Dolly Kikon | |
---|---|
Born | 1975 (age 48–49) |
Citizenship | Indian |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | Stanford University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, University of Delhi |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Anthropology |
Sub-discipline | Development studies |
Main interests | Gender,Anthropology of the State,Citizenship,Human Rights,migration,Resource conflicts,Food Studies |
Dolly Kikon is an Indian anthropologist and author from Nagaland. She is a Professor at the Department of Anthropology,University of California,Santa Cruz. She was previously Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Melbourne [1] and a senior research advisor at the Australia India Institute,engaging in research and policy initiatives between India and Australia. [2] She serves on the Council of Advisors for The India Forum. [3]
In 1997,Kikon received her B.A. (History Honours) from Miranda House College,University of Delhi. [4] [5] In 2001,she completed her LL.B from the Campus Law Center at the University of Delhi. She moved to Hong Kong University of Science and Technology for her M. Phil. Her dissertation was titled Compromised democracy and the politics of participation:a case study of the Naga people from Northeast India (2002-2004). The thesis examined the Naga people's participation in Indian electoral system,development initiatives by Indian security forces and the Indo-Naga ceasefire negotiations. [6]
She obtained her doctoral degree in social and cultural anthropology from Stanford University in 2013. [2] Titled,Disturbed Areas Act:Anxiety,Intimacy and the State in Northeast India,her dissertation looked into the "state-making processes in contemporary India... and the many unheralded,though significant ways in which people in the foothills transgress and embrace the cultural and political roles ascribed to them by the modern state." [7] During the doctoral studies,she received the Wenner-Gren Foundation's Dissertation Fieldwork Grant, [8] the Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowship,the Center for South Asia Community Service Fellowship (Stanford University) and the Mellon Foundation Dissertation Fellowship.
In 2024,Kikon joined UCSC's Anthropology department as a professor and senate faculty. [9] [10] Since 2024,Kikon is also the director of UCSC's Center for South Asian Studies. [11]
Kikon's work on food navigates through landscapes of hills,valleys and foothills in Northeast India,and challenges the existing notions of sovereignty limited to territoriality. The layered articulation of food and the sensory perceptions attached to it challenge anthropological understanding of indigenous food. Therefore,significantly,her work revolves around indigenous food and fermentation as a technique for preservation.
Her article,Tasty Transgression:Food and Social Boundaries in the Foothills of Northeast India, questions the sensory perception of classifying the taste of food as belonging either to the hills or the plains. Through her fieldwork,she points out that this distinction falls apart at landscapes classified as foothills,the geography that situates itself between the two. Farming practices at the foothills transgress social structures and taboos attributes exclusively to societies either in the hills or the valleys.
In her article,Fermenting Modernity:Putting Akhuni on the Nation’s Table in India,she points out that cultures of reciprocity and eating in Northeast India are integral in order to challenge existing notions of sovereignty as a political project limited to territoriality. Speaking through akhuni –fermented Naga soya beans –she reiterates that everyday practices of eating are entangled with social relationships and histories of sharing and loss. [12]
Kikon has been a vocal supporter for Women's Reservation in Nagaland. After the Supreme Court directive to implement reserved seats for Urban Local Bodies' election,protests erupted in Dimapur and Kohima which soon spread across the state. Kikon along with other women started a petition appealing to the Naga community and governments to 'recognise the importance of a gender inclusive political participation.' [13] She points out that the exclusion of women from powerful decision-making bodies formed under the customary law negates the notion that these institutions are pillars of justice." [13] The iteration of Naga culture as pure and unique has come to be contested in the ongoing debate about women’s rights. [14] She also draws parallels between the Indian state and the customary law institutions for "excluding the Naga women from all spheres of representative political processes." [13] She challenges the view that Naga women's assertions for gender justice is ‘anti-Naga’. [14]
Kikon was granted the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond Postdoctoral Fellowship at Stockholm University (2013–15) for "The Indian Underbelly:Marginalisation,Migration and State in the Periphery." [15] This work traced the increasing outmigration from Northeast India to the rest of the country. Focusing on migration,it examined the expansion and outcomes of developmental activities of the Indian state in areas associated with economic backwardness,subsistence agriculture and armed conflict. [16] Kikon and Karlsson define 'wayfinding' as a "voyage without a map or beaten paths or pathways to follow and with no clear destination or end station". In the process of wayfinding,young indigenous migrations struggle to make out what and where home is. As they move out of agricultural activities,they are constantly in search out new places and possibilities creating cultural fissures at various levels. [17]
Part of the project,Kikon and Bengt G. Karlsson also collaborated with Andrzej Markiewicz on a photoethnography project titled,Wayfinding. [18] The project was exhibited in Guwahati,Dimapur,Gangtok,Kathmandu,and Stockholm.
