Society / Nagaland

Kohima, June 25: Akrutz?, a Chakhesang woman, is learning Ao. E.T. Ngullie’s wife speaks fluent Lotha, but she comes from a different tribe. Blame it on inter-tribe marriages. The Nagas, especially the youth, fumble for words when it comes to displaying their command over their mothertongue. The vocal chords are now more tuned to English and the ubiquitous Nagamese, a corrupt non-script version of Assamese that is serving as the lingua franca of this tiny hilly state for centuries.

The State Council of Educational Research and Training has discovered after a survey on the changing pattern of...

Kohima, June 24: Neitho became a junkie within a year of trying to satiate his “curiosity” and Sedevituo became addicted to the “high” of drugs as a high school junior in Kohima. Fortunately, both are out of that dark phase of their lives and have been inspired to write their stories as part of a novel anti-drugs campaign.

Initiated by Kripa Foundation, which helped the two youths and many others kick the habit, the new campaign highlights the importance of mental detoxification along with physical rehabilitation. The compilation of personal stories will be released on Saturday, which is the...

Kohima, June 17: A regional space centre would be set up in Nagaland, officials of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) have promised chief minister Neiphiu Rio. Top Isro scientists, including executive director Satyanarayan and director of its satellites communications programme, Bhaskaranarayanan, visited Kohima earlier this week.

“We hope to initiate quite a few projects here,” Satyanarayan told Rio. “If the space centre is established, several other projects, such as disaster management systems, can be designed,” said an assistant scientific officer here.

Isro scientists...

Chozuba (Phek), June 8: A sub-inspector in the Border Security Force (BSF)’s Nagaland-based 111 Battalion, Ahoto has five years of service left. But he is already 75, which means he will be 80 by the time he calls it a day. Four of his friends, all of them based at the Satakha battalion headquarters in Zunheboto, are in their seventies and will retire around the same time. These men were members of what the BSF describes as the “Naga Revolutionary Army” and were inducted into the paramilitary force in 1973.

Explaining why such elderly people had been retained, BSF commandant Man Singh said:...

Imphal, May 29: Kaisa Rio, wife of Nagaland chief minister Nephiu Rio, led a cultural delegation from the state to Chandel district in Manipur for strengthening the Naga social bond. Inaugurating a two-day cultural exchange programme between Naga women of the two neighbouring states on Thursday, Kaisa appealed to Naga woman to work for the preservation of the community’s cultural heritage.

Gina Sangkham, president of Naga Women Union of Manipur and Khesheli, a top functionaries of the Naga Mothers Association, attended the programme.

Leaders of the United Naga Council, Naga Christian Forum...

Kohima, May 10: For a landlocked state like Nagaland, the sea is like an eighth wonder. It is, therefore, little wonder that Ruokuolhoulie Dz?vich? asked the security forces in Kohima what the sea was all about. Just over a year later, the young highlander has appeared third in the order of merit for navigators in the Indian Navy.

Egged on by those who have got into the navy, more young men from the hills of Nagaland and the valley of Manipur have decided to conquer the seas.

More than 150 youths from both states appeared for the written exams to get into the navy. Twenty-two candidates were...

Kohima, March 10: The Church and most organisations in Nagaland are divided on total prohibition. At a seminar held here recently, representatives of non-governmental organisations, the Church, the excise department, media and law-enforcing agencies debated on the success of prohibition in the state.

They all admitted that the policy had failed as liquor flows freely in the state. But while many government and non-governmental organisations softened their stand, others continued to take a hard line.

Organisations like the Naga Students Federation (NSF), the Nagaland Tourism Association and...

Kohima, Feb. 13: Ancient time in Nagaland is often measured by the year Edward Winter Clark, the first Christian missionary to ever set foot in the state, landed in a village called Molungkimong.

It was an arduous trek that Clark and his wife Mary took, a 60-km walk from Sibsagar, now Sivasagar, through dense forests to reach the Naga village in 1872. The villagers never forgot the favour and came up with an idea to commemorate the walk.

They sent messages to all those interested in the mission walk and as 51 young pilgrims made a journey from Amguri in Assam to Molungkimong village last week...

Kohima, Feb. 6: The discovery of World War II relics within a residential complex in this capital town has excited historians and archaeologists alike. Lanu Longkumer, an electrician at a government poultry farm here, found an exquisite glass and a spoon with Japanese markings beside the skeleton of a Japanese soldier, buried beneath what has been the veranda of a house at veterinary Compound for 26 years.

The skeleton was in good shape, albeit with powdered bones. Longkumer?s family disposed of the bones before the authorities came to know of the discovery.

Examining the spoon and glass, the...

Kohima, Jan. 21: It?s the time to disco. Encouraged by the steady improvement in law and order in the Nagaland capital, a group of entrepreneurs has just conceptualised the state?s first discotheque, complete with a state-of-the-art DJ station and gourmet food.

The discotheque, to be called Amnesia, is the brainchild of Rozelle Mero, who trained to be an interior designer and spent a few years in Hong Kong and a decade in New York before returning home to start this venture with a group of friends.

Rozelle?s collaborators in the discotheque project could not be from more diverse fields...