Naga Hills Research Articles

Contested customs in the Naga hills: Baptist reformers, colonial ethnography and the construction of a modern Naga identity

ABSTRACT This paper directs attention to the Naga Hills, an outlying hill district in British India’s Northeast frontier, that became a site of conflict between the early Baptist converts and the non-converts over the nature and authority of customs which were recorded in the colonial archive as ‘Christians vs Ancients’. These conflicts produced two opposing discourses on ‘tribal’ customs in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: the reformism of the American Baptist missionaries and the romanticism of the colonial anthropologists. However, the path of self-determination that the Nagas chose defied these established paradigms even as they fashioned a modern Naga political identity that appropriated strands of both colonial ethnography and Baptist Christianity. This article contends that the Christian-Ancients conflicts are significant not only for understanding the ideological underpinnings of Naga ethnonationalism but also for providing a historical intervention into contemporary debates on Naga customary law.

Interesting Plants from Eastern India I. <i>Dioscorea laurifolia</i> Wall. Ex Hook. F.

This paper records for the first time the occurrence of Dioscorea laurifolia Wall. ex Hook. f. in India from Tirap Frontier Division of North East Frontier Agency. It further indicates the probability of its occurrence in Naga Hills, Tuensang Division and Burma.

Taxonomic reassessment of the Herpetoreas xenura (Wall, 1907) (Squamata: Serpentes: Natricidae) from Myanmar with description of a new species

The review of the taxonomic status of Herpetoreas xenura species complex, based on morphological and molecular data, revealed a new species from Myanmar, which we describe as Herpetoreas davidi sp. nov. from the Rakhine Yoma Elephant Wildlife Sanctuary in Rakhine State. It is suggested to be a sister species to Herpetoreas pealii and Herpetoreas xenura sensu stricto, and can be separated from the latter species by a combination of morphological and scalation characters, and by its pattern. Another population from the Htamanthi Wildlife Sanctuary, Sagaing Region, was previously confused with H. xenura. However, as a closer examination of its morphology, shows it to be closer to Hebius khasiensis, we herein tentatively refer to this population as Hebius khasiensis, pending further molecular data confirming its taxonomic status. Consequently, we propose to temporarily remove Herpetoreas xenura from the fauna of Myanmar. Further studies, especially in the northwestern region of Myanmar, such as near border with India in Chin Hills and Naga Hills, are required. An updated key for the species of Herpetoreas is also provided.

Accuracy of historical precipitation from CMIP6 global climate models under diversified climatic features over India

The importance of global climate models (GCMs) is increasingly recognized due to their excellent ability to accurately predict climatic factors. These capabilities prove invaluable to water resources engineers as they facilitate effective planning and strategic decision-making. Finally, evaluating the performance of GCMs is very important because it allows us to simulate and predict different climate scenarios, empowering us to make informed choices. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine the degree of discordance between historical simulated data produced by the CMIP6 models and historical observational data over different climate zones of India. The ability of 24 different GCMs to reproduce the geographical and seasonal distribution of Indian precipitation has been tested by analyzing the daily historical precipitation forecasts from these models. These models have been used to estimate the degree of uncertainty associated with the spatiotemporal variability of precipitation forecasts. More than 20% percent bias (PBIAS) is observed to occur predominantly in four climate classifications: polar tundra, temperate, cold, and tropical monsoon. In some regions of India, the CMIP6 models produce overestimated or underestimated results. The locations identified indicate that there have been changes of more than 20% PBIAS near Sivalik Range, Naga Hills, and Western Ghats. The precipitations of those regions that have been underestimated also imply that those locations have different climatic conditions. This study also highlights that CMIP6 GCMs are yet to produce better results near several Indian mountainous regions depending upon climates. The outcomes of this study will be very useful for reconstructing modeled data for that specific regions.

Selecting ‘History’: Baptist Mission in Nineteenth Century Naga Hills

The article traces the efforts made by the American Baptist missionaries in the nineteenth century to connect with the local communities of the Naga Hills. The success of the mission has been credited to the mission’s successful use of terminologies drawn from local oral traditions in translating the Bible. While the article builds upon this argument, it also shows that while missionaries turned to such traditions to find context and cultural relevance for their evangelism work or acquire legitimacy for their choices, for example, in the form of selecting the print language for the ‘tribes’, in other instances oral tradition was branded rather as ‘doubtful stories’ and ‘strange legends’. Within this context, the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw the systematic attack and dismantling of local social and cultural practices sustained by the locals’ oral tradition.

