Review of Tom Farrell’s AN AMERICAN IN NAGALAND – Published in India by Indialog
Review of Tom Farrell’s
AN AMERICAN IN NAGALAND – Published in India by Indialog
Based on the novel first published in the United States under the title ‘the Ghandi of the Nagas’ an American in Nagaland is an intriguing novel that binds two very separate worlds. Tom Farrel’s novel is well written; it captivates till the very end and is full of suspense. Surprises in both subject matter and in relations keeps the attention not only fixed but creates the feeling of wanting to read more. Both the backgrounds in the USA and India are well worked out and it is the detail around the personalities that breaths life into them. Of course Tom is most familiar with the settings in the USA itself as well as the characters that come into play. The Naga student around which the story develops is made very credible when one thinks of her for the open and relational point of view prevalent in the USA. Of course a Naga girl from a remote area, even remote by Indian standards, who carries her culture with her, may play around with the norms and values of the country she is in. Being alone and devoid of compatriots naturally will feel drawn to a university professor who sensing her loneliness accommodates her. Of course by the girls instigated sensual interludes follow and are vividly described, but the girl never really binds herself as she has a boyfriend at whom she dearly loves. This young man will later play a major part in the novel as he joins the Naga Army and is in proximity of the girl’s father who as Farrel describes from the Konyak tribe’s norms and values cannot allow his daughter marrying the professor she comes to India and later Nagaland with. The Father, a politician who has served in the Indian Parliament has the professor kidnapped as he believed his daughter and the professor are heading into a forbidden union.
Though as a novel the Farrel’s book is still a very good and well thought out read, here he goes wrong in relation to who he paints the picture of the Naga cultures. Of course his novel is fiction and as such it remains a good novel. But then if read widely then his idea of the Naga Army behaves and can be used for personal revenge is not something the Nagas themselves will be very happy with.
First of all there are no politicians who can order the Naga Army to kidnap someone. The Nagas stand is to struggle for the right to self determination. They may abduct someone to, as is painted in the book, get the forgotten Indo-Naga war in the news and therefore on the map of the international community, this because the Indians have been successful to keep the Naga struggle isolated and their land in isolation. Nagas however fight the Indian Army and do not harm outsiders and thus do nor resort to kidnapping. The Father, ex parliamentarian and supreme leader of the Konyak tribe is not the prime example of the Nagas for the majority of tribes do not know supreme leaders but are known for their village state democracies, so no elitist kind of vendetta can emerge. The Konyaks have, but then should they stand for the Nagas who in majority support the Naga Forces against India and will not be ordered to entertain personal grudges.
Farrell feels for the Nagas and paints them, through the professor in captivity, as being righteous in their quest. This he does by the rather fast conviction of that professor who by what he has been given to read readily stand up to soot a television interview tobe screened before being released and after. It is strange though that he feels convinced so fast as he has been given only the information handed to him by his abductors, The Naga underground Army.
A small, perhaps not too significant thing is that, while in captivity in the forest, Naga girls of the Army play with him as in teasing him sexually, the initiative coming from them in showing and touching him with their breasts. This is harmless but in reality Naga women are well trained and no commander would let this happen, this apart from the idea that Naga women are free and easy to do so. But as said that is a minor thing, yet gives the kind of picture of the noble savage.
A last thing is the ending of the book where the professor is killed by the father in a treacherous way as he was on his way to be released. This is not just something for it portrays Nagas, who were portrayed by the British who partially occupied them, as headhunters. Given the divide and rule practices of the successive Indian Governments as a result there is one main and two minor underground movements/armies, one minor one he NSCN-K that was said to be funded by the chief minister has following among the Konyaks. But even so the question will be if that faction could be used to kill someone to end personal trouble like loss of face.
