Identity politics, Conflict situation, self engagement in Theatre

The Brief history of Conflict in India’s northeast
It’s a long history of separatist movements in Northeastern part in India. In the mid of the last century (1950s), identity of India was getting shaped just after the long struggle for its independence. On the other side, voice for separate identities in various places within India was also forming in groups. Small identify holders had fear for vanishing in the canvas of a larger identity. But, people hardly had time to think of it because large section of people was busy in celebrating after feeling free from British emperor. Creating new policies, constructing constitutional laws, strategies for power structure and implementing those are given more emphasis. Off cause that was the need of the time and it is expected that things will be normal in time. Government formed in the centre as well in the provinces and state start functioning. But, just after thirty years of Indian independence, few university students start questioning about the foreign migratory to Assam (a State in India’s Northeast). It’s in 1979.And till 15th August 1985, all days and nights were stormy. One of the major turmoil ever happened after India’s independence in North Eastern Part of India. Later on it is known as ‘Six years Assam agitation’.

On the other side, in the same year (1979) preparation for the first separatist movement in Assam was talking place. Some of the finest brains and the cream of youths of the land left homes and universities in search of their dreams of the new world happening in real. Though the six years Assam agitation took place in a large scale, but, it was a democratic movement. The United liberation front of Assam shortly ULFA become active in mid 80s of the last century which is taken a formal shape on 7th April 1979. Till now they passed almost 30 years of their existence along with many other separatist movements.

Apart from ULFA’s movement in Assam, bulk of young youths of various ethnic groups took arms seeking for a separate state sometimes within India or sometimes outside India in 1980s. Most of these armed movements’ begin out of identical crises caused by dissolving their culture, language and their people into a larger cultural and political identity. In time,it leaded to frequent conflict with the neighboring bigger identity holders and identity finders. The major ethnic identity movements are initiated by the Karbis, Bodos, Dimashas and Komatapuri ethnic groups. Later on most of these movements took a separatist and violent form.

The once rocked separatist armed movement of ULFA in late 1980s comes down by end of twentieth century (1999). The state and the central government take up many counter insurgency measures to control the separatist movements. As the main step the government took up the counter insurgency operations by security forces. The first major counter insurgency campaign code named Operation Bajrang on 27th nov.1990 and the next campaign called as Operation Rhino launched on 14th September 1991 mainly against ULFA. After that Operation Dibro-Chikhuwa, Operation all clear took place.

A major surrendering process took place after the Rhino operation in govt. initiatives. The govt. gave protection and cash payments for rehabilitation. This was the result of two major counter insurgency military campaigns by the Indian Army (Operation Bajrang and Operation Raino) with a series of cleaver political moves credited to the Late Ex Chief minister Mr. Hiteswer Saikia. He used to address the militants as ‘The Boys’ and asked them publicly to come back ‘home’. He declared the surrender scheme in1st June-1992. As a result, today we see more than ten thousands separatist militants thrown their arms and now back at the main stream. In many ways, political life and the life at the streets is better than that period. An influential segment of public opinion in Assam is also formed sided by the government’s position.

The counter insurgency measures are specifically called by a unified command structure where all forces including the state police, central reserve police force and Indian army come under one operational command. Apart from that, laws like the Armed forces Special Powers Acts (AFSPA) 1958 is designed especially for India’s northeast and remained for decades to control violence and bringing the boys back to the mainstream. National security act & TADA acts are also in amplification in India’s northeast to control the same. Already 28 major leaders of the separatist movements are arrested under TADA and 24 leaders are in jail under National security force.

Many rapes cases take place in the process of search-and-arrest operations. Women become the worst sufferers during operations. Almost all persons picked up for questioning whether belonging to any insurgent group or not, are tortured for information. After arest, electric shocks to genitals, cigarette burns, pulling out of finger-nails, dunking the head under water or urine , hanging upside-down for prolonged period, etc are common in the process of colecting informations. In many cases, persons picked up by the security forces have simply disappeared.
The separatist movement in Nagaland was the first to rise in India’s northeast in 1950s. Similar movements in Mizoram and Manipur also followed it. The Naga, Mizo as well as the Meitei movements had their origin in the colonial period. Later on, the Mizos steeled with an agreement. But the Naga movement parted in few fractions and one fraction in negotiating with Govt and still had strong hold over Naga communities spread even to Myanmar.
Though the whole of North East India is about various separatist Movements, still Nagaland, monipur and Assam is in turmoil. Since, the movements and strong, the counter insurgency agendas by the establishment are too strong. So, encounters between the identity finders and identity holders are a regular busyness.Secret killings, purchase and sell of arms, death in unknown reasons, murders are very common in Assam. Mountain, the base camp for almost every self-determination movement of ethnic groups or the sub nationalist armed movements symbolizes man’s fate and destiny of life.

