A Sentiyula
The Angel in the House, a long, narrative poem by English poet, Coventry Patmore was published in mid 19 century. Modelled on his first wife, Emily, the titular “Angel” was the epitome of the Victorian feminine ideal whose sole purpose in life was to keep the man of the house happy. This poem, celebrating domestic bliss while holding up the angel wife as a model for all women, was very popular.
In 1931, Virginia Woolf, a celebrated writer, gave a speech, an abbreviated form of which has been called Professions for Women. Addressed to a group of women venturing out into different forms of employment, Woolf tears into this image by saying that in order for her to succeed as a writer; she needs to kill the angel in the house. This conventional, phantom-like image of women painted by men was hindering her quest for truth and constricting her freedom as a writer, you see.
How is this relevant to the women in the Naga context? In the earlier days, Naga women and men divided their work on practical considerations. A senior Naga educationist, Dr. Chubatola Aier, in her Ph.D thesis writes, “The household chores belonged to the domain of the woman and it was the duty of the man to see that the larder was stocked with game and fish.” They worked and ate together in the fields and it was the women who generally carried the loads of produce from the fields while the men walked light and free. This arrangement was not seen as exploitation or domination, but necessary as the men needed to be ready with weapons to defend the women and children, who could be attacked by head-hunters along the way. The only domains that remained exclusive to the men folk were politics, war and hunting.
R.R Shimray, in his book, Origin and Culture of Nagas writes that the Naga woman was like an ambassador and a mediator. She was called the Peacemaker (Phukhareila in Tangkhul) and she enjoyed full diplomatic immunity in times of war.
With Naga society, along with the rest of the world, facing the onslaught of modernity, there is a need to think and do things with pragmatism. With few working in the fields, most of us work in other professions. Both men and women have to work in order to stock the larder and keep the home fires burning. Women have ventured into domains earlier exclusive to men (Naga Mahila battalion being a case in point). Offices, especially educational institutions are packed with women. We educate our daughters with the hope that they will one day become active contributing members of society. We have accepted all these changes with alacrity. We especially celebrate the Naga woman as a peacemaker, partly because of the halo that comes attached to being a “neutral lady.”
But the Naga woman has more to offer than just peacemaking. And common sense dictates so. We need to start viewing the Naga woman as a resource to be tapped, whose input is a necessity for our society to rise up from the quagmire we find ourselves in. Politics is just another profession, to be executed with integrity and character. Raging against women or being dismissive towards them for wanting to have a decent shot at politics will take us nowhere. Let us apply the principle of the Golden Mean here, a desirable middle between two extremes. And this can be achieved when we stop deifying the Naga Woman as an “Angel” (submissive to the point of having no mind of her own); and not by “killing her” (where we deny our femininity in order to appear strong) nor demonising her but by accepting her personhood and utilizing her vast potential.
This is part of a series of ‘Guest Editorials’ run by The Morung Express. The writer is an Assistant Professor at Dimapur Government College. Feedback and comments can be sent to sentiyula9@gmail.com
