Author: Roderick Wijunamai & Menokhono

Roderick Wijunamai teaches at the Department of Social Sciences, Royal Thimphu College, Bhutan. Menokhono is a PhD Candidate at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

In the last few days, the news and debate concerning the dog meat ban in Nagaland has been spreading like an oil-spill, contaminating conversations and diluting dispassionate and rational debate – stirring both those in favour and against it. While a good deal has now been said, much more remains to be elucidated… In this piece, Roderick Wijunamai & Menokhono highlight two points. First, how dogs feature in Naga cosmology, lifeworld, and livelihoods. Second, they foreground how the dog meat ban understate the existing constitutional provision in place for tribes in India, and the Nagas in particularly. They show how the recent dog meat ban has been an outright disregard to both.