Depositional Environment and Provenance of Tipam Sandstone Formation Exposed in Parts of Naga Schuppen Belt, Naga Hills, NE India

Depositional Environment and Provenance of Tipam Sandstone Formation Exposed in Parts of Naga Schuppen Belt, Naga Hills, NE India

Automatic thrust/fault and edge location with gravity data across the Shillong plateau and Mikir hill complex in northeastern India using the most positive and most negative curvature interpretation

Abstract Northeast India encompasses numerous thrusts, faults, and lineaments with undulated surface topography and is one of the utmost tectonically active regions in the world. Owing to the results of the collision of the Indian Plate under the Tibetan Plate and Burmese Plate, respectively, this area has affected the highest seismic potential zone-V, triggering many earthquakes. The current study area is located in and around the Shillong plateau, Mikir Hills, Naga Hills, Arakan-Yoma fold belt, Bengal basin, and Mishmi hills of the Himalayan foothills and that fall under the northeast of India. The thrusts and faults information available in this area are very scanty due to limited availability of geoscientific data and revealing seismic survey. Henceforth, it is necessary to get enhanced geoscientific learning for a better understanding of thrusts, faults, and lineaments information, the most positive and most negative curvature attribute analyses have been carried out using ground gravity data in this area. The significant derived results from this study encourage supplementary findings of thrust, fault, and lineament information, which also correlate well with the previously found results of 3D Euler deconvolution and source edge detection. Although, gravity data interpretation has its own limitations, however, the current derived results using the latest curvature analysis approach utilizing gravity data show realistic invigorated solutions for a better understanding of the thrust, fault, and lineament locations in this area.

Engaging with Ethnographic Museum Objects from Erstwhile Naga Hills: From Imperial, Colonial and Postcolonial Eras to Contemporary Reimagining

The colonial monographs on Naga peoples and the colonial appropriation of artefacts in north-east India enhanced anthropological knowledge in Europe. This paper asks how far the ‘decolonising the museum’ approach can be applied in studying Naga collections in European museums and in facilitating critical engagement with ethnographic objects from Naga communities in both Western and Indian museums. There has been a regeneration of interest in the colonial history of Naga collections among European/New World academics and in ethnographic museums in the late 1980s, mid 2000s and currently in Humboldt Lab (2015) and Forum (2022), and among Naga communities themselves. The paper examines how the contrasting historical trajectories, positions and modern consequences play out 1 .

Provenance and Diagenetic Features of Sandstones in the Surma -Tipam Transitional Sequence exposed in the Schuppen Belt, Naga Hills, NE India

The Schuppen Belt, a part of the Indo-Burma Ranges is basically comprised of molasses of Tertiary age. This tectono–stratigraphic belt is restricted by two major thrust faults, namely Disang and Naga. In the southern part of the Naga Hills a significant part is occupied by Surma–Tipam Transitional Sequences (STTS). This study deals with the petrography, provenance, and tectonic setting of the STTS sandstones. The sandstones are classified as arkose and arkosic wacke types. The major contribution of detritus has been observed from the recycled orogen, dissected arc, transitional continental and basement uplift. The geochemistry data reveals that the sandstones were derived from a collisional setting of an active continental margin. The low degree of chemical maturity indicates that the sandstones were deposited in an arid climatic condition. The diagenetic signatures observed in these sandstones such as, point, long and concavo-convex grain boundary, albitization, crushing and squashing of quartz grains, warping of mica around detrital grains, and bending of mica suggest early to a late stage deep burial diagenesis.

