Moa Jamir
Superintendent of Police, Kohima, Joseph Hesso (IPS) at a recent event stated that there has been an “increase in the incidences of violence against women in Nagaland State.” Giving an overview of present status of violence against women in the State, he informed that the highest number of such cases involved rape, molestation, kidnapping, attempt to murder, and human trafficking propagated through the medium of modern technology.
This must have elicited uncomfortable disquiet and chagrin among traditional purists who never shy away from proclaiming the ‘egalitarian’ credentials of Naga society.
Most of them argue that Nagas are not misogynists and they are ‘not against’ women, invariably adding that ‘Women have been protected and treated equally since time immemorial.’ Women are happily patronised through the lens of ‘time immemorial,’ conditioning both sexes to perpetuate and nourish the attitude. It gets validated in socio-political institutions and invariably affects our thoughts and action.
Know your place in society. Many women, I assume, must have heard this at some point of their life, if not from their supportive parents, in societal interactions casually raised either consciously or sub-consciously. There was even a time when people would smirk at a Naga girl attaining higher education. This has hopefully changed.
Defying a hitherto existing hegemonic order is considered ‘waywardness’, an assertion which regularly gains momentum when an issue arises. Whenever an incident involving violence against women arises, particularly outside, the most typical assumption is that the victim must be at fault. Besides being a victim, she has to also prove her innocence. If the incident occurs to a male counterpart, however, he is considered a victim of ‘acute racism’ that exists in mainstream India.
In a civilised society, male chauvinism has no room, the Supreme Court ruled on April 28. “A man should not put his ego or, for that matter, masculinity on a pedestal and abandon the concept of civility. Egoism must succumb to law. Equality has to be regarded as the summum bonum (highest goods) of the constitutional principle in this context,” stated the ruling of a bench comprising of Justice Dipak Misra, Justices AM Khanwilkar and M M Shantanagoudar.
Incidentally, in Nagaland, legal awareness programs on gender rights are hardly ever attended by men—in Naga society, it is men who need this awareness most of all. Many of us dwell in an elusive vision that once the protracted Naga imbroglio is resolved, every vice in the society will magically melt away. Nothing can be far from the truth. We are envisioning a majestic Shangri-La, ex-ante, without addressing what the existing incongruities might generate in an ex-post situation.
Can there be an ‘inclusive mechanism’ of cooperation in Naga society today that cuts across age, gender, class, tribe, denominations and the urban-rural divide? A group of Naga intellectuals recently discussed this at a gathering in Kolkata.
The Naga gathering encouraged various social movements for positive change taking place in the Naga context, particularly the younger generations, to “take proactive initiatives and shoulder responsibilities in creating a cohesive vision.”
Discarding paradoxes of an internalised patriarchy could be a good starting point for these initiatives.
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