The point is that the Nagas as a people, as a nation, now are portrayed as though righteous in their quest are savages underneath the veneer of being civilized as portrayed by the father of the girl who after all has been in the Indian Parliament for quite some time. It shows that underneath it all the Nagas are savages still. Why should this be knowing that it was the American Baptist in the 19th century who brought Christianity to the Naga Hills and made the Nagas in majority to be devout Christians. There have been many Americans in Nagaland since then but up until something like 1955 when The Government of India ordered them to leave. They are still devout Christians but the Americans did not help the Nagas, then united fully, in their Quest to self determination, yet there were killed by the thousands. Americans abandoned their brothers in Christ.
In summary it is quite obviously a very good novel and one that reads in one breath. It is sensual, very well done in relations between people, there is passion and sensation. So, as fiction the novel is good, yet it contains some reality and it is that reality that unfortunately paints both a rosy and a savage kind of picture of the Nagas. Historically the Nagas have every right to be independent, but the Americans in Nagaland abandoned them. This American in Nagaland is killed for the wrong reasons and not quite worthy of the Naga nation.
Frans Welman
Naga international Support Center
TOM FARRELL served as the dean of the John Hazen White School
of Arts & Sciences at Johnson and Wales University from 1992 – 2001.
He is the author of a previous novel, “Nantucket 1970”, several textbooks as
well as articles in academic journals and newspapers. He earned degrees
from The University of Notre Dame and The University of Rhode Island.
He divides his time between Narragansett, Rhode Island and
Nantucket Island, Massachusetts.
Frans on 02.08.05 @ 08:35 PM CST [link]
Call for Peace End the war between India and Nagaland
Naga International Support Center, NISC
A human rights organization
Press Release
Amsterdam, January 24 2004
Call for Peace
End the war between India and Nagaland
The Naga Internationals Support Center, NISC, praises both the Government of India and the Naga Peoples for their efforts in seriously engaging in talks leading to lasting peace.
NISC specifically praises the Government of India for inviting the leaders to India and Nagaland to have talks aimed at achieving peace so the long war, lasting over 50 years now, can come to an end. NISC praises the Nagas for having broad consultations among all concerned for opening up to all interests and voices in Nagaland and their neighbours.
Though NISC realizes that this is an historic opportunity, it is precisely interests of people, organizations and states that aim to hamper the positive flow of the peace talks, keeping them from coming together. Those disruptive forces were also formed during the course of the war and are thus part of their historical backgrounds. For instance, it is known that the states were only formed after the Indo-Naga war began. During the course of the divide and rule policy of India within the Nagaland homeland of the Naga Peoples once known as the Naga Hills, to save the stand to determine their own future, the Nagas fell prey to three warring organisations.
NISC calls on all Nagas to come together as one. NISC, as a human rights organisation, fervently supports the right to self determination of the Nagas, and calls on Nagas to set the sharp differences aside, correct the mistakes made in the past, stop the bickering and come to mutual understanding. Reconcile, admit, forgive, be honourable and come together.
From India’s perspective, it was Nehru who unleashed this unfortunate war on the Naga Peoples, thus:
NISC calls on the Government of India to review the decision made back then. NISC also calls on the Government of India to review what Great Britain really handed over to the then Union of India. In other words, “How could that nation hand over excluded areas peopled by Free Nagas?”
NISC adheres to the declaration of 4th Naga Peoples Consultation to Strengthen Indo-Naga Political Talks held at Hebron on 20-21 January 2005:
The Naga peoples and organizations covering across the length and breadth of the Naga Homeland after two days of intensive, sincere and honest interaction with the Collective Leadership of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland declare:
1. The fullest support for an honourable solution to the Indo-Naga political issue on the basis of the uniqueness of Naga History and situation:
2. That the unification of the Naga areas is legitimate and therefore non-negotiable:
3. That the political solution should be found through peaceful means; and
4. That both government of India and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland uphold utmost honesty and sincerity towards finding a political solution.
