(LEFT) Engraving on the Naga Spear that was on sale on eBay. It was reportedly presented to the British Defence Adviser Maj. Gen. TA Richardson for his “assistance with” the Shillong Accord of 1975 by then Governor of Nagaland, LP Singh. (RIGHT) Major General Thomas Anthony Richardson MBE.
Morung Express News
Dimapur | February 28
A Naga spear has been on sale on eBay for seven days now, at a bid that starts at GBP 399 (Rs. 38,013) and goes up to a maximum bidding price of GBP 560 (Rs. 53,352). The item—titled ‘Antique Nagaland Ceremonial Spear’—ran out on its bidding time on February 28 with zero bids.
Curiously, the Naga spear is said to have been presented to Major General Thomas Anthony Richardson MBE, a British Defence Adviser (to the British High Commission at New Delhi), by the then Governor of Nagaland State, Lallan Prasad Singh, for the former’s “assistance with” the Shillong Accord of 1975.
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The seller of this Shillong Accord Naga spear described it in his notes on eBay as an “Incredible piece of British foreign policy history,” and an “Amazing piece of British and North East Indian memorabilia and truly one of a kind!” The spear—part of the seller’s ‘Tribal Art Collection’—stands at 2 meters and is “made of metal and woven with traditional Naga goat’s hair.” It is currently located at Saffron Walden in the UK.
When asked, the seller stated that he bought the piece at an auction in the United Kingdom (not from the family of Richardson) and was unaware of how it exchanged hands. For him, the spear represents “a significant memorial to such an historical event.”
Richardson, who reportedly passed away in 2015, was one of the last remnants of India’s colonial legacy, “the last ever” British General to hold post in independent India, the seller informed.
The Shillong Accord of 1975 remains a controversial part of Indo-Naga political history whose embers continue to burn feet till date.
The whole episode “sheds a little light upon the handiwork of British collaborators and their role against their former Naga World War 2 allies in deference towards India,” stated Naga Vigil’s David P Ward in a press statement, while taking note of the eBay sale.
“The presentation of such an artefact by a non Naga to a non Naga renders it worthless in indigenous terms. However, both must take some responsibility for the subsequent killing spree and internecine blood letting that ensued as a result of the infamous Shillong Accord,” he maintained.
For Ward, it is only apt that this “misappropriated and misused” status symbol serve as a “poignant reminder” to the Nagas to be “aware of such accords that are principally designed to sow the seeds of discord in order to divide and rule—a policy the British have refined to a fine political art in both colonial and contemporary history.”
It remains a mystery why a British high official, a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), would have assisted in signing an accord on the sub-continent 28 years after India shed itself free of British colonial rule.
Thus, cautioning people to “beware of Greeks bearing gifts,” David Ward said, “there are any number of Trojan Horses already in position in Nagaland that will wreak havoc for generations to come.”
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