On reflection, Mr Tharoor was not quite off the mark when he called Naga headgear outlandish. Naga headdresses on the head of a non-Naga do not belong; they do not fit. Even if the non-Naga was the personable, aquiline featured Rajiv Gandhi in his day, or his grandfather Nehru, or today’s Mr Modi, they could not help but look outlandish. They, not the headgear. Before we flew off the handle and made our demands for apologies, I wish we had taken a step backward and considered this: Naga costumes are specifically and intrinsically made for the Naga race.
A non-Naga friend always preferred Nagas to wear traditional clothes. In his great admiration he said, ‘It makes your people look like elevated human beings.’ That is high praise indeed, but with a ring of truth to it. I am fully convinced that our traditional costumes were designed with that effect in mind. The aesthetic sense of the Naga costume makers was highly developed.
Our ancestors used to clearly define ordinary days from festival days. In preparation for festivals, the village elder would shout: ‘Heiiwe are going to celebrate our harvest festival. Let the people make festival clothes.’ After all, people always looked better when they turned out in their brightly coloured festival clothes and all of that added to the festive atmosphere.
Traditional clothing was also used to lend dignity when one appeared before one’s enemies. The warriors of Khonoma who went to meet General Nation to enact a treaty between the British and the village, came dressed in their good clothes. Native narrations put stress on that fact. One of them carried a spear. The only man who did not dress up was a leader who was in mourning for his relatives killed by the British. General Nation was suitably impressed by the dignity of his foes and rose to his feet to receive and acknowledge them.
Coming back to the question of Naga costumes, it’s a race thing, let’s admit it. What looks good on an Indian man or woman won’t look half as good on a Naga without Indian features. Never tried this before, but I am sure our body-cloths would look splendid on Native Americans. So would our headgear. Because we are much closer racially and can even go back in time and claim a common ancestor!
Here is a good lesson for our leaders who are so quick to present our traditional whatevers to non-Naga dignitaries. A non-Naga may not be capable of appreciating the meaning of our various costumes in our cultural context; what each geometric pattern represents, or the significance of a particular feather and so on. I know a horror story from the sixties that a non-Naga officer, presented with a beautiful white Chokri cloth, proceeded to use it as a tablecloth in his dining room. His Naga guests were appalled to find dal and curry stains on the white cloth. Sacrilege of a very high order indeed! Listen up: stop gifting our traditional cloths, spears, headgear, anything traditional to visiting dignitaries. If people genuinely like our artefacts, let them buy them. Paying a good price for them will help the buyer to appreciate and accord the respect due to them when he transfers them to his house.
MrTharoor was insensitive when he made his stereotypical statement on Naga headgear. He would, I doubt not, look just as outlandish in one. But this incident sheds light on an area where we have possibly been ignorant before. It is about the very real fact that what we see as valuable may not be seen as valuable by the other person. In that case, the object will immediatelyundergo devaluation when it passes hands. Avoid all that and simply buy dried beef chutney with the equivalent amount of money from the state exchequer and gift them that instead. After all it is not available in other parts of India so it would surely be appreciated and valued as much as we value it.
