KOHIMA: Don’t get astonished if you hear ‘chaala chaliga’ or ‘ennada macha’ in Nagaland. People from the five southern states are making a beeline for the ongoing Hornbill Festival in Nagaland.
Hornbill Festival in Kisama heritage village, which was started on Dec 1 and will continue till Dec 10, will witness a mosaic of cultural interaction of several ethnicities throughout Northeast where people will exhibit their dance forms, cuisine and other cultural aspects.
Families, bikers, photographers and designers from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka have turned up in large numbers for the festival this time.
Birdwatchers are also in the queue to have a glimpse of Amur Falcon in Pangti village in Wokha district of Nagaland.
While many Malayalees agreed that they got interested about Nagaland after watching South-Northeast love story Neelakasham Pacchakadal Chuvanna Bhoomi, some others came to know about the Hornbill festival through soldiers serving in Nagaland and Manipur.
“I heard about the festival from a friend, but saw glimpses of it in the film ‘Neelakasham Pacchakadal Chuvannabhoomi’,” said Thomas Uthup from Kochi, Kerala.
For many south Indian soldiers stationed in the troubled peripheral states of Nagaland and Manipur, the festival has given an opportunity for their family to visit them. “My family wanted to see where I am working, so I have called them this year for the Hornbill Festival. We are planning to celebrate Christmas here,” said Lance Naik Henry Thomas from the Madras Regiment.
The mosaic of colour patterns of traditional Naga dresses have also led designers from National Institute of Design in Bengaluru to take a look and imbibe patters into their creations. “Each tribe has different pattern on their dresses and they are so diverse. It’s so enriching,” said senior design researcher Divya Darshan C S after interviewing visitors as part of Ministry of Human Resource Development project.
“Generally, people from Assam, Manipur, Kolkata and Delhi visit the state more. However, over the years, the number of south Indians visitting the state is on the rise,” said a state government official.
Manipuri Nagas feel left out
While the Hornbill Festival brings together culture and cuisine of various Naga clans throughout Nagaland, Naga tribes from neighbouring Manipur, which has a sizeable Naga population, feel left out in the festival as they were not invited for the event.
For many of the Manipuri Nagas, visiting Hornbill Festival gives them a glimpse of their past. While they feel inclusion of culture and cuisine of Naga tribes from Manipur would have been a great PR exercise in terms of ‘greater Nagalim’ movement which seeks inclusion of Naga dominated areas of Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh into Nagaland, officials organising the festival say inclusion of Naga tribes from other states would make the event very political and hence, controversial.
“Had the festival truly upheld the Naga culture in northeast and Myanmar, then clans from Manipur, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Naga-dominated areas of Myanmar ought to have a place in the Hornbill Festival,” said Gaichinglieu Remai of Maogate, the border of Manipur and Nagaland.
“This is an apolitical festival. We don’t want to create controversy by including Nagas from other states. Also, we have non-Naga groups like Kukis and Kacharis in the fest,” said a top government official.