Kikon worked as a lawyer in the Supreme Court of India and the Gauhati High Court between 2001 and 2002. Her legal advocacy work dealt with Article 371 (A),a constitutional provision relating to customary rights,custodianship over land and resource ownership as well as indigenous rights. [19]
She has been part of several fact-finding teams over the years in Northeast India:And Quiet Flows the Kopili,Report of Human Rights Violation in the Karbi-Anglong District of Assam (2002);Death,Insurgency,Impunity:A Report on Extra-Judicial Killings in Tinsukia,Assam (2011). She has been associated with the Naga Peoples' Movement for Human Rights,Sisterhood Network (Dimapur),Prodigals' Home (Dimapur), [2] The Turning Point (Mon district) and Action Aid (Northeast India). She continues to lend her voice towards the campaign to repeal the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (1958),an extra-constitutional regulation in India that gives access power to the Indian armed forces in Northeast India.
Dolly Kikon belongs to a Lotha Naga family. Her ancestral village is Tsüngiki in Wokha District. Kikon's mother Mhalo Kikon attended the Golaghat Mission Girls High School in Assam,an educational institution set up by the American missionaries. Kikon's father Wopansao Kikon studied in Kohima and played football for various Naga teams during his youth. Kikon's maternal grandparents Mr. Nzio Hümtsoe and Ms. Oponlumi Hümtsoe were both Baptist pastors. Today,the Lotha Baptist mission in Wokha district recognizes them as visionaries who contributed,along with their colleagues,in establishing the Christian faith among the Lotha community in Tsungiki village and Wokha town. Kikon's paternal grandfather Mr. Luke Kikon was a medical compounder and her grandmother Ms. Oreno Kikon was a trader who set up one of the first shops managed and owned by a woman in Wokha town. [24]
Kikon is married to Sanjay Barbora,formerly at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, [5] and currently teaching in the sociology department of University of California,Santa Cruz. [25]
Nagaland is a state in the north-eastern region of India. It is bordered by the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh to the north,Assam to the west,Manipur to the south,and the Naga Self-Administered Zone of the Sagaing Region of Myanmar (Burma) to the east. Its capital city is Kohima and its largest city is the twin Chümoukedima–Dimapur. The state has an area of 16,579 square kilometres (6,401 sq mi) with a population of 1,980,602 as per the 2011 Census of India,making it one of the least populated states in India.
Nagas are various Southeast Asian Tibeto-Burman ethnic groups native to northeastern India and northwestern Myanmar. The groups have similar cultures and traditions,and form the majority of population in the Indian state of Nagaland and Naga Self-Administered Zone of Myanmar (Burma);with significant populations in Manipur,Arunachal Pradesh and Assam in India;Sagaing Region and Kachin State in Myanmar.
The Nagaland Baptist Church Council is an association of Baptist Christian churches based in Nagaland,India. It is affiliated with the Council of Baptist Churches in Northeast India and the Asia Pacific Baptist Federation. The headquarters is located in Kohima,the capital of Nagaland.
