Nagaland and Numbers

Abstract

Until the late nineteenth century, when the British established control over parts of the Naga Hills1 and Ao Nagas were exposed to Christianity, the Naga society was non-literate. Unlike other parts of the Indian subcontinent that had prior exposure to collection of information by premodern states and could influence early colonial statistical categories and practices to some extent (Peabody 2001; Guha 2003), Nagas were first exposed to statistics only in the late nineteenth century beginning with the record-keeping of the Baptist Church and colonial administration. Yet within a generation, numbers and written documents became key ingredients of political debates in the Naga Hills and began to play an important role in the Naga nationalist discourse.