constituent assembly of india debates (proceedings)- volume vii

Agriculture is mostly by the primitive method of jhuming and there are no educational facilities. The
economic condition of the tract is pretty poor. The Kachin however are settled cultivators and are in a
better position than the Nag a. In the Nag a Tribal Area head hunting is still practised and slavery also
seems to exist.
For the Tirap Frontier Tract also the five year plan approved by the Government of India
contemplates the extension of the benefits of administration. The headquarters is proposed to be moved
to a place in the interior called Horukhunma and hospitals and schools are to be constructed. Both in the
Tirap Frontier Tract and the Naga tribal area the policy is just the same, namely the extension of
administration gradually up to the Burma frontier. This policy appears to us to be the correct one to
follow, whatever the legal status of the area may be under the Government of India Act. As in the case
of the MacMahon Line frontier, all the portion between the Burmese boundary and the administered area
of Assam should be merged in Assam as soon as possible and the distinction between Tribal Area and
administered Indian territory abolished.
The Lakhimpur Frontier Tract need no longer be treated as an excluded area. As regards the portions
of this tract taken over into the Tirap Frontier Tract the justification for continuing it as a frontier area
needs to be further examined and if no difficulty is likely to be caused by the inclusion of the Kachins and
other tribes who live there in the Lakhimpur district the area should be merged in the district. In the rest
of the area, steps should be taken to organise non-statutory tribal councils, panchayats etc., in
anticipation of the time when this tract will be fit for inclusion in the provincial administration. For the
proper administration of the Naga Hills tribal area it would appear desirable to provide more officials, and
a separate officer with headquarters as close as possible to the area, if not inside, is necessary. It would
appear that there is already sanction for a separate Sub-divisional Officer at Mokokchung under the
control of the Deputy Commissioner. Naga Hills district but the present arrangement by which the tribal
area is shared between the Deputy Commissioner, Kohima, and the Political Officer. Tirap Frontier Tract,
needs to be further examined. It would perhaps be best to divide the portion into two districts one which
will in due course either merge with the existing Naga Hills district and form a sub-division thereof or be
a Konyak district, and another which will form a portion of another district under an officer with
headquarters in the present Tirap Frontier Tract.
4. NAGA HILLS DISTRICT -
The Naga Hills District is an area of 4,289 square miles bounded on the east by the Naga tribal area,
on the south by Manipur State and on the west by the Sibsagar district. The population was given as
189,641 of which184,766 or 97.4 per cent were tribal, at the 1941 census. The district is inhabited by a
number of Naga tribes notably the Angami, the Sema, the Lhota and the Ao. Of these tribes Angami are
the most numerous and inhabit the area round Kahana, their number at the 1941 census being slightly
over 52,000. The Aos are the next numerous numbering over 40,000 and the Semas come third with
35,741. These two tribes inhabit the area round Mokokchung which is a separate sub-division of the
district, and the Sema also inhabit the region to the north-west of the Angami country. The tribes speak
different languages and their lingua franca is Assamese or Hindustani. They have also differing customs
and traditions. Areas claimed by the tribe or village are jealously guarded against encroachment and to
such an extent in the Naga Tribal Area that a villager seldom ventures outside his village boundary.
Within the boundary of the district proper there is generally speaking regular administration though
during the war a slightly different atmosphere might have been introduced. Though the percentage of
literacy among male Naga is about 6 only, quite a good number of these have received high education.
Female literacy among the Naga is however negligible, though in the Mokokchung Sub-division it was
found to be nearly four per cent. Literacy seems to be higher in the Mokokchung area than the Kohima
area and the demand for education is also keener here. As regards economic circumstances a good deal
of terracing is done in the Angami areas and a number of Nagas seem to have taken up non-agricultural
occupations--the planting of gardens, etc.