For more information: email nisc@nagalim.nl or visit our website www.nagalim.nl
Frans on 02.08.05 @ 08:31 PM CST [link]
Reaction to Kaka Iralu’s article
Reaction to Kaka Iralu
Dear Kaka,
Nisc lauds you fro traveling to the Eastern part of Nagaland which is neglected for even being more isolated then the Naga Homeland that has been invaded by India. You must have been a feat indeed to travel over these hill paths with the weight you had to carry. Luckily some villagers at least took some of it of off you, something that shows how hospitable and considerate the Burmese Nagas are as well. I am sure they told you a lot about the Burmese/Myanmarese repression they have to endure. As we understand from some reports and interviews, it is even worse than the humiliation Indian (officially still) Nagas have to live with. When we received your article we hoped that you would be reporting on that mental and physical repression first hand.
We agree with you wholeheartedly that Nagas who kill Nagas are deplorable, It is atrocious and inhumane to kill your own kind and we are not talking clan, village, tribe but then the Naga nation of course.
You say that the Nagas you met and who were the clansmen or relatives were killed for the sole reason they were NNC people and were killed by the NSCN. You are right to hold the culprits responsible, but then your article also shows some omissions. Allow us point out to you what we mean:
1 – NSCN was formed after the Shillong Accord which though neither denied nor affirmed, but was signed by Phizo’s brother, set off a movement that led to the disarmament of the Naga Army. The militia deployed, were responsible for that. Those who did not abide by the NNC disarmament machinery were disarmed by force, imprisoned or were otherwise dealt with harshly. The leaders of the NNC who did send letters to Phizo in London in which they asked the NNC leader to denounce the Shillong Accord did not get an answer, yet the letter of the Accord was being followed and the Naga soldiers loyal to the Federal Government under the NNC set up Peace Camps. Not all of the NNC members in high office thought that the Shillong Accord was the solution for the Nagas as they had to live under the Constitution of India. Nagas have the Right to Self Determination. That right was sold out with the Shillong Accord. Of course it can be claimed that that accord was not valid for it was not signed by the highest in the office of the NNC, but then it should not have been carried out and that is what was done. Both that and the negation of the NNC leaders who were arrested, imprisoned, tortured and threatened to be killed led, after five years o deliberations to the formation of the NSCN. The fighting among Nagas thus started really with the Shillong Accord and led to retaliation on both sides NNC and NSCN.
Having said that it might very well be true that the NSCN attacked the villages you mentioned, but then if they were NNC as you said it could be that they were deployed by the NNC Naga Army and have committed atrocities on their fellow men, or it happened in open combat. We think that though it looks like you write from the heart that indeed the truth should told and that thorough investigations to that effect, impartial ones, would lead to that. We say impartial ones for you are either part of the NNC or are associated with it. There of course is essentially nothing wrong with that, but f you report to you what people say and from your standpoint would like to hear then we believe that your report is one sided at best and a mean to discredit the ongoing peace talks that are with a lot of difficulties at had going on.
Do not misunderstand us by thinking we are taking sides. We say that the Nagas should be free to determine their own future, free from India, free from Burma. And, we call for impartial investigations for many bloody things that happened in the past and which has bearings on how the Nagas see themselves divided. We agree with you that this has to be cleared up. Nagas fought and killed, they did each other wrong, NNC played a vital role in that and is not free from committing atrocities. You point your finger to the NSCN, which then meant both IM and K, and now it looks like it that NNC is as pure as a virgin.
You know the history of the Nagas and we have seen you talking with the leaders of the NSCN in Bangkok some years ago. In Chiang Mai you shared a room with the then secretary general of the Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights. That you uphold human rights like Nisc had been established for leads us to the idea that you will agree to fact finding missions, impartial, that will establish without a doubt what really happened and who is responsible.
We do realize this is not possible under the circumstances Nagaland is in, which means that Nisc would not like you to use these strong accusations unless you can prove them without a shadow of a doubt, for what you are doing now is more than pointing your finger; you create dissent among those who want what most Nagas want:
To be free of alien domination, to be sovereign.
