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Chapter Twenty-seven. Return to Nagaland |
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meeting with a Naga minister |
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On my return to the district headquarters I heard the good news that Chingwang, the minister with whom I had been in correspondence before I left London, had just arrived in Mon. At a buffet dinner given in his honour by Kikon Lhota, I had an opportunity of a long talk with this attractive young man. He was a graduate and had served on the Council of the Wakching area which includes Wakching, Wanching, Shiong, and seven other villages. When the Area Council had to elect by secret ballot their representatives to the District Regional Council of Tuensang, he stood against Shoupa of Wakching, and two other members of the Area Council, and polled the highest number of votes. As the various tribal interests have to be represented in the Government of Nagaland, Chingwang as one of the few Konyaks with a university education was given a ministerial appointment even though he was only in his late twenties. He very kindly had timed his visit to Mon so as to coincide with my stay in the Konyak area, and he was visibly pleased to meet an old friend of his grandfather, Ahon. My writings on his community were familiar to him and we also found much in common in our views on the problems of economic and particularly agricultural development. |
