State ignorant about existence of rare documents, maps for boundary case Rare documents and maps donated to the state Arts & Culture department in 2012, which would have added weight to Nagaland’s stand on the boundary dispute, may have gone unnoticed by the state government and sadly the rare and valuable documents are not being properly preserved. This may be seen in the light of the assertions of the NPF’s clarification that the court case involving Assam and Nagaland in the Supreme Court has been dragging on for a long time since the state did not have certain documents like “digitized maps” as sought for by the court. In a startling revelation, Achila Imlong Erdican, daughter of the late Imlong Chang (and sister of late Akum Imlong) who had served under the government of Nagaland before resigning and going abroad,informed Nagaland Post that she had donated stacks of documents and other rare maps to the state in order to provide materials for research and studies. Achila said she had inherited a huge rare collection of research materials on the Nagas that once belonged to renowned academic Dr. Gordon P. Means who had spent over forty years collecting the materials. Achila said “ the state government could well find enough documents including maps and others on the border issue” among those she had donated to the Arts & Culture department. She was however worried that all the rare collections of maps and other documents are not being purposefully utilised to strengthen the position of the Nagaland government. Achila said “I would not be surprised if these collections are lost now. According to Means, he put all maps in a tube but now nothing is in the tube everything is out.” She had gifted the Means-Imlong Erdican Naga Heritage Collection to the Directorate of Arts and Culture, Government which she brought in 23 boxes comprising hundreds of research materials. The list of inventory included priceless collection of books, papers and audio-visual materials. The collection of research material from 1832-2010 includes reports on the expansion and impact of the Church in the Naga Hills over the period from 1840-1964. There are also reel to reel recordings of interviews with Sir Charles Pawsay describing the evolution of British policies after the Angami revolt. The collection also includes a large collection of rare maps besides collection 538 articles /items/ books/ video/ movie tapes/ prompt cards/ audio cassette/ magazines etc on Naga history, art, polity, etc. from1832-2010. The collection also had microfilms of TC Hodson’s census ethnography 1901-1931 (4 nos); Milada Kalabova’s Changing values in the Naga Hills (8 nos); audio cassettes of Sir Keith Cantlie (1968), Tanquist & Sekhose and I. Iralu and many rare collections of films and books. Achilla recalled that she met Sir Charles Pawsay twice after he left Nagaland and retired in the United Kingdom. During the first meeting in 1966 in London, she said Pawsay had shown her all the important “maps and pictures” of Nagas and their territory. Even in the second meeting some years later, Pawsay “took out everything. I am very sure, he took out one of those maps and early dobashi pictures. I have a feeling he gave all those to Dr. Gordon P. Means and now we have them here (Nagaland).” She said “these maps had all the Naga areas including the one by a British survey team as I remember seeing one.” (continued)
Posted on: Mon, 03 Nov 2014 00:53:49 +0000
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