Because this is what the NNC stood for from it inception we do not believe that with this letter you wanted to prove that the ones who after the NNC left that right and ideal and are still standing up for it are a bunch of murderers than cannot be trusted. Then again you may be right and intervened properly and to the point. Yet it would be wise not just to point a finger but to tell the whole story. That whole story might be enlightening to all.
With warm regards
On behalf of Nisc
Drs. F.A.M. Welman
Secretary Naga International Support Center, Nisc
Attached: SOME THOUGHTS ON THE FATE OF OUR EASTERN NAGA BROTHERS AND SISTERS
Frans on 02.08.05 @ 08:29 PM CST [link]
Article of Kaka Iralu
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE FATE OF OUR EASTERN NAGA BROTHERS AND SISTERS
Kaka D. Iralu
January 29, 2005
My journey into Eastern Nagaland (so-called Burmese Nagaland) was like a journey into the nineteenth century.
As we walked into Eastern Nagaland, we did not walk on black topped roads except footpaths winding across mountains, cliffs and gorges. A village that seemed to be so close from a mountain top, took several hours to reach, as one canyon after another canyon had to be walked, before we finally stumbled into the village - A village that seemed so close, but was in fact so far away. At times, when all the sinews and muscles in my body were screaming: “We can’t take it anymore,” my mouth also screamed “Where the hell is that village which I had seen three hours ago from the mountain top?”
At times, we started our journey at 6:00 A.M. from mountain caves and stumbled into villages at 9:00 P.M. - bone weary and soul weary… At such times, the sounds of barking dogs or crowing cocks were music to our ears because we realised we have finally reached human habitation after walking all day in semi darkness where the sun’s rays were denied their rightful light because of the thick forest coverage. When we reached the villages there were no light or even candles, as these are forsaken and forgotten Eastern parts of Nagaland, where the nineteenth century still reigns.
But everywhere we staggered in, we were greeted by friendly Naga brothers and sisters who brought chicken and rice to nourish our exhausted bodies. (One travelling couple even massaged my legs with ginseng, when I was lying sprawled on the footpath - too tired and weary to go on. And the dried venison they gave me tasted so good, I felt I had been treated to a royal dinner!)
Enthusiastic and willing porters carried all our baggage, so that I could walk unhampered with just a bamboo stick to assist my 100 kg weight. (I tell you - carrying a one hundred kilogram bag of rice from Nagaland to so-called Burma was no mean achievement!)
And then - when we reached the villages, the conversations started. They told me - “About fifty years ago, A.Z.Phizo entered our mountains and hills. He told us that though we are Changs, Yimchungers and Khiamniungans, we are all brothers of the same Naga family. We are a nation and we shall live independently. His speeches made sense, for we had all along felt that we are indeed a nation. Therefore, putting our fate on his words, we followed him. They went on to say - that discipleship however ended in many thousands of our fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters dying across half a century of agony and hardship. Yet they told me firmly that they would never abandon Phizo’s and the NNC’s path - whatever the cost.”
I felt ashamed because I am an Angami - and indeed, Angamis had blazed yesterday’s national destiny with the slogan URRA UVIE (Our land belong to us). I felt ashamed, because yesterday’s leaders are today cowering under their beds pursuing their own personal security and economic prosperity while these simple villagers were still carrying on the fight for our nation’s freedom.
When I staggered into that village, (I am sorry I cannot disclose the name of the village because they told me not to mention the name of their village for fear of Burmese reprisals) - bone tired and weary, I rested briefly and then staggered on to pay my respects at Major Neituolie’s grave. In 1980, when the NSCN was formed, Major Neituolie was shot by his own fellow Nagas in this village. They showed me the house where he ran out shouting “For heaven’s sake, please, let us not kill among ourselves.” But when the NSCN cadres started shooting at him, disregarding his plea, I was told, he further shouted: “Even if you must kill me, please don’t kill the civilians.”… They showed me the place where he, in anger fired back on the NSCN cadres and killed five soldiers. They also showed me the place where he fled into a stream where the NSCN’s bullets shattered his left arm. And they told me “After hiding his M21, he came out of the stream, and with his pistol, shot another two NSCN cadres here. But he was finally shot in the head and died where he stood to defend his honour and our honour.”
