Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Apr 18: Nagas are hurt over Assam creating a world record on “Bihu” dance and has condemned the use of a “racist” song during the Bihu performance that created two world records, the largest number of female dancers and the largest number of male drummers at a single venue.
The records created on April 13 at a special performance at the Sarusujai stadium in Guwahati, was repeated the next day in the presence of the prime minister Narendra Modi and the Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma when the record certificates were officially handed over by the representative of the Guinness Book of World Records. As many as 11,298 female dancers and 3,000 male drummers had participated in the record-creating event. The female dancers were all in colourful mekhela chadors and male drummers, gogona or jaw harp and pepa or buffalo hornpipe players.
The Nagas living in Assam have condemned the “racist” song during the Bihu performance. One of the songs used for the record-breaking show did not go down well with the Naga communities.
After the All Assam Naga Welfare Society (AANWS), the All Assam Tangsa Students’ Union slammed the use of the “racist song” that called the Nagas “okora,” meaning stupid or dumb. They also deplored the use of the word Nagini in the song, which apparently means ‘Naga woman’ but is construed as being likened to a snake.
“We have noticed that Naga communities have been insulted in the lyrics of the song using the words like okora Noga, Nagini, etc.,” AANWS president Shompha Wangsu and general secretary Manto Konyak said in a statement. “The sentiments of Naga people living in Assam since time immemorial are hurt by a Bihu song performed by Bihu exponent Ranjit Gogoi at the event,” the Tangsa students’ body said. Tangsa is a Naga community living in areas straddling Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
Videos of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and other dignitaries joining in when the “objectionable” song was sung have gone viral on conventional and social media in Nagaland, attracting condemnation. Many in Assam have also criticised the “poor choice of song” for a world record-breaking performance and called for a review of songs that denigrate tribal people or hill dwellers.
Officials of Assam’s Cultural Affairs Department, which organised the event, said the song was a traditional one and the “intention was not to hurt the Naga community.” About 2.5 lakh people belonging to 10 Naga communities are spread across 11 districts of Assam.
The mega performance, the culmination of a month of preparation across Assam that cost ₹100 crore, was in the presence of Himanta Biswa Sarma, a representative of the Guinness World Records and other dignitaries at the Sarusajai Stadium. The participants in traditional and colourful attire, selected from district-level camps, performed for a little more than 15 minutes with an eye on the world record and repeated the performance at the same venue in front of the Prime Minister.
Speaking on the occasion, the Assam chief minister had said the attempt to create the Bihu dance record was part of his government’s mission to take Assam’s folk culture to the world stage. “As Assamese, we have lagged behind due to our mindset of confining ourselves from Sadiya to Dhubri (metaphorical ends of Assam). The country knows Chhatrapati Shivaji, Maharana Pratap but we initiated a process to take the great warrior and Ahom General Lachit Borphukan to the world stage after a long time,” he said.
“When we conceived this Bihu performance, people were sceptical about getting so many performers but there were many who could not get the chance to perform here. I assure them that we will organise another event with 25,000 performers when we have a bigger field someday,” Sarma said.
The Chief Minister had also ceremonially distributed one-time financial assistance of ₹1.5 lakh each to a total of 2,114 Bihu function celebration committees from across the State. He appealed to these Bihu committees to free the celebrations from “forceful donations” and alcohol abuse.
The repeat performance next day was not just for the formal handing over of the certificates of record by a representative of the Guinness World Records, but was also for the special guests to whom the certificates were presented, Modi and Sarma.
The Prime Minister did not just groove from the dais, clapping to the drumbeats. He moved around the venue in a modified battery-operated vehicle and interacted with some Bihu dancers before the show began. “Bihu is a symbol of unity and of the synchronicity between human beings and nature,” he said, extolling Assam for the gamosa (woven scarf towel) that earned the GI tag, unique silken attire, cuisine, and organic farm produce, some of which have received geographic indications.