Research Review

RESEARCH PAPER REVIEW NAGA NATION ON THE NET

POOJA BASNETT 0934002 M.Phil. – 1st Semester

RRM 131: General Research Methodology

December 2009 Centre for Research CHRIST UNIVERSITY, BANGALORE 560029

INTRODUCTION Naga Nation on the net by Maya Ranganathan and Shiva Roy Chowdhury was published in Economic and Political Weekly on July 19 - 25, 2008. This paper explores the use of Internet for nation building in Nagaland by groups which have been engaged in a power struggle with the Union of India since many decades. This research follows the Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory and the Gramsci’s concept of hegemony which very much suits the concept. But nowhere in the paper has the writer drawn a relation between these theories and the idea of nationalism. Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory is an interdisciplinary approach to the study of discourse that views language as a form of social practice and applies a critical theory based focus on the ways social and political domination are reproduced by text and talk. We see ample instances of discourse theory employed in this research paper. The language used in these Naga websites directly or subtly states that Nagaland is independent of India. Mentioning of atrocities committed by Indian troops and officials without any submission of proof, use of images of meetings of Naga leaders with politicians, and giving very less space for general populace to interact on these forums showcases that there is a genuinely concerted effort to withheld and control information flow. This in turn strengthens the feeling of alienation that most Naga people still harbour about their association with the rest of the country, gives rise to false notions and also portrays the self proclaimed Naga leaders as their only hope of being free, a concept which is as much vague and as varied as it can be. Cultural hegemony is the philosophic and sociological concept, originated by the Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci, denoting that a culturally-diverse society can be dominated by one of its social classes. It is the dominance of one social group over another, i.e. the ruling class over all other classes. The ideas of the ruling class come to be seen as the norm; they are seen as universal ideologies perceived to benefit everyone whilst only really benefiting the ruling class. The ruling class here in this article refers to the Naga leaders who have led their struggle for independence over the years. The use of religion as a continuous focal point to unite the different Naga tribes, dissemination of communication in a one way channel and increasing debates amongst Naga people on whether some leaders are actually using the issue to drive forth their personal gains, drives home the fact that a small section of the population

is controlling the majority. Nagaland is culturally diverse as it consists of a number of tribes who speak their own language that has no resemblance to any of the other tribes. Most Nagas still feel alienated from the hinterland and are seen referring to the rest of India as ‘them’. While there has been little initiative on the part of Nagas to build an identity within the nation, individuals who have come out of the state for better opportunities elsewhere has mingled and created their own path. These factors only point to what Cultural Hegemony actually stands for that is a culturally diverse society can in fact be controlled by a group of select individuals. DESCRIPTION OF STUDY: METHODS AND SAMPLE In this study three websites namely http://www.nscnonline.org, http://www.nagalim.nl, http://www.nagarealm.com have been studied to determine the potential of Internet to promote nationalist ideologies. Key measurements included in this study are: (1) the study of the political agenda in the websites, (2) the technological features used in the websites, and (3) the content presented in the websites. The political aspect is minimally delved upon in the paper compared to technology and content in the website. This may be due to the fear of government intervention. Also it serves the purpose of maintaining a neutral stand while analysing the article as a third person. However among the three websites, two of them are hosted from outside India namely http://www.nscnonline.org from Bangkok in Thailand and http://www.nagalim.nl is hosted from Netherland and only http://www.nagarealm.com is hosted from Kohima, the capital of Nagaland. The websites that are hosted from outside India are more vocal to their demands of free Nagaland, indicating no fears of government censorship. These websites openly talk about the political aspects blaming India for creating a land lock and making Nagaland inaccessible to the outside world. In the website nagalim.nl they chose the word Nagalim instead of land for in the Naga dialect Lim stands for Land. Nscnonline.org is the official website of National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN). The National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) was formed on January 31, 1980 by Isak Chisi Swu, Thuingaleng Muivah and S.S. Khaplang opposing the ‘Shillong Accord’ signed by the then NNC (Naga National Council) with the Indian government. Later, differences surfaced within the outfit over the issue of

commencing a dialogue process with the Indian Government and on April 30, 1988, the NSCN split into two factions, namely the NSCN-K led by S S Khaplang, and the NSCN-IM, led by Isak Chisi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah. NSCN is a banned organization by the Indian government that is the reason why they operate their website from Bangkok. Of the 15 news item uploaded on 16 October, 2007 in nagalim.nl, 13 were supporting of Naga freedom and 2 stories were from government’s point of view, indicating a one sided view. Nagarealm.com which operates from Kohima and focuses on news, information and entertainment; also preaches the Naga freedom but in a subtle way. In the political agenda space given in the research not much of Naga public’s view or ideas are mentioned thereby making the political agenda space incomplete. The second aspect the writer talks about are the technologies used in the websites. Here four main items are analysed and they are hyperlinks, feedbacks, images and personalisation of web pages. Out of these images does not belong to this category an should be analysed in terms of content. The writer also mentions that not many feedbacks are given in the websites therefore making it one-sided information flow. In this case where the Naga publics interaction is very less, these websites don’t exactly represent the Nagas unequivocally. However the personalization can be an added feature making it to look like a social networking sites where people can log in, create an account and have their own webpage inside the website, they can use themes to customise their pages better. Moreover the nagarealm.com has rock and pop Naga music in English. But the big question here is how does this feature lead to Nationalism? These features only indicate a commonly used tactic by websites to attract youth. Hyperlinks are most adequately used in these websites as the links manage to keep the users in the websites and no external links are used. Most of the links lead to Naga issues, Naga wars, articles related to Nagas only thereby giving enough time for the users to relate with these issues. This can be the most effective feature of generating a nationalist ideology. The last aspect the writer studies is the content of the websites. Here the focus is divided in four major aspects namely alternate expression, history, culture, news and others. This section is highly repetitive. Most information in this section is already been written in earlier

pages. New angles or theories of information and content is barely discussed after the first few pages. Since there are many tribes in Nagaland who have their own lingo, the content in these websites is in English. This is done to bring uniformity. The main idea identified by the writer is the use of ‘we’ for the Nagas and the use of ‘them’ or ‘others’ for the Indians. This looks like a deliberate attempt by the Naga freedom fighters to convey their message. History that is used in the content section is the most repetitive part as the same had been used in the introduction pages of the paper. Thereby the writer is trying to give more importance to history of Nagaland. Again the culture section mentions what has already been mentioned when the writer wrote about images in the technology section. News is given no importance at all as it involves politics. CONCLUSION Overall the paper does show how Internet is being used when other Medias are playing ignorance. Through Internet particular political ideologies can be constructed and reinforced to address issues like the issue of Nagas who have historically lived independent with little interaction with non-Naga groups. However this paper to me is one sided and it would be good to see the government point of view as well. One question that arises is how much has these three websites reached the Naga public and is the public being brought together through these websites? The website users who have been rarely mentioned in this paper are in reality the key to determine if these websites have helped in ideology building. However a further study can be done to determine the effects it has on public who use such websites laying more importance to discussion forums and user related activities.