Irom Chanu Sharmila is a women from Monipur, northeast India who is sitting in hunger strick demanding the repeal of the AFSPA from Assam and Monipur, on November 2, 2000, after soldiers of the Indian Paramilitary Assam Rifles allegedly killed ten young Meitei men in a place called Malom in Monipur. Three days later, police arrested Sharmila on charges of ‘attempted suicide’. Suicide or attempted suicide being unlawful under Indian laws.Later She was transferred to judicial custody.To keep her alive, she was force-feed a cocktail of vitamins, minerals, laxatives, protein supplements and lentil soup through the nose with a rubber pipe. As part of a major set of concessions, including the transfer of the Kangla Fort to the State Government, a long-standing demand, Irom Chanu was released on October 2, 2006, on the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi. She immediately made her way secretly to New Delhi, visited Gandhi's mausoleum (samadhi) at Raj Ghat as her first act after being released, and immediately recommenced her fast at the Jantar Mantar monument in Delhi. She was immediately arrested once again and admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences' hospital (AIIMS), but her brother, Irom Singhajit Singh, has challenged the detention in the New Delhi High Court.
Also, as part of these concessions, AFSPA has been repealed for certain parts of urban Manipur.Activists against AFSPA have rejected these concessions as inadequate and demand a complete repeal.On November 28, 2006, Irom Chanu removed the plastic pipe inserted into her nose to force-feed her, acting against the advice of AIIMS' doctors, in order to resume her forcibly interrupted fast-unto-death demanding the complete repeal of AFSPA.On December 2, 2006, Irom Chanu Sharmila rejected Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's assurance to 'dilute' the AFSPA and announced her intention to continue until complete repeal.
So in our play too, these happenings took place in various shape, form and contents. Mountain is the place where the young boys vanish in the fade. Mothers waits at home day and night for them.Along with these, life goes on. What happens to those mothers who are losing their sons? What happens to those sisters who are growing with the burden and the sight of their brother’s death?

Identity Politics and India’s northeast
A response to social transformation and my theatre

Jamuna, an old woman waits for Sunti, her fifth son to come back from the Mountain. The boys go to join an armed group, Assamese people says that he/she had gone to ‘Mountain’. Mountain is used as a hint. Only her two daughters are with her. One after another, her four sons had already left for the Mountain and never came back. A dumb Mountain is the Sole Power to take away or to give life. Mountain is mysterious for them. Sometimes, the news of the accidental death or sometimes the blood shaded dead body comes back. Now Padma, the youngest son, is ready to leave home for the Mountains...... A deep sense of anxiety flows in the house.Padma leaves for his destiny in spite of Constant pleadings of his mother. Jamuna’s desperate attempt to stop her last son from going to the Mountains ends in an unsuccessful effort.

The mother remains in the house of memories and her two daughters. Kanta & Lakhimi are waiting for Padma’s return which is predetermined by the terror of death. One day, Padma’s dead body is brought back to the house by a group of people belonging to the neighboring village. The unseen terror becomes an immutable truth.

This is a play named Mrytur Dath Cha (dark shadow of death) which I directed in 1990’s in Assamese language. After the performances, some people suggested to present the play in the places like Tamulpur- (a place through which boys used to move to join ULFA (united liberation front of Assam) and in the places next to the Bhutan- Assam international border. That was the times basically people are reluctant to talk publicly about the armed movements, violation of human rights whether by state or armed groups. An unseen fear use to move among the mass. So, regarding the theme of the play too, people are unwilling to talk about. An unseen fear always there among the civilians.

I have seen my college mates vanishing from the classes during my college days for years. I meet few of them after long fifteen years when they came back to mainstream surrendering their arms in front of state mechanism. Apart from my personal experiences, I feel like to address the areas like Food, Shelter, Water, Ethnicity, Identity, Conflict of identities, Women, Arms, Political Conflict etc.