Geochemical dichotomy of Tethyan oceanic mantle and the supercontinent connection: Insights from Os isotopic signatures of mantle peridotites from Naga Hills ophiolite

Naga Hills Ophiolite (NHO) represents a thrusted section of relict Neo-Tethyan oceanic lithosphere comprising distinct crustal and upper mantle lithologies that preserve imprints of different stages of evolution of ancient ocean basins and subsequent accretion onto continental margins during late Cretaceous-Eocene collision involving Indian and Eurasian Plates. This study presents bulk geochemistry and Re-Os isotopic compositions for the mantle peridotites of NHO to address their petrogenetic aspects, implications for Neo-Tethyan upper mantle heterogeneity and thermo-tectonic evolution of Neo-Tethyan oceanic lithosphere through subduction-accretion-collision processes. Geochemical characteristics of the mantle peridotites, as reflected from their chondrite normalized REE patterns, binary relationship between fractionation depletion indices, low Re/Os, suggest that these are mantle residues resulting from ∼ 5–20 % of melt extraction from a spinel peridotite source that experienced decompression melting in a fore-arc extensional setting in response to subduction initiation. Isotopically, these mantle peridotites are subchondritic with 187Os/188Os (0.1218–0.1266) and γOs values of −3.73 to −0.09 comparable with the depleted MORB source. LILE-LREE enrichment, HFSE depletion, and U-shaped chondrite-normalized REE patterns demonstrated by the studied samples with Re addition collectively corroborate multistage petrogenetic processes in compliance with geodynamic transition from extensional to compressional regime in a suprasubduction zone environment and partial melting of a chemically heterogeneous source mantle. This compositional heterogeneity can be equated with mantle depletion by melt extraction and refertilization by influx of slab-dehydrated fluids and percolation of boninitic melts. The non-radiogenic Os isotope signatures, negative γOs values and wide spectrum of melt extraction ages for these mantle peridotites correspond to (i) multiple melt production and melt extraction events prior to the opening of Neo-Tethyan seaway (ii) detachment and incorporation of ancient, depleted SCLM fragments into oceanic mantle concurrent with subduction driven ocean basin closure-congregation of Gondwana Supercontinent and emergence of Neo-Tethyan embryonic ocean in response to disintegration of Gondwana Supercontinent.

Indigenous Voices and the Archive

Between 1914 and 1919, the British administrator and anthropologist John Henry Hutton (1885-1968) made fourteen cylinder recordings documenting the songs of Naga communities in the Naga Hills District, today part of the state of Nagaland in India. Little is known about the recording circumstances, as the documentation is limited to brief recording notes he sent with the cylinders to the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, which holds the collection. Hutton’s publications, on the other hand, include transcriptions and translations of some of the recorded songs, but the poor sound quality makes it difficult to assign these to the published songs with certainty. This paper summarises the outcomes of a research project funded by the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives between January and March 2022, which aimed to reconnect Naga communities with Hutton’s recordings to elucidate the content and performance context of the recordings, and to provide digital copies of the collection with enhanced documentation to the Archives and Research Center for Ethnomusicology (Gurgaon) and the Highland Institute (Kohima). Fieldwork participants appreciated the opportunity to hear Hutton’s recordings, which they considered important historical documentation of Naga traditional music. Yet, most listeners struggled to identify the recorded songs, although a few were able to name and even perform some of them. The project concluded with an exhibition at the Highland Institute that featured Hutton’s recordings and more recent examples of Naga traditional music. Overall, few listeners were aware of the existence of Hutton’s recordings when we conducted our fieldwork in February 2022, although the recordings have been available online on the website of the Pitt Rivers Museum since 2013. Thus, I argue that initiatives of making historical sound recordings accessible online need to be supported by actions on the ground in countries of origin, to facilitate community engagement with audio collections uploaded to the web.

Middle Miocene final demise of remnants of an eastern Neotethyan seaway, Naga Hills, Indo-Myanmar Range

Miocene planktonic foraminifers occur in shale intercalated with thinly bedded siltstone and sandstone of the Surma Group in the foothills of the Naga Schuppen Belt of the Indo-Myanmar Range. Fourteen species from eleven genera are the first clearly imaged middle Miocene foraminifers recorded from the Surma Group in the Naga Hills. This new M5-M6 assemblage from the upper unit of the Bhuban Formation correlates to the uppermost Burdigalian to Langhian (16–14 Ma). Biostratigraphy, paleoenvironment and paleogeography of the assemblage are all significant. They provide a basis for widespread regional and global correlation constraining the timing of elimination of the final remnants of the Neotethyan seaway between India and eastern Eurasia. Results indicate that, unlike the western and Tibetan Himalayas where similar seaways disappeared before the Miocene, a shallow marine embayment that connected to the Indian Ocean endured in eastern parts of the India-Eurasia collision zone until the Middle Miocene.

