'As our ancestors once lived': Representation, Performance and Constructing a National Culture amongst the Nagas of India

Abstract

This paper focuses on how a national culture emerges by examining the Nagas of India. To appreciate this process, the confluence of British colonialism, the<br/>postcolonial situation, and contemporary performance of Naga identity (visible in the Hornbill Festival) must be analysed. I will argue that the colonial era representation of ‘primitivism’ of the Nagas continues into postcolonial narratives of ‘imperialist nostalgia’ disseminated primarily through travel, popular media and museum exhibitions. I will argue that the Nagas are not simply passive onlookers but active participants in this enterprise, through the strategic articulation of a distinct Naga national image. I will demonstrate that the Nagas are using these colonial era images of ‘primitivism’ for certain purposes, while also promoting a revitalisation of traditional culture. First, this process mimics the cumulative notions of primitivism through a reverse gaze. Second, revitalisation acts as a vital force in claiming historical agency predicated on the ‘performance of identity’ and cultural hybridity. Finally, both of these processes help illuminate how the Nagas position themselves within the larger international discourse of indigeneity whereby images, once represented as primitive, now legitimise a distinct national culture.