Rangpherpi Rangbe -a play in karbi language based on a legend of the ethnic group

Time: Middle age. Feudalism was in its peak.
Kareng Rangpherpi was a karbi peasant woman and agriculture was their livelihood. The inhabitants of the state where Karbis were living at that time become irritated by the feudal ruler’s tyranny. The king of the state was bringing up a cub and lot of people was employed to take care of the royal pet. Hence, a growing conflict of the common people with the feudal tyrants ensured. Popular dissent against the feudal was met with extreme penalty. Once, the cub became weak because of illness. According to the priest’s advice the king sent his soldiers throughout the state in search of woman who had nursing infants as only human milk could cure his illness. So, the drive to collect milk from nursing Mother’s breasts began-inflicting inhuman torture and humiliation in the process. Who has courage to speak against the king and royal soldiers?

The soldiers stopped Kareng Rangpherpi while she was coming back from work. Kareng -mother of a new born baby had the courage to resist the humiliation and torture. So, she neither stooped nor run away, instead she took up her axe and fought against them. And she killed the royal soldiers and ignited the fire of the first rebellion.

This enraged the king. It’s a sign of rebellion. So immediately it should be crushed! The king started a campaign in search of Kareng, so that the seed of mutiny could be nipped at the bud. Taking advantage of the darkness of night, Kareng campaigned from village to village and organized a group of rebellious people. They constructed a number of jungle roads in various directions from their deserted village in such a manner that the invading soldiers could only come back to the same spot again without making any headway. Meanwhile, Kareng and her companies had escaped into safety. It was indeed an unparallel saga of courage and ingenuity against exploitation.

Oppressed common people will not tolerate any body who want to snatch away their birth right- this is Rangpherpi Rongbe’s thought. Not only a thought, but she proved it in her time. Rangpherpi is the example that the woman protagonist as a leader who challenges the traditional customary practices to fight repressive laws of the king.

I don’t know whether it helps in the peace building process, but I keep doing plays, capacity building training programmes with the folk artists, non artists too of various ethnic groups like the karbis, Bodos, Nagas, various ethnic groups of Arunachal Pradesh etc. That’s how another few of my plays called Thong Nokbe ( in Karbi Language), Scratches on time(in Bodo Language),Dapun( in Hindi language, Arunachal Pradesh), Nisheli and Technicolour Dreams( In Nagamese Language) came up.

Technicolour Dreams is the last work which I did with a Naga youth group from Nagaland, another state of India’s northeast. Conflict background of Nagaland has been portrayed through the play. Factional clashes, conflict with use of language, ethnic harmony etc.

I personally think peaceful co-existence of ethnic groups is a difficult tusk. But, it needed to be tried out to resist in the wave of Globalization. The ethnic groups may be empowered with literacy, good health and cultural expression and importantly developing political decision making capacity.

Gaantha- the 1st text -an installation Performance

A black street echoing with the melodies of a lullaby.......Jharuwala, the host of that space wakes up in a bright morning, feeling fresh and caressed by the soothing cool wind of the nearby river. He wipes out yesterday’s garbage - a long road is in front of him; a black snake....Native rituals, vedic chants and shantis are creating a milieu arguing on the philosophy of traditional belief and value judgment.

The wide street between man and academics and the effort to make you an eligible man - is a black snake again. Certificates are becoming currency at the peak of inflation. Aches of burning values of certification are flying high in the wind. What can we do! Our welfare state’s planning is in cold storage for the last 56 years. We are waiting since when it is difficult to remember.......

Human being dream - wants to fly. This flight in the sky & landing on earth in an already determined mould becomes two different dreams to realize.

Some of them have lost their patience to continue and those who are still in, intercommunicates like the Jharuwala and finds that “he has lost everything”. The Jharuwala has a full library of history in dark that doesn’t deserve this fate but still he owns lots of plastic, steel, rubber, remote etc. etc. He has seen that the simplicity of indigenous inhabitants of the land living with their traditional ethos and practice is becoming Jesus – a throned helmet on their head.