Geochemical characteristics of mafic intrusive rocks from the Naga Hills Ophiolite, north‐east India: Constraints on petrogenesis and tectonic setting

The Naga Hills Ophiolite (NHO) of Late Jurassic to Eocene age is one of the well‐exposed domains of Tethyan ophiolites, located in the northern margin of the Indo‐Myanmar Orogenic Belt, north‐east India. It is composed of suites of tectonite peridotite and cumulative ultramafic, mafic intrusive‐extrusive rocks, felsic intrusive, radiolarian, and marine pelagic sediments. The mafic intrusives of the NHO exhibit rhythmic to cryptic layering and isotropic in nature. Based on their mineralogy, the mafic intrusives are identified as gabbro, gabbronorite, hornblende gabbro, and olivine gabbro. The gabbros are adcumulate and mesocumulate and essentially composed of plagioclase feldspar, clinopyroxene, orthopyroxene, hornblende, with minor olivine, serpentine, chlorite, and magnetite. These mafic intrusive rocks show affinity to tholeiitic parental magma and fractionated trends in the multi‐elemental diagram, with negative anomalies at Zr, P, Ce and positive anomalies at Sr, Nb, and Ti suggesting that the magmatism was influenced by subduction zone components. The majority of the samples represent light rare earth elements (LREE) depletion (LaN/SmN = 0.28–0.86), except two samples that display LREE enrichment (LaN/SmN = 2.11–3.03), with negligible negative Eu anomaly. Petrogenetic modelling suggests 5%–20% partial melting of a depleted mid‐ocean ridge basalt‐type mantle source, within the spinel lherzolite stability field, as well as low degree partial melting (<10%) of an enriched mantle source probably metasomatized by sediment‐melt from a subducted slab. Therefore, based on mineralogical and geochemical data, we propose that the mafic intrusive of the NHO were generated in the intra‐oceanic arc system within the Neotethys Ocean with the active participation of possible wet basaltic melt from spinel‐lherzolite source‐mantle, subsequently modified by melts derived from sediments in a subduction zone.

Weathering and Source Rock Characteristics of the Upper Disang Sedimentary Rock of the Indo-Myanmar Ranges, NE India

The Eocene Disang Group occupies a vast area of Manipur and extends in parts of Tista and Tirap valley in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland Hills, and small portions of North Cachar Hills (Assam) and continues up to Chin Ranges of Myanmar Ranges. The Disang Group is characterized by a group of monotonous sequences of dark grey to black splintery shales and has intercalation of siltstones and light to brownish grey, fine- to medium-grained sandstones of especially in the upper horizons, occasionally giving rise to rhythmic character. ICV vs. CIA, K2O/Na2O vs. Fe2O3+MgO and TiO2 vs. Al2O3 diagrams reveal that sediments from the Tista and Tirap river valleys in Arunachal Pradesh and towards the central portion of the Naga Hills in Nagaland are more weathered and recycled than sediments from the study area (most of Imphal valley or Manipur valley in Manipur). The sediments for the study area were dominantly derived from the unweathered rising Indo-Myanmar Ranges. The pre-Himalayan rocks might have been supplied sediments for the Disang Group. Sediments were also possibly derived from the uplifted fold thrust belt of Myanmar’s landmass comprising of igneous and metamorphic basement complex with older sedimentary sequences with minor contributions of detritus from Mishmi Hills region lying to the NE of the Arunachal Pradesh. The Disang sediments were deposited in different sedimentary environments from tidal flat to nearshore lagoon and neritic shallow marine environment and different in composition might have been related to variation in source rock for these sediments which was deposited in the Indo-Myanmar basin formed by rifting and crustal stretching on the continental margin of the Myanmar landmass.

