Aheli Moitra
Kejilo Nandu Rengma, the Mouzadar or tax collector, of the Naga Rengma Mouza (tax circle) of Karbi Anglong in Assam passed away on January 20. According to a Rengma Naga elder, the Naga Rengma Mouza was formed by the British, taking parts of the West and East Rengma Mouzas they created in 1848. Of these, only the Naga Rengma Mouza has a Rengma Naga Mouzadar today (position vacant since January 20). The rest have been given to Karbi Mouzadars; all of them are in similar conditions of poverty and under development.
Selected by the Rengma Naga Gaon Buras and elders of the Naga Rengma Mouza, the work of the Mouzadar entails going from house to house collecting the annual tax to be submitted to the revenue circle officer. In Karbi Anglong, each district is divided into several revenue circles, each of which houses several Mouzas. The taxes and revenue collected through this system eventually makes it to the state coffers that are to be utilized for the development of the state.
For his efforts, the government offers the Mouzadar an annual remuneration. But that is about all that the governments of Assam and Karbi Anglong have done for the Rengma Naga Mouza, and several other Mouzas in Karbi Anglong that have neither seen the arrival of a proper education system nor a healthcare system. At the age of 80, Kejilo Nandu Rengma, who diligently collected the taxes he was meant to and submitted it to the state revenue coffers, died without seeing what ‘taxes’ to the state really meant apart from glorified extortion of the poor. His many Karbi counterparts, and if there are any Kuki or Dimasa Mouzadars, have met with a similar fate.
A Rengma Naga elder from the region pointed out that the lack of development was not just due to government negligence but also because his people, particularly the old crop of leaders, were not educated enough to bring meaningful change to the region. But how can the new crop of leaders hope to have an education without schools?
That does not leave the people without hope. The Karbi Anglong Autonomous District Council has the provision of four nominated seats for peoples in the Autonomous Councils who are unable to run for elections. With no representation to the Council in decades, the Rengma Nagas have requested the government to provide one of these seats to them. It has already been three years into the current Council’s tenure. With two years remaining, all the four seats continue to remain empty. On this matter, people do not rise in revolt; they continue to work with the government – patiently, quietly, to their graves.
The North East is currently in upheaval over the question of outsiders’ entry and the threats that their eventual permanence in the region may pose. Given the experience of indigenous peoples of the region who continue to remain on the margins of governance, politics and the economy, it is crucial to give credence to their experience and address them instead of piling new forms of injustices on them. A little empathy in policy making, towards those who have the least scope of being heard, could be a good start. At least this they could claim to have gained from a lifelong allegiance to the state.
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