I was told by a young man of the village “This is the place where they (NSCN) dragged his body into the village ground and lectured us. This is what will happen to any Naga who stands for the NNC and A.Z.Phizo.”
Yes, I am angry with the Indian Government and the Burmese Government for what they have done to our people - but as I stood on Major Neituolie’s grave, I screamed my anger on my own people who killed my hero. After all, how can I hide my own crimes and scream at India and Burma for their crimes? That would be utter hypocrisy on my part.
Major Neituolie died (perhaps) at the age of thirty-five years. He was a Naga Major who gave his all and his best for the Naga nation - only to be finally silenced by a Naga bullet fired by a Naga finger.
On his tombstone are written these words “Gone; but will never be forgotten for his services to the nation…etc.” Beside his grave was that of his bodyguard - a Khiamniungan Naga who also died defending an Angami Naga.
Yes, I cried as I stood by their tombstones. Yes, I screamed “Neituolie you are not my clansman or my fellow villager. But I salute you because in your short life, you have made Angami name and Naga name. You are dead and gone, but I am still alive, and I will never allow your death to be in vain as long as there is breathe in me.”
In the evening, the villagers told me how fourteen of their villagers were killed by the NSCN. They told me, how after that, weeping mothers and children were deported to another village. I was also told how their village and livestock and their lives wealth of rice and millets were burnt to ashes by the NSCN. Yes, I was told that even sixty of their mithuns (Bos Frontalis) were shot by the NSCN - and that their forests stank so horribly from the smell of these rotting animals. I could only conclude that this was a systematic Marxist ideology that was determined to silence opposition through brutal and terror tactics.
I also saw neighbouring villages like Thingniungan and Chukie villages where over six hundred Khiamniungan villagers perished from these (LOCAL and not EXTERNAL) genocide of Nagas, by Nagas. I was also shown the Lainong region where the NSCN killed over eight hundred Naga fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters just for the simple reason that they stood for Phizo and the NNC. Fellow Nagas, I am not writing fiction - I can supply you the names of all these victims with their father’s names, dates of their deaths and the names of those who committed this internal genocidal sacrilege. I say this because after all these victims were not stones or woods or cows and pigs - No, they were all Naga human beings butchered by Naga guns. These simple villagers told me: “When this so and so leaders from Western Nagaland (meaning our side of Nagaland) came into our regions, we clothed them and fed them with the best of our clothes and our livestock, because we thought, they were our leaders. But this is what they did to us after we had fed and clothed them. They told me; they would never ever forgive these so and so’s.”
The tragedy of Naga history is that this “so and so’s” think their crimes would never be known by others. They think their crimes can be wiped out from the pages of Naga history, if they fast and proclaim Naga integration in the name of “Nagaland For Christ.” I for one will not be fooled by them even if, even some Reverends seems to have been fooled by them.
On my part I will scream: What greater aberration of law and justice can be pronounced, then for murderers to say to their victims: “Come and ask forgiveness from us, for we are willing to forgive you in the name of Jesus Christ”… No, I refuse to bow down to such desecration and mockery of right and wrong. And yes, I will scorn and laugh at any NGO’s who would render their support to such criminals who have transgressed the very essence of law and justice.
And in this stand, I offer no apology to any of the world’s billions for believing and stating what I believe and state.
In conclusion on my way back, as I walked back to Sanglao, and as I stood on the top of a mountain, I shouted to the rivers, fishes, mountains and trees and animals of Nagaland… Yes, I shouted at the top of my voice and I screamed: “Angamis may be dead; Nagas may be dead; but I am still alive and I will not surrender you to Burma or India.” I shouted to my hills, valley and mountains that I will not betray them to foreign aggression of my beloved lands.
LONG LIVE NAGA LANDS.
Frans on 02.08.05 @ 08:28 PM CST [link]