Travel, Empire and Ethnographic Self-Fashioning of a White Headhunter: Christoph von Furer-Haimendorf’s The Naked Naga

Travel Writing produced under the frameworks of colonialism and ethnography offers an opportunity to delineate the entanglement of the traveller in the ideological underpinnings of empire and ethnography. Drawing on the interdisciplinary formulations of the writing culture debate, the paper construes Christoph von Furer-Haimendorf’s The Naked Nagas (1939) as a travel text that narrativises encountered life-worlds in the Naga Hills, a contact zone in the frontier of the colonial Northeast India. Through an interdisciplinary approach, the paper traces the text’s ideological incarnation under the Nazi regime and foregrounds the self-fashioning by the European ethnographer-traveller as a salvager, a cultural translator and a white headhunter of folkloric proportion. It thereby posits the contact zone’s congeniality for translation and circulation of identities. The text exhibits a futuristic gesture towards postmodernist configurations of ethnographic writing and self-fashioning, and emerges as polysemous and simultaneously participates in and subverts the discourse of headhunting by deconstructing the inherent discursivity in headhunting. Read in the context of the colonial Northeast Indian frontier, Furer-Haimendorf’s narrative, generally marginalised in academic studies, signposts a critique of Christian evangelism as a threat to the ethnographic present of indigenous societies. The paper contributes to the interdisciplinary knowledge on the configuration of the colonial Northeast Indian frontier by envisioning the roles of, and contested affinity among, travel, empire and ethnographic exercises as evinced in travel writing.

Geochemical evidences on the origin and paleo‐oceanic depositional setting of the Naga Hills Ophiolite cherts, North East India

The Jurassic‐Cretaceous chert of the Naga Hills Ophiolite (NHO) is tectonically juxtaposed with the mafics (mostly basalts) and ultramafics along the Indo‐Myanmar Ranges (IMR), which constitute the southeastern extension of the Indus‐Yarlung‐Tsangpo Suture. Petrographic and geochemical studies were taken up to determine their origin and paleo‐oceanic depositional environments. Cryptocrystalline quartz is intimately mixed with iron oxides and clay minerals containing poorly preserved radiolarians. Geochemical signatures indicate a predominantly biogenic origin for the NHO cherts, which were derived from radiolarians and other siliceous microfossils. Rare earth elements and trace element abundances indicate predominant contribution by scavenging from seawater with the minor influence of low‐temperature hydrothermal activity. Most of the NHO cherts were deposited in an open ocean basin where oxic conditions prevailed. Geochemical signatures endorsed by field relations of chert, pillow basalts, and limestone within the oceanic plate indicate that chert formation continued in the vicinity of oceanic islands. Organic matter played a pivotal role in regulating oxic‐anoxic conditions during deposition, as evidenced by redox‐sensitive trace elements. These cherts, envisaged to have been originally part of the Tethys, were tectonically emplaced during the Middle Eocene. They now constitute part of the NHO along the IMR.

Jhum Cultivation among the eastern Nagas

The paper analyses the dialectics of land and labour relation to assess the multifaceted and changing relationship between nature and culture in jhum development villages. Shifting cultivation, locally known as jhum in Indian northeast, reminds us of an archaic form of farming practised in out-of-the-way upland spaces. Today, this form of farming is fast changing into plantation, agri-business and monoculture because of state, donor, and community-focused bottom-up development programmes. Nevertheless, jhum remains a „way of life‟ and livelihood option for many remote highland farming communities across the Eastern Himalayas. The paper draws upon my ethnographic study on Naga slash and burn farming and the ways it has changed over time with the introduction of agricultural demonstrators, subsidies, microcredits, plantation crops and Baptist work ethics introduced by the village Church. More fundamentally, it reflects the patronage relations between village chiefs, their subjects (clan members), political go-between, and the state. These interfaces developed over time as colonial administrators and anthropologists established their authority and control over Naga Hills in the late nineteenth century with the help of village intermediaries locally known as dobashis. Labour and land relations have both transmuted from communal– common property resources to „private assets‟ with different meanings attached to right and control over „land‟ and „labour‟.

