country. At the same time, the positive impacts could be seen in the life and livelihood of the beneficiaries. It empowered the beneficiaries socially and economically due to the higher economic returns from plantation cultivation than shifting cultivation. Henceforth, jhumias could forgo their traditional migratory nature of wandering and leading a settled life.   

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12747825

James C. Scott, The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009.

Book Review

Reviewed by Jeemut Pratim Das

‘The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia’, published in 2009, marked a renewed focus on the history and people of the Southeast Asian mainland massif of ‘zomia’, a term that Scott borrows from Willem Van Schendel1 to denote the geographical region stretching from the mountain highlands of Vietnam to India’s northeastern regions. This area, he argues, is populated by people characterized by a history of escapism from the expansionist padi wet rice agricultural states of the lowlands over the course of their fluid history, thereby seeking to contest the common assumption of them being left behind in the march of civilizational progress and being reduced to uncivilized barbarians in the process. Scott argues that the art of escaping was a deliberate choice rather than a forced exclusion, where the history of the hills is itself a unique construction of a ‘state effect’ of ‘ingathering’ of populations that seeks to make the peripheries visible and legible in the eyes of the modern state. By extension, this denotes an anarchist and non-state history as the choice came ‘from below’ and was not a state imposition, though the lenses through which the hills are viewed still exist and are defined and reified by (misguided) state practices of ordering the totality of existence within its increasingly well-defined borders.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12783077

Mathematics Achievement of Class V Students: A Study of North Eastern States

Article

By Satya Bhushan and Santosh Kumar

More than years of schooling, it is learning or the acquisition of cognitive skills that improve individual’s overall life productivity. It is demonstrated by many researchers that a solid foundation in mathematics and language is necessary for primary school children to navigate the information in technological age. Students with strong grasp in mathematics have an advantage in academics as well as in the job markets. The paper has raised many issues that have serious implication for quality improvement in mathematics education at primary stage in the North eastern States. There is huge number of students in the States whose achievement in mathematics is at lower side of the scale. Those achieving mastery level competencies constituted a small fraction of the total students.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12782998

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Human Trafficking in North East India: Patterns and Emerging Trends

Article

By Neimenuo Kengurusie

This brief article attempts to analyse the factors that have facilitated the rise of human trafficking, and the patterns and trends of human trafficking in North East India, with special emphasis on Nagaland. The study is based on primary data which include field-work, analysis of case studies and reports collected from state and non-state anti-trafficking personnel, and secondary data which include newspaper reports, articles, and books. It identifies human trafficking at an alarming level and the need for a strong level framework, as well as the role of religious institutions in tackling this menace.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12782910

The Self Perceived Morbidity and its Determinants in North East India

Article

By Kshetrimayum Rabikan Singh

The concept of health has evolved through ages, from a simple biological concept to a more complex social concept. The health condition of individuals or a group is largely influenced by socio-economic and political environment. Observing social dimension of health is essential to understand the health condition of a population. This study is an attempt to understand how different socio-economic determinants are associated with the level of morbidity in North East India. The health condition across the North East states is found to be varied by different socio-economic characteristics. The illness rate is found to be higher in rural areas than urban areas for North East on an average. The deeply rooted patriarchal Indian society also gets reflected, where women are found to have more illness rate than male in all the North East states, except Sikkim. Social class also found to have significant influence on the health status of the population. Scheduled Caste community has the highest rate of illness among all the social class. Enabling factors like education and income also have significant impact on illness rate.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12782812

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