Rolling Stone India quotes – “Nagaland Guitarist Imnainla Jamir Does a Hendrix for Indian National Anthem at Hornbill”and then again – “The 23rd edition of the 10-day long Hornbill Festival was inaugurated on December 1st, coinciding with India’s assumption of the G20 presidency. The festival saw the launch of the historic leadership role that India embarks upon and amidst this backdrop, Imnainla ripped out a soaring solo in the presence of the Vice President of India Jagdeep Dhankhar and international guests as well.
Nagaland and much of India’s North East is a region where music is a way of life and almost everyone can strum the guitar or the drum. For more than a century, musical genres like Rock & Roll, Blues and Jazz have flourished in this remote, yet astonishingly beautiful part of India. The raw and awesome energy that India and rest of the world witnessed at the inauguration of the Hornbill Festival 2022, courtesy guitarist Imnainla Jamir, was easily one of India’s best ever promotional wrap-up – a befitting manifestation of a great nation making giant strides! Atmanirbhar Bharat!
Time and again, this region has sent impeccable cultural/musical representatives who have been India’s true brand ambassadors. If guitarist Imnainla comes as a thunderbolt, the Tetseo Sisters have been projecting India’s stupendous cultural diversity through the unheard of Nagamese Chokri dialect with Folk & Fusion mixes that have enthralled millions of people worldwide – from Mkokchung to Melbourne and Dimapur to Delhi.
The Tetseo Sister have stirred the imagination of the musical world with their harmonious blending of native instruments like Bamhum, Tati and Khrokhro with the contemporary guitar, piano and percussion, thereby creating a ripple effect on the discerning audiences worldwide.
Another name that crops up is the thunderous Rock & Roll band from Sikkim – Girish & The Chronicles (GATC) and their album “Rock The Highway” (2020) has been an outright hit worldwide. They have a huge fan following in countries like Germany, Switzerland and Spain. In fact GATC has received official invitation in Switzerland’s numero uno UrRock Music Festival 2022.
As a past native of India’s North Eastern state of Assam, I still remember my tryst with the Rock musicians and Rock bands of Dimapur, Kohima and Mokokchung – the later in particular is the richest in terms of sheer talent; coupled with the fact that my bureaucrat father who was posted in the picturesque hill station of Diphu, bordering the state of Nagaland, meant that I had the freedom to visit those musical hubs in Kohima, Mokokchung and beyond. And Oh Boy! They truly ROCK!
The Naga’s love for music is intense and I can cite the instance of the pioneering work done by a Naga Rockstar – Longden Longkumer, a past guitarist with the late 90’s Vanadium band and later on was also involved with two other premium Rock bands – Suffering Soul and Abiogenesis, who has carved a niche by setting up a one-of-a-kind music training studio and certification centre in Mokokchung, regarded by many in the Rock & Roll circles to be the most potent musical ecosystem in the whole of North East.
Longkumer’s familiarity with the infrastructure bottlenecks that musicians of the region face set him up to open his musical institute – Note Grid School of Music & Media Studio that facilitates musicians to pursue music and build up a career in music.
Mokokchung is the bastion of the fearsome Ao Nagas and a district headquarters. The 148 Kms. mountain drive from the state capital Kohima is absolutely other-worldly and worth every bit, in terms of music, culture and anthropology. From what I could gather from my folks back in Nagaland, they are of the opinion that Mokokchung is Nagaland’s intellectual hub.
For musical aficionados and visitors alike, the book – “Mokokchung, the Swinging Sixties and Beyond”, could be handy and informative, a great in-depth immersion into one of India’s little known Rock & Roll safe heaven.
Perhaps the time is ripe for a thorough revamp of the way the North East is projected as a destination to the outside world; incorporate, acknowledge and give recognition to the musicians, Rock & Roll bands, Folk & Fusion artists who are struggling in their own backyard for utter negligence.
Tourism industry mandarins, both in New Delhi and the respective Seven Sister states would do well to confer official recognition to North East musicians by the creation of a niche segment – “Music Tourism”. Such a step from the Ministry of Tourism could be a game-changer for the industry, given the huge fan following that musicians like Tetseo Sisters, Girish & The Chronicles, Papon, Zubin Garg and the new sensation Imnainla Jamir have.