The Lotha language is a Sino-Tibetan language spoken by approximately 180,000 people in Wokha district of west-central Nagaland,India. It is centered in the small district of Wokha. This district has more than 114 villages such as Pangti,Maraju (Merapani),Englan,Baghty (Pakti) and others,where the language is widely spoken and studied.
Kohima District is a district of the Indian state of Nagaland. It is the home of the Angami Nagas. As of 2011,it is the most populous district of Nagaland,with a population of 267,988,45% of which is urban. The district is home to 13.55% of Nagaland's entire population. The administrative headquarters of the district is located at Kohima,the capital city of Nagaland. Kohima District is also the seventh-largest district in Nagaland with an area of 1,207 square kilometres (466 sq mi).
Wokha District (Pron:/ˈwəʊkə/) is a district of Nagaland state in India. It is the home of the Lotha Nagas. Gastronomically,it known for its variety of fermented bamboo shoots (bastenga). It holds an important place as the roosting site of the migratory Amur Falcon. Geologically,it has known oil deposits.
Chümoukedima,formerly spelled Chumukedima,is a municipality in the Chümoukedima District of the Indian state of Nagaland. It is situated on the left bank of the Chathe and with its surrounding area that includes several other towns and villages,the Chümoukedima Metropolitan Area is the largest urban agglomeration in Nagaland in terms of area and third largest in terms of population,after Dimapur and Kohima.
Wokha is a town and municipality in the Indian state of Nagaland. It is the headquarters of Wokha District and is located about 75 km north of the state capital Kohima. Wokha literally means head count or census in Lotha language. It has a population of 35,004 and is predominantly inhabited by the Lotha Nagas.
The Lothas,also known as Kyongs are a major Naga ethnic group native to Wokha District in the Northeast Indian state of Nagaland.
The Sümis are a major Naga ethnic group native to the northeast Indian state of Nagaland. Anthropological study of the Sümis is documented in the book The Sema Nagas by J. H. Hutton,who was a Professor of Social Anthropology in the University of Cambridge. The Sümi people are recognised as a Scheduled Tribe (ST's) by India.
The largest religion in the Nagaland state of India is Christianity. According to the 2011 census,the state's population was 1,978,502,out of which 87.93% are Christians. Along with Meghalaya,Arunachal Pradesh,and Mizoram,Nagaland is one of the four Christian-majority states in the country.
Mmhonlümo Kikon is an Indian politician,poet,former social worker from Nagaland. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and was the member of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly from 40 Bhandari Constituency in Wokha District.
Khodao Yanthan was a Naga liberation leader and a member of the Naga National Council (NNC). He was popularly called,“the grand old man of Naga political struggle”.
Zuboni Hümtsoe was an Indian entrepreneur from Nagaland who started an online fashion and handicraft brand called PreciousMeLove in Nagaland. She was given the Nari Shakti Puraskar,a national award.
Hekani Jakhalu Kense is an Indian politician and social entrepreneur from Nagaland. She set up the non-governmental organization YouthNet to help the youths of Nagaland pursue business opportunities. She was recognised with the Nari Shakti Puraskar award in 2018.
Kevichüsa Nisier Meru was an Indian politician and a Member of Parliament,representing Nagaland in the Lok Sabha,the lower house of India's Parliament. He was the first Naga IAS Officer and also the first Naga graduate. Kevichüsa was conferred the Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE).
The Forum for Naga Reconciliation was formed in 2008 after the Naga Peace Convention organised by the Naga Shisha Hoho in Dimapur. At the start,it had 14 members. Wati Aier is the founding-convenor for the association. It has emerged as a major force in the Indo-Naga peace process outside the negotiation room between the Indian state and Naga nationalist groups.
The following is a list of articles relating to the Indian state of Nagaland,sorted in alphabetical order.
Achumbemo Kikon is an Indian politician from Nagaland. He is an MLA from Bhandari Assembly constituency,which is reserved for Scheduled Tribe community,in Wokha District. He won the 2023 Nagaland Legislative Assembly election,representing Naga People's Front.