MG-RICH ULTRAMAFICS OF THE NAGA HILLS OPHIOLITE, NAGALAND, INDIA: A POTENTIAL SUBSTITUTE AS BASIC FLUX IN METALLURGICAL INDUSTRIES

Flux materials are indispensable in iron ore refining process to effectively segregate gangue minerals and to improve other physicochemical properties. Lately, the demand for metallurgical grade flux materials such as limestone and dolomite for iron and steel manufacturing industries in India has surged manifold and depends largely on imports due to its limited resources. MgO-bearing flux has emerged to be a potential alternative to conventional fluxes (limestone and dolomite); though huge resources of Mg-rich ultramafic rocks are available in the Indian subcontinent, their economic utility as metallurgical flux is not fully explored. To evaluate the suitability of flux material in iron and steel industries, Mg-rich ultramafics of the Naga Hills Ophiolite (NHO) have been studied. Major oxides and petro-mineralogical studies have been undertaken to understand the chemical and mineralogical attributes of NHO Mg-rich ultramafics. Results indicate appreciable MgO content (up to 46.7%) barring pyroxenite, with low Al2O3 (< 2 wt%), loss on ignition (< 14 wt%), and Cr2O3 (< 1 wt%) conforming to the chemical specifications set for flux/sinter mix by the major steel producers in India. Fouling index further indicates Mg-based flux of NHO as better quality in contrast to conventional flux materials, albeit alkali content is relatively high. Finer crystals of NHO Mg-rich rocks are added advantage which would readily assimilate in the melt at lower energy. Mg-based flux in iron and steel industries would aid in augmenting productivity with reduced slag volumes at lower cost, energy and pollution.

Mineral assemblages and tectono‐provenance of the Oligocene Barail sandstones in parts of Naga Hills of the Assam‐Arakan Orogenic Belt, North‐east India

Oligocene Barail sandstones in parts of the Naga Hills, west of Kohima town, Nagaland, north‐east India have been studied for their provenance and tectonic environments using mineral assemblages and heavy mineral contents. Moderate to well‐sorted litharenite to sublith‐arenite Barail sandstones are dominated by monocrystalline quartz and are represented by both undulose and non‐undulose varieties. Of the two feldspars, plagioclase dominates over K‐feldspar. Rock fragments are second in abundance and constituted of chert, siltstones, schist, and volcanic fragments. The heavy mineral assemblage of Barail sandstones is represented by euhedral, subhedral/subrounded, and well‐rounded zircon, tourmaline, rutile, staurolite, sillimanite, and kyanite. Opaques are represented by rounded iron oxides. Detailed petrography coupled with heavy mineral assemblage points towards a mixed provenance dominated by a sedimentary source of recycled orogenic provenance in a foreland basinal set‐up. Our study further reveals that sediments were mainly supplied from a north‐east direction. However, at the higher stratigraphic levels, contributions were also made from the west. In response to changing plate interaction with time, contributions were made from the Indo‐Myanmar Ranges, the Shillong Plateau and/or the Karbi‐Anglong Massif, and also from the sediments formed under earlier tectonic regimes of the Assam‐Arakan Orogenic Belt.

Significance of aegirine‐bearing metabasic rocks in the metamorphic evolution of the Nagaland Accretionary Prism, northeast India

The ophiolite belt of Nagaland–Manipur states in Northeast India represents a segment of the ocean floor and upper mantle following eastward convergence of the Indian Plate with the Myanmar (Burmese) microplate during the Mesozoic. A variety of high‐pressure metamorphic assemblages have been noted in the metabasics and metacherts from the Phanerozoic ophiolite belt in the central part of the Naga Hills, which constitute the Nagaland Accretionary Prism. The metabasics are represented by very low‐grade assemblages of zeolite, prehnite‐pumpellyite, greenschists, and high‐pressure glaucophane schist and eclogite. We report the occurrence of aegirine‐bearing metabasic rocks, previously not recorded in the region. The metabasics are strongly fractionated and show chemical affinity with low‐K oceanic tholeiite. They are derived from a basic protolith of depleted mantle composition (viz. MORB). Pseudosection modelling reveals that aegirine formed at P–T conditions of c. 1.15 GPa and 490°C in the basic protolith in blueschist facies conditions. Similar P–T conditions have been reported from nearby localities, either as part of retrograde conditions or due to post‐peak cooling changes in the different metamorphic assemblages. However, the P–T observed from our study does not follow the cooling or retrograde path of the reported metabasics. Therefore, we suggest that the aegirine‐bearing metabasics might have formed at an earlier stage in the nascent forearc when temperatures were elevated enough to cause dehydration of the subducting slab to generate Na‐rich fluid fluxes at ambient pressures.