ZINGIBER OFFICINALE
David Haokip was busy removing weeds from his ginger farm in 2003. With some savings, he started farming on a slope close to the village boundaries in Karbi Anglong in southern Assam. The sun was slowly setting behind Sinhasan Hills (literally the Throne hills), as tiny mosquitoes sucked blood from his naked feet.
Oblivious to the mosquito bites, Haokip plucked a parthenium plant in full bloom which was encroaching on the humus that produced what has been considered as the world’s best organic ginger. As he prepared to call it a day and started trekking up to his hut, he heard gun shots. Suddenly memories of a violent past started playing back in his head. Only a few years ago, Haokip and his father had sought refuge in densely forested slopes of Sinhasan Hills in Karbi Anglong from suffering ethnic conflict between his tribe, the Kuki clan and the Nagas in the remote corners of Nagaland. Haokip’s father trekked 300 kilometres with his relatives and reached Karbi Anglong’s forests to escape the conflict and raise his children in peace. He knew something was up in the other villages since one year, when Kuki families started growing their most favoured rhizome, Ginger on the slopes of these mountains. “A child’s first gift is ginger and chicken feather,” he says.
That evening Haokip saw a Karbi man, whose face he recalled from his earlier visit to the land record office in Diphu, with a Kalashnikov racing his vehicle along with two others towards his village. David ran towards the village assembly. “This land belongs to the Karbi tribe. You cannot grow your ginger here and damage our forests. Either pay for the damages or stop growing ginger”, the Karbi man announced and left.
After two days, John, a local Kuki Revolutionary Army commander told David and the other villagers that they will provide all the security but the ginger farmers must pay some money to fund their own army. “We knew something was happening in the big markets where the ginger we grew fetched a great price. If it was for land, they would have asked us to vacate, but all they needed was a cut and even our boys say they will provide security if we pay them some money,” says David recalling his days from a relief camp in Diphu. Within a week, Karbis imposed a blockade seizing thousands of tonnes of ginger from the trucks going to the mainland, while Kuki militia went on a rampage, pillaging Karbi villages. Thousands of people became homeless and turned towards relief camps.
Karbi Anglong, an area recognized under the sixth schedule of the government with its own constituent council within the provincial administration of Assam is riddled with contradictions. The strife related to ginger trade took several other forms and affected different communities. While Indian constitution upheld the indigenous rights of the dominant Karbi community in the region by bringing it under the sixth schedule, other tribes living in the region were ignored. After much bloodshed and displacement, some rights of these fringe groups have been recognized, leaving many others unhappy. In the last 10 years or so since first ethnic clashes broke out to control the ginger trade among several other factors, four hundred thousand people had to move to relief camp to save their lives from various protection and extortion agencies operating in the area.
David, who now works as a daily wage labourer in Diphu finds the strife absolutely confusing. “I have to now buy ginger in this town. It is not free for Karbi people either,” says David. However, he remains hopeful. “I heard our ginger has done really well in some foreign country. Why can’t we grow it together and get back to the old days?”, he asks.
SEASONED 