‘Bhumi’, worthless to make it a point, to remember or realise the relationship between mankind and earth. What it means is that people are gradually losing their relationship with earth (bhumi)! or what sort of relationship they are talking about is? Many a time it is heard and talked about that we have a strong existence of parliamentary politics in the state. How do they handle the issues of existence, survival and identity!

People have lost their faith-on time. And time lost its faith. Time rebels, youth rebels against time..... History rebels, history rebuilds - how cultural diversification in ‘mainstream’ co-existd with gun and terror! Hands are covered with human blood. Today living Macbeths are with us. And we individually pretend to be out of that terror, (Oh!) we and our friendly circumstances. A revolver is invented to kill. The arms manufactured in different spaces became the determinants of our life and thoughts.

Don’t dare to question on ethnic existence – The black snake will leap up again with its venomous fang. Glossy endorsements are soothing to the eyes only .............vanishes in glitter. The black snack cannot snatch away human desires....... self, identity, determination will remain questioned.
None of those are new talks. But, repetitively told and talked all those many many times. How glorious the glorified mainstream is! Jharuwala’s bookshelf is full of ideas, examples..............

Being mesmerized by the magic of commodity, packaging, purchasing capacity, plasticity, and glorification. Now what’s next! The whole globe is yours.........When advertising and globalisation are at the Zenith - we, who hope for a prosperous tomorrow - we dream in our dream, we dream that “We are not dreaming”.

Memsahab Prithvi is a play about struggle for identity, Natural resources, Drinking water, oil market and portrayal of women’s role in peace. There is a blend of a folklore based on fertility, water and woman sacrifice and (we say) a contemporary tale created on issues of my resign. The women characters have been portrayed as symbols of sacrifice. The folktale woman who is sacrificing has been glorified whereas the contemporary woman (as compared to Irom chanu Sharmila) in hunger strike seeking peace in Northeast India.

But in one of the scenes a strange irony has been shown where a burkha clad afghan woman is the translator between 2 male non-state armed groups. She is shown to be able to communicate in English with the cadres from NE. This can be analyzed towards how role of women in armed conflict becomes very crucial as interpreters also even in a patriarchal setup like Afghanistan. In the deeper sense throughout this scene the woman character in spite of being inside the veil was actually the most powerful one even while the men around her had both arms and authority.

Extractions of resources in the form of oil and water have been symbolically placed to depict the unequal resource extraction from the NER. The issues of migration and missing men have been dealt with the portrayal of single women headed households in the context of conflict. At the same time the impact of globalization, power and money has been shown as causes of crackdown of initial idealism even within the insurgent groups in question. Use of football, code language of ink, Festival, pen etc have been creatively used to portray serious armed activities of the armed groups.

Role of women from the folklore till date hasn’t changed from the sacrificial nature to any other form. But symbolic portrayal of the image of a veil clad identity of state, thought process or person shows the emergence of a situation beyond any gender stereotype.

In my Process of Work I prefer to evolve performance text for my plays. Styles of plays are diverse in itself depending on subject , theme, language, people, context, opens up patriarchy, throws open patriarchic perspective to the audience to perceive. Multi –lingual and physical theatre, props, alternative music. No text or no written script in a way challenging the hetero normative structure of theatre form.

My thematic representation has always been contextualized in the backdrop of conflict. These issues of widowhood, women headed households and search for alternatives to livelihood and getting into the traps of insurgency reflects the current scenario which I have been experiencing from very close window.

People are scared and they would like to jeopardize their families and friends. NE being located in a national security zone anything that’s controversial becomes problematic. Stringent laws and public indifference add to the culture of impunity.

The use of theatre as a social mobilization tool for the oppressed is a conscious effort to connect to the various movements and connecting theatre with these movements indeed have led to creative expression of advocacy.

Peace Building as a process is distinctive in relation to practicing power, empowering for the people to let them imagine something beyond repression and unjust situations. Self determination and ethnic diversity are very inherent factors with which I am fascinated with. The concept of making theatre a tool for cultural expressions and creating cadres of young people who are empowered with the skills of the acting, makeup, set designing, music and direction.I wished to connect to the masses through her mancha yatra where she has reached out to all kinds of people. Her initiative has never faced any opposition which is an indicator of constructive interaction with all stakeholders.

The Case Study is presented for DAWN South and south East Asian Regional Consultation on Feminist Engagement with Conflict, Impunity and Peace,Kathmandu, Nepal, 2009