Christian Subversion And Missionary Activities - 6

[Husky]

dailypioneer.com/sunday-edition/sundayagenda/books-reviews/71779-northeast-that-doesnt-exist-.html

(My inserts in purple again)

Northeast that doesn’t exist

Saturday, 09 June 2012 19:42 pioneer



(Review of book HIGHWAY 39

Author : AutSudeep Chakravarti

[color="#FF0000"]Publisher: HarperCollins[/color] [color="#800080"](Of course)[/color]

Price : Rs 450





Even after spending three decades in the region, BB Kumar [color="#800080"](the reviewer of the book)[/color] couldn’t relate to the Northeast the book talks about



The book, Highway 39: Journeys Through a Fractured Land, a travelogue by Sudeep Chakravarti, makes for a good reading. The journey, through the National Highway 39, covers a distance of 436 km from Numaligarh in Assam via Dimapur and Kohima in Nagaland and Senapati, Imphal and Thoubal in Manipur to Moreh on the India-Burma border. The area is culturally, linguistically and ethnically rich with enormous natural beauty. The book, however, does not touch these aspects.



Chakravarti writes good English, and has command over the narratives. A work of narrative non-fiction, the book may be thoroughly enjoyed provided one knows precious little about the region, and has a colonised mindset. In my case, the burden of whatever little I know about the region and the people, thanks to 31 years of intimate contact, has become a burden and come in the way of enjoying the narrative. This is why the Northeast, which he describes, I do not know!



Chakravarti’s narrative, as the book claims, “introduces the readers to stories that chill, anger and offer uneasy reflection”. [color="#0000FF"]He, however, erroneously claims: “Highway 39 brings into focus a region long neglected and often forgotten by Mainland India.” In reality, the author has no understanding of the region, the people and the politics. It needs mention that the concepts like mainland and periphery, core-fringe conflict, hegemony and exploitation are colonial constructs.[/color] Unfortunately, the hold of such myths is strong in Nagaland and Manipur. Moreover, a region as complex as the Northeast cannot be understood within a few days or weeks.



[color="#0000FF"]The author, like many others, tends to believe the narratives of the secessionists among the Nagas and others as true and put India in dock. The author always draws adverse interpretation against the country, on the issues of time zone, Inner line, ceasefire, violent incidents, etc. He believes in such Naga, Meitei versions that every secessionist group props up to back its demands. Chakravarti accepts as truth all allegations of rape, murder and village burning. It needs mention that in my three decades of stay in Nagaland, I did not come across a single case of village burning. There is a general lack of understanding of the dynamics of violence and accommodative gesture of the Government of India in negotiations, ceasefire and financial grants.



The author visits the ‘Promised Land’, the Nagalim, and meets Thuingaleng Muivah. But he informs us nothing about Muivah’s perception of the ‘unique history of Nagaland’ — the history of the Nagas who were never the part of India and yet were ruled by not only the Ahom and Dimasa Cachari rulers of Assam, and Meitei kings of Manipur for centuries, but also by the Sinpho chiefs of Arunachal Pradesh. Muivah’s record in forcible conversion is not clean. He has not only tried to convert Hindu Noctes and Buddhist Tangsas of Tirap and Changlang districts of Arunachal Pradesh to Christianity, but also played havoc with the religious beliefs of the tribes akin to Kachins of Burma. Bertil Lintner’s book, Land of Jade, which describes the forcible conversion of the tribes in some areas of Burma, has been reportedly banned by the NSCN(IM). Muivah claims Karbi Anglong and North Cachar Hills districts to be parts of his ‘Nagalim’, yet hardly half-a-per cent of the population are Nagas.



Naga identity was fluid even when the Simon Commission visited the Naga Hills. The signatories of the memorandum admitted that they did not know the Naga tribes living outside the Naga Hills. Moreover, the Nagas lack any cultural and linguistic denominator to show intra-Naga linkages, as well as their distinctiveness from non-Naga tribes.



Lack of discriminative intelligence to distinguish facts from propaganda materials is the greatest weakness of the book. Chakravarti, for example, cites Kaka D Iralu’s book, Nagaland and India: The Blood and the Tears: “About 79,794 houses have been burnt down and also 26,5500,000 mounds of paddy rice have been burnt down by the Indian armed forces... At least, Rs960,000,000 worth of things have been lost through this fire destruction in 612 out of 852 Naga villages, approximately.” One needs to examine the figures between January 1955 and July 1957, keeping in view that Nagaland’s population even during the early 1960s was only 371,000 and most of the villages had no road communication. The book further lists 25 atrocities, giving the impression that Indian armed forces have no other job than to make girls naked and rape, to commit sodomy by unusual sex, breaking and grinding the limbs of the Nagas, etc. It needs mention that responsible and respected Nagas, such as Rev Kenrth Kerhuo, denied allegations of sexual abuse and praised the positive role of the armed forces.[/color]

[color="#800080"](I'm surprised the christians didn't throw in some "nun-rape" fictions for good measure. That's what they usually do. Oh wait. The christian ex-Naga separatists aren't catholics and don't *have* nuns. Meanwhile, their christian twins in Tripura - the christian terrorists of the NLFT - are *documented* serial-rapists of Hindu Vanavasis. Or should I say "self-documented": after all, the christian terror group even goes so far as recording its rape-fests on film and distributing these officially as porn "movies", as even BBC news admits: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4190570.stm "India rebels 'making porn films'", 2005 [where females and even some males are made to take part at gunpoint, as explained])[/color]



In spite of the drawbacks, the book shall succeed in the market. There is, after all, [color="#0000FF"]a powerful lobby that promotes any and every literary work that denigrates India in the worst possible manner.[/color]

[color="#800080"](Of course. It's why Harper Collins is publishing it.)[/color]



The reviewer, editor of Dialogue, is the author of the book, Naga Identity