Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights: Is tourism a development panacea? http://www.npmhr.org/articles/tourism.htm
- Nepuni Piku Naga People and Tourism The recent trend of tourism promotion by the State Government of Nagaland through its Department of tourism has also to be seen in this context. The encouragement of tourism through organizing `Horn Bill' Festival, the various communities' festivals, tourist villages and publicity through posters, postcards, books, beauty pageants, etc. depicting Naga culture and festivals, needs to be assessed in the context of whether Nagas are ready to bargain away our cultural identity as a piece of commodity. Whether the spirituality and sacredness of our culture be commercialized at the hands of a few policy makers whose intention maybe solely to make profit in the name of the peoples. Whether the people are aware of the positive and negative aspects of the impacts of tourism. Whether free and informed consent to bring in tourism to our homestead can be possible, living under the prevailing martial law situation. To what extend the policy makers have informed the people of the different options available and whether the people are involve in the designing of models and are taken fully into confidence to participate in the implementation, looking into the local realities. The Administration in recent times have been debating on the questions of transparency and accountability and rightly its for the people to see for themselves what kind of mechanisms exist to monitor the credibility of any Governments in power. The price paid will be heavy if there is lack of participation to monitor, control and regulate the whole exercise of bringing in tourism without the people being informed; and unless benefit-sharing mechanism are put into place, its certainly going to be one way of killing our people softly without guns. The government maybe happy to make use of our peoples cultural heritage in the most cynical manner to promote tourism while at the same time denying the political rights of the Naga people. Nagas have grown over the decades with certainly many positive cultural traits and progressive philosophy of life being emulated. The promotion of archaic images of our people will continue to be a useful tool in the hands of the manipulative oppressors. Many are hopeful that tourism will bring jobs and money but are possibly unaware of the potential dangers of tourism. It calls for an open public debate. We need to question Tourism for whom, for whose benefit and at whose costs? = = = Kuknalim.Net: Evaluating 'Eco-tourism' http://www.kuknalim.net/features/featureMay2002item1.html By Nepuni Piku The Naga country is famous for its beautiful landscape, traditional rice terraces and rich cultural diversity of the people. Naga areas also hold tremendous potential as reservoir for mineral resources and biodiversity wealth. It has suffered isolation and exclusion from the people in the sub-continent and the world at large due to various geopolitical sensitive reasons. The lack of adequate publicity and the often wrong projections of issues and realities by dominant community controlled media have hindered or undervalued its potentials. Other factors acting as continuing barriers to tourism growth are like the presence of many colonial Acts limiting free access and movement of potential visitors, the uneven use of Restricted Area Permits (RAP) and the continuing militarization of the whole Naga areas under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act of 1958 which acts as a turnoff for potential tourist. However, we see that efforts are being made by the government to open up slowly to the possibility of outside investment reflecting that 'economic underdevelopment' as causes of conflict in the area. For these they may want to attract foreign investment to facilitate the development of infrastructures which is yet to be put in place and therefore the necessity to introduce new land reforms to value and privatize the land holdings. While the intention of the government maybe to generate income through 'eco-tourism' while promoting environmental awareness and preservation of the cultural and natural diversity at the same time. The threat of disintegrating the "Commons" or "Collectives" is becoming more pronounced and in the case of such reality, conflict may arise on many fronts. Debates needs to take place to define the lines where the collective rights extends to and where individual rights begins. As without such an exercise confusion will abound generating more areas of conflict and incompatibility of opinion amongst various stakeholders of any project. One has to realize that the many conflict in the third world specially has been generated by various structural adjustment programmes launched by governments to meet the conditions of the donors or investors. One has to watch and see if the people become the centre of opinion making and participation in issues and activities that will determine the wellbeing of their future. Foreign investment as such will become a necessity for further development of infrastructure however development of the peoples minds should take its priority to ensure that control of our lives and destiny continue in the hands of the people. With the globalization process and active presence of transnational companies in the world economic activity, the source of accountability will become more vague transcending beyond national governments and frontiers. If the Government is really interested in the principles of democracy in this debate of effective participation, they need to re- confirm that by talking to the local communities about the kind of tourism the people want. It is high time; the government does away with its culture of unilateral decision making about plans, project or implementation from its systems. In conclusion quoting from Vandana Shiva's "Captive Minds, Captive lives" (1995). "Development is a beautiful word, which suggests evolution from within. But in today's world development has come to refer the opposite of what the word meant. Instead of being self-generated, development is imposed. Instead of coming from within it is externally guided. Instead of contributing to the maintenance of diversity it has meant the creation of homogeneity and uniformity." It maybe essential for the government to re-look into its policy as to whether some of the points raised herein are being addressed within its policy framework so that semblances of good governance exist in its functioning. To make itself transparent and accountable genuine democracy should come to stay where people are able to actively participate within a milieu where free and informed consent is exercise without the use of coercion or fear from the threat of violence. = = = Nagaland Tourism: Nagaland Entry Formalities http://www.nagalandtourism.com/entry_formalities.htm Domestic tourists visiting Nagaland are required to obtain an INNER LINE PERMIT. The InnerLine Permit Form and P.A.P. for foreigners visiting Nagaland are available online. You can download both the forms from this site. [ http://www.nagalandtourism.com/innerlinepermit.htm ] Foreign tourists are allowed to visit the eight district headquarters and specified places for a period of ten days which is extendable for another ten days provided they are in a group of four or more or married couples. Permits to visit these places are issued by: Ministry of Home Affairs Government of India New Delhi All Indian Missions abroad
