Guwahati, July 19 (MExN): A study on the Assam-Nagaland foothill border has shown how gender relations and the role of haats (weekly markets) produce a specific kind of “foothill sociality.” It explains how “values, taste, politics, taboos, and passions” intersect with trade among various societies living in the foothills.
The study was done by anthropologist Dr. Dolly Kikon, the recipient of the Wenner Gren Engaged Anthropology Award, between 2006 and 2011. As part of this, she presented her research to the “host community” in Gelekey town (Sibsagar, Assam) at the Adarsha Bidyapith School on July 13 in the presence of ‘key actors’ such as the village headmen, student associations, coal traders, women traders, teachers, border peace committees, and householders from Naga and Assamese villages.
Gelekey is an important coal-trading hub and oil exploration site, and also attracts numerous Naga villages from the uplands to the Atkhel haat, a weekly market in the outskirt of the town, explained Dr. Kikon in a press release today. She currently teaches Anthropology and Development Studies at the University of Melbourne.
She affirmed that the foothill border of Assam and Nagaland is one of the “most militarized zones” in Northeast India.
“It is marked by the heightened presence of armed forces and extractive resource activities like oil explorations, tea plantations, and coalmines. The entire area is under extra-constitutional regulations like the Disturbed Area Act and the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (1958),” Dr. Kikon stated.
Particularly sharing the experiences of women traders from Nagaland in the foothill markets, Dr. Kikon noted how these weekly markets represented the “dynamic, multifaceted, and tangled lives of the residents of the villages in the foothills of Assam and Nagaland.”
Dr. Kikon’s research attempts to connect and expand the dialogue on gender equality, commerce, justice, and peace in the region. For her, it is important to connect academic research with the ongoing transformations on the ground, thereby informing “each other in meaningful ways.”
The community interaction focused on the everyday experiences of the communities – both Naga and Assamese – living in this part of the foothill border. Gelekey town shares its boundary with Longleng and Mokokchung districts of Nagaland. Thus, Ahom, Assamese, Phom, and Ao villages attended the community gathering and shared their experiences of living in a militarized landscape.
The plight of women traders from Naga villages became an important topic with focus drawn to their contribution – both monetary and labour – to sustain the households in the foothills of Nagaland, which remains ignored.
“This is symptomatic of the majority of tribal societies in India’s northeast, which continues to exclude women from positions of power and from decision-making forums,” highlighted Dr. Kikon.
Moreover, while weekly markets emerged as a significant part of the political and cultural intermingling—“foothill sociality”—between the hills of Nagaland and the plains of Assam, these relations were not “always friendly and cordial,” the study found. Women traders from Nagaland who went down to the foothill haats often faced “several hardships and challenges.”
Naga women traders in the foothill haats operate in small groups and lack “collective bargaining power” to get good prices, stated Dr. Kikon.
“Many items like chilies, cherry tomatoes, herbs, and edible flowers were unevenly priced and unorganized. Some of them used measuring scales to weigh the produce while others used plastic cups or their fists to measure the same items. Majority of the women were regularly harassed, and in some cases cheated inside these market places in Assam,” she observed. The meeting at Gelekey underlined the importance of addressing and recognizing these hardships of people living in the Assam-Nagaland foothill border.
A group of women traders from Anaki C village also shared their thoughts. They noted how the absence of infrastructure such as roads and markets in Naga villages made them “dependent on the traders and markets in Assam.”
Emer Phom, President of a Phom women’s collective called Bedestha Group, said that they had to go down to Assam for basic needs like medicine, food, and clothing. Speaking at the research interaction, Shingnyu Phom, member of the Border Peace Committee from Yonglok village appealed to the gathering to maintain peace in the border areas and the importance of engaging in meaningful community dialogue.
Further, Imkong Phom, headman of Anaki C village, stressed the importance of understanding and respecting each other’s history. Kunti Borah Gogoi, an Ahom educationist from Gelekey, reiterated the importance of maintaining a ‘people to people’ dialogue and connection in the border area. She said that such community gatherings are important to bring together the Naga and Ahom communities to “reaffirm their friendship and kinship.”