The Ministry of Tourism needs to be innovative and craft truly immersive music-centric holiday itineraries like – guided visits to live bands, participate in music rehearsals, home stay options with musicians, visitor passes to concert venues etc…..The idea is to blend tourism with music. Perhaps, the Ministry of Tourism could explore the possibility of identifying a set of key musical tourism circuits in musical hubs like Shillong, Kohima, Dimapur, Mokokchung, Aizwal …….and develop the visitor infrastructure – road connectivity, home stay options, wayside amenities etc……
Today’s discerning travellers are in search of immersive experiences that are culturally stimulating. And, is there a better cultural stimulant than music?
The essence of Music Tourism is best summed up by The Tetseo Sisters, who once quoted in The Guardian newspaper thus – “We have always maintained and known from experience that when it comes to enjoying music, the language of the song doesn’t really matter. It is the melody and the feel/theme that can take you places—both high and low. In spite of choosing to sing in a very offbeat dialect—an almost endangered one at that—it is a blessing for us to sing our songs in Chokri. It is an icebreaker, it creates curiosity and we get to tell stories. The main thing is the melody of our music itself that helps us connect with our listeners.”
The North East of India is an outstanding natural and cultural area to unleash yourself into the wild. Iconic national parks and wildlife areas (Kaziranga for instance), an Anthropological hotspot (mind boggling 200+ tribes), Snowy Himalayas with enormous peaks, highest motorable passes (Nathula and Sela Tunnel).
Many visitors worldwide have this desire for authentic ranch holidays, which is so popular in US. Yeah, I am talking about those luxury Dude Ranch/Cowboy experiences in places like Colorado, Arizona, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana and what have you….
Why not an indigenous “Desi” Indian Dude Ranch in our own backyard – The North East? The characteristic feature of the quintessential American dude ranch holiday is preserving the legends and saga of the Wild West, grubby roads, log house style accommodations and the wilderness all around. The North East is indeed India’s own distinctive Cowboy / Marlboro country, epitomised by an extraordinary explorer – Oken Tayeng from Arunachal Pradesh with his signature Abor Country Travels & Expeditions – https://aborcountrytravels.com/
Tourism industry mandarins need to find out a mechanism to incorporate musical heritage into the overall Tourism product and build up a superstructure that could revolutionise the North East tourism industry and change the travel perception through correct narratives by the media.
This region is India’s principal tribal area and naturally is blessed with a fascinating cultural diversity in terms of indigenous culture. It remained in isolation for a long time due to poor connectivity and large geographical tracts being landlocked and mountainous. Add to it, the fact that the entire region was terrorist infested for several decades, which further kept the region economically deprived and an absolute No!No! for the discerning world traveller.
Now, with the Government of India’s focus on developing the North East and speedy implementation of the Act East Policy, the region is gradually evolving as one of India’s tourism gems; in fact Prime Minister Narendra Modi often refers to this region as the nation’s “Asthalakshmi” or Eight Angles of Wealth.
As a North Eastern by birth, I have been an observer of how the peace loving people of the region took to arms and choose terrorism as a means to alleviate their deep resentment for their socio-economic woes. However, the present regime under the stewardship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has completely reversed the geo-political scenario of India’s North East and turned around one of the nation’s biggest security dilemma into a boon, with Tourism playing the role of a catalyst.
With India assuming the Presidency of the G20 Summit from 1st December, 2022, Nagaland’s Hornbill Festival is all set to be showcased at the global platform. This decision isn’t surprising as Prime Minister Modi wants to showcase India’s diversity and take this prestigious global summit away from metropolitan India to the hitherto unexplored regions like the North East.
Let us hope for the best and remain optimistic about the resurgence of tourism in the North East and may I quote Mercy Tetseo’s take on Tourism, which was published in the renowned T+L India publication thus –
“As an artist, you are naturally curious, more sensitive, and primed to see beyond what people can normally see. Travel brings out one’s vulnerability and strength at the same time. It makes you really see, feel and experience. Travelling makes me excited and wants to test my limits in every sphere of my life”.
Photo: Instagram