| caption: |
Appendix A. The effect on the tribes of the Naga Hills district of Contacts with civilization, by J.P. Mills, I.C.S |
| text: |
Education of the type which is given has been on the whole an evil rather than a good. Some men have withstood its evil influence and have remained good Nagas, with something else very useful added. Not so the majority. Very rarely indeed does a Naga regard education as something which is going to make him more fitted for his ordinary life; he regards it as something which will fit him for a very different life, an he expects that life to be offered to him in the form of a Government post - aptly described to me once as a "sitting and eating job". When boys apply to me for scholarships my custom is to ask them what they intend to do when they have finished their education, and the reply almost invariably is "I hope Government will find me a job". The result is a surplus of half-educated youths, unwilling to go back to the village of their fathers and looking in vain for employment which they consider suitable to their talents. The situation is especially bad among the Aos. A few educated Angamis have ventured into commerce, usually with disasterous results, borrowing money wildly and expecting that somehow their education will bring them enormous profits. |
