What do you do if you are surrounded on all sides by people who want to civilize you, and convert you and your people to their way of life?

Head for the hills?

Long, long ago, a tribe of people (generally considered to be of Mongolian stock) did just that, settling in the remote Naga Hills area bounded by India, Burma, Assam, Tibet, and China. This means, of course, that they were surrounded by Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Confucians, and, of course assorted wannabe Imperialist rulers -- all hell-bent on winning them over to their various ways.

How do you make people leave you alone?

It is often said that the best defense is a good offense. How do you offer a good offense when your would-be conquerors far outnumber you, are much better armed, possessed of religious fanaticism promising instant heaven to those who die in battle, and more, well, "civilized?"

Only one way: you scare the holy crap out of them.

I don't mean to particularly offend anyone, but I think this gruesome photograph will demonstrate how it was that the Naga headhunters managed to remain unconquered for so long.

Yeah, I know that displaying a photograph of severed children's heads is in questionable taste -- and I hope it doesn't offend any of my readers, who I like to think are mostly jaded enough not to lose their breakfast over it. (In my defense I should point out that I have been looking at it since I was a small boy, so it factors into my child development.)

Here it is:

The above is a scan of an actual photograph taken by my father during World War II. The Naga headhunters lived in the rugged terrain in the area of the China-Burma-India (CBI) campaign, where allied soldiers (American, British, Chinese) were fighting the Japanese. My father served as a medical corps officer, and had the distinction of actually operating on a blind Naga chieftain named Rang Lang. When Rang Lang (described by my dad as "a real primitive who had never seen civilization") woke up and saw for the first time in decades, he viewed Army trucks -- a totally new thing. He jumped up and down and squealed and hooted with delight, and presented my father with one hundred chickens and two Naga wives. (No, I am not half Naga....) Rang Lang was delighted with the diaper pins my father had placed in the gigantic, stretched perforations in his ear lobes (the bamboo plugs had to be removed to avoid infection, and my father was trying to be, er, diplomatic...) The grateful chief ordered his men to henceforth inform on the Japanese activities; this was also supplemented by an occasional toss to the Americans of a severed Japanese head.

Here's a World War II veteran who confirms this (officially denied) "alliance":

I was a combatant in WWII, not a civilian. I served in the CBI with many of your brave Brit soldiers, along with Indian and Chinese troops, and even Naga headhunters from Burma, who were wonderful allies, and tremendously feared by the Japanese.

Readers might ask, "But why children? What had they done wrong?" The purpose of lopping the heads off little children was that they were protected by their parents, and thus harder to take as trophies. One baby head equaled several adult heads, leading to more rapid promotion in the tribal hierarchy.

Isn't that roughly analogous to the way corporate headhunters operate today?

The Naga warriors demanded payment from the American GIs for allowing photographs, and I saw one series of snapshots where a tribesman, angered over not being paid enough, started snatching the heads off the ground and stuffing them into his sack.

While I am no expert on the Nagas, I have a warm sentimental spot for them in my heart, and I want to share with my readers what little I could find on the Internet. (Hopefully, without multiculturalist-style sentimentality about noble savages, or moralistic hand-wringing about their direct approach to getting ahead in life.)

The extent to which these people have ever been "civilized" is open to question, even today:

Whilst some of the more accessible regions came under British Administration under the Raj, much of the region, being covered in mountains and jungles and home to warring tribal groups such as the notorious 'Naked Naga' headhunters remained off-limits. Although some tribal people fought with the British and Indian forces in the decisive battles in Nagaland that turned back the Japanese in WWII, political unrest continued after Indian Independence, with head hunting raids persisting in remote areas into the 1960s. The situation was further exacerbated by the Chinese incursion into Arunachal Pradesh in1962 when they reached as far as Assam, their gateway to India, before running out of supplies and being pushed back to Chinese Occupied Tibet.

Throughout this time, the seven states continued to suffer from ethnic violence and even today, there are still some freedom movements from both the Bodos of Assam and the Naga people though they no longer seem to receive much popular support. There are also tribal struggles between the Kukis and Nagas of Manipur and similar unrest in Tripura. Additionally, there are some border incursions, particularly from Myanmar and an influx of migrants the area can ill afford, from Bangladesh and Nepal.

Considering the country's national pride (to say nothing of effects on tourism), I don't think the Indian government would admit the existence of headhunting. Instead, they seem to have sealed the area off, and are accused of practicing cultural annihilation, if not genocide. Here is a Christian missionary's account:

For 50 years the Naga people have struggled for Independence from India. Nagaland is made up of numerous Naga tribes, all of which, because of their Mogolian descent, have more in common with Burmese tribes, their neighbors to the east, than they do with India. Like many indigenous groups in the area, the Nagas' land was arbitrarily split by colonial powers into what they consider false regions, separating them from other Naga groups in other countries.

Despite their valiant efforts, Nagaland remains an occupied territory. The Indian government empowers its soldiers to arrest, shoot and even kill at will anyone suspected of subversive actions against the government. It is said to be the most unreported area of civil conflict in the second half of this century, with estimates of up to 300,000 casualties.

We don't hear about these casualties because the Indian Government has deemed Nagaland to be a "restricted" zone, meaning few people from the outside are given permission to visit. I have, by the good will of the Indian government, been granted entry five times - even when others were not given permits. In one mountainous village, I was reported to be the first Western man ever visit. Because I am one of the few Westerners permitted to visit Nagaland, I feel a profound burden to share their story with the rest of the world. In fact, they have asked me to speak clearly to the rest of the world, even at the risk of being denied future entry to their country.

And here is another missionary, who persuaded some of the Naga "old guard" to stage a headhunter dance at a Christian revival meeting:

As I got up to preach, I invited two of these old boys, in full regalia, to join me on the platform where I queried them about their past headhunting days. It was quite a site as I got them explain and then demonstrate (not literally) to the crowd how they would have killed an opponent, cut off his head and then stuck it on the end of the spear. I even joined in with them as they chanted their victory chant and danced their victory dance. Now that I had my ‘official’ headhunter necklace, I felt honored to be able to join in with them. But all fun aside, it must have been pretty frightening to run into a bunch of these boys out in the jungle with machetes in one hand and a spears with their former enemy’s heads on them in the other! The crowd roared and laughed as we talked, chanted and danced and as I explained to them that I too was a headhunter and had traveled the world hunting the devil’s head. But more importantly I had come to hunt their souls for Jesus!

Just as these dear old gentlemen were leaving the platform the weather changed dramatically! In a matter of moments, lightening flashed all around, thunder rolled, the wind began to blow, rain and hail poured down and an unbelievable grey/black mist rolled in turning the 3:00 o’clock afternoon sky almost as dark as night.

Anyway, the practice of headhunting is believed to have died out (although only recently):

Traditionally fierce warriors and until recently headhunters. The Nagas have defended their land against incursions by invaders. Unlike the Was, who took human skulls to safeguard their society and crops. The Nagas killed for personal glory and for the glory of their villages. The practice of head hunting is believed to have died out in the past twenty years. Although Nagas would not buy skulls like the was sometime did, slaves were bought to be decapitated for their skulls and their heads were hung in baskets high in bamboo groves with arrow driven through the eye sockets to ensure that the ghost would protect the village.

What's next, a Naga blogger?

For lovers of traditional Naga values who find all this progress unduly threatening, it should be pointed out that you can still buy a traditional headhunting sword, called the "Dao."

Respect the past -- but not too literally. (You might lose your head.)