Abstract

Chapter 5 discusses the complex gendered contestations occurring within the Naga community as the state opens up to new political ideals, new cultural norms, and new challenges to long-held patriarchal gender norms. The chapter also explores the ways agitations for equal representation contend with a rigidly gendered social order that, as Nagaland's various borders soften and become more porous, is seen by many as a distinct cornerstone of Naga identity.

Keywords: patriarchy, backlash, gender

In April 2016 I travelled with members of a local civil society group from Dimapur to the Nagaland State Vigilance Commissioner's office in Kohima. We were hoping to submit a Right-to-Information request to the Commissioner's office regarding a road being built through a farm near Dimapur. Unrelated to our case, the night before, a violent attack had occurred near the Dimapur train station. A Naga woman was sexually assaulted and subsequently dumped barely clothed on one side of the overpass, about 100 metres east of the station. It was not the first time that a woman had been dumped in that spot in recent history. Halfway through the three-hour drive, we stopped to drink tea and eat at a roadside teashop. We discussed the news, including the assault from the night before.

While our first cups of tea were being poured, we discussed the dangerous nature of the area at night – the poor lighting underneath the overpass, the sparse foot-traffic in many of the surrounding streets after dark, and the high crime rates already reported surrounding the train station. Dimapur train station is notorious as a high-risk area, where bag-snatching is common and where several kidnappings and abductions have occurred in recent history. While there is a police presence in the train station and occasionally in the parking lot attached to the train station, the streets surrounding the station are rarely patrolled by police, and the poorly lit areas under the overpass are patrolled even less.

As our second cups of tea arrived, questions about the woman's reasons for being in that area at night were raised, why she was travelling alone, and whether she was knowingly putting herself at risk being near the station after dark.