In 1973 a Hindi film Yeh Gulistan Hamara came. Before the screening of the film we had read about the film in Filmfare. That magazine was very popular. After I read about the film, I realized it is politically motivated and I started campaigning against it. Dev Anand and Sharmila Tagore were the actors. Sharmila played a Naga girl and she was named Sekrenyi which is the name of a holy festival of the Angamis. The actor came with elephants to a Naga village. He brought sweets and biscuits to court the Naga girl and teach her writing and reading. And in the end the Indians conquered Naga country with the help of the forces. We said our country was never conquered by Hindustan. The Naga students protested and tried to get the Khasi students to join us because the film also depicted Khasis as backward. But Khasis did not understand. On top of that, the Meghalaya government relaxed the entertainment tax also.
Author: Nandita Haksar & Sebastian M. Hongray
Nandita Haksar and Sebastian M. Hongray began their political journey as human rights activists while studying in the Jawaharlal Nehru University. In the early 1980s, they began working full time in the human rights movement. ey led the rst cases against the Indian Armed Forces, for committing human rights violations, in the Supreme Court and before the Guwahati High Court. ey took up cases of illegal arrests, torture and also unfair compensation for development projects such as the Hundung cement factory. ey have also been involved in the Indo-Naga peace process, and Haksar has represented NSCN leaders internationally, before the UNHCR, Geneva and before the courts in ailand.
Their publications include The Judgement That Never Came: Army Rule in North East India; ABC of Naga Culture and Civilization: A Resource Book (Nandita Haksar); Across the Chicken Neck: Travels in Northeast India (Nandita Haksar) and The Exodus Is Not Over: Migrations from the Ruptured Homelands of Northeast India (Nandita Haksar).
Haksar and Hongray are married and live in Goa and Delhi and sometimes in Ukhrul.