New Delhi: Six carved wooden pillars by artist Lepden Jamir at a public park in Nagaland’s Mopungchuket village in 2005 became a bone of contention between him and the village’s Christian elders. Twenty years later, at a discussion in Delhi’s India International Centre, art historians sought to unpack how the artwork was not just an expression of Jamir’s identity, but also of larger Naga sovereignty.
Led by art historian Akshay Tankha from the University of Washington, the discussion veered from history to politics and the role of art in framing narratives.
“Jamir self-identifies as not just an artist but an art historian too,” said Tankha to the room, explaining the detail and meaning of each pillar carved. “His art is a response to a colonial project and politics of inclusion that is still ongoing in Nagaland today.”
Jamir’s ‘border-crossing’
The six carved pillars in the Süngkotenem park in Mopungchuket detail stories from his village’s history. Jamir also drew from local lore, such as the tale of star-crossed lovers Jina and Etiben, and the Süngkotenem lake spirits. However, when he installed them, the elders in his largely Christian Baptist village accused him of partaking in ‘idolatry’ with the Süngkotenem spirit.
“I am a Naga and an artist,” was Jamir’s response.
It was also the central tenet of Tankha’s discussion, titled ‘Nagaland and the Art of Indigenous Presence in Postcolonial South Asia’. At the IIC on Thursday, 28 August, this piece of art was analysed for its content, form, artist, and the context in which it was created to provide a fuller picture of how art is represented by politics.
For starters, the carvings on Jamir’s pillars hinted at the ‘morung culture’ of Nagaland.
“Morungs are the traditional dormitories of young Naga men, where they go to learn about their tribe’s culture,” explained Tankha. “Most morungs have pillars and columns with carvings similar to Jamir’s, which serve a dual function of art and education.”
Even the very choice of woodworking and carving was because Jamir grew up watching his grandfather hone his craft. Pillars titled ‘Love’ and ‘Promise’ illustrated his own hope for his community, which spent the larger part of independent India’s history in a tussle for Naga separatism.
While respecting and echoing his community’s history, Jamir also chose to depart from the wishes of the town elders by dedicating a pillar to the story of the Süngkotenem lake spirit. In a largely Catholic village, his choice was seen as bordering on pagan worship, but for Jamir, the lake spirit stood for a history of folk and tribal culture that epitomised the Naga identity.
“Jamir’s work is the traffic between local village cultures and fine arts circuits,” said Tankha. “By making art about a revered lake spirit, he performs ‘border crossing’ between the religious element as well as the secular and exhibitionary element,” he added.
Lepden Jamir is a Naga artist from the village of Mopungchuket, who trained in the Imphal College of Art in Manipur. According to Tankha’s D.Phil thesis, he currently resides in Imphal and works with the Nagaland state department of agriculture. As an artist, he has done artwork and illustrations for a number of government publications, pamphlets and children’s books on Naga folktales, but his ‘passion’ lies in woodwork and carving, said Tankha in his thesis.
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Naga history and museums
Tankha’s talk, which was moderated by art historian Annapurna Garimella, began by discussing the fractured history of Nagaland. He spoke about the state’s relationship with independent India through Naga nationalist movements, and how they were defined by Naga self-identification.
Even after the ceasefire agreement between the Naga separatists and the Indian state in 1997, mainstream art in India continued to dominate how Nagas were viewed.
“It is through art that we can see the Indian state’s hegemonic politics of ‘inclusion’ when it comes to representing Naga tribes,” said Tankha. “But through work like Jamir’s, we can see how Nagas want to represent themselves,” he added.
As Tankha’s talk ended and audience questions poured in, the discussion turned toward other public monuments and artwork in Nagaland and their interaction with the political landscape. In his PhD thesis, Tankha had written about not just installations like Jamir’s, but also ‘home museums’ and highway monuments, which are other expressions of public art by Nagas.
Buoyed by the example of such public artworks, Garimella asked Tankha a question.
“What is the role of state museums then, in a space where art is so public and is visible in such different avenues?” she asked. “There is a storied critique of museums in art history in general, but what about in Nagaland?”
Tankha’s response was to suggest that certain state museums are still seen as resources by artists in Nagaland, but also that other forms of museums exist in their culture. Morungs, for instance, are a kind of museum as they contain information about Naga tribal culture displayed through art.
The talk ended with Tankha’s insightful comments about how art has permeated even the Indian Army’s presence and efforts in Nagaland.
“There have been instances of the Indian army stationed in Nagaland reaching out to the general public through art installations, sculptures, and commissions,” explained Tankha. “It shows how the state and its machinery recognise that art is a dialogue between cultures and people.”
(Edited by Ratan Priya)