‘Naga skull’ auction in England: Nagaland CM urges Jaishankar to step in

Guwahati: Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio has termed the proposed auction of the skull of a Naga person in UK ‘continued colonial violence’,The Indian Express reported.

Also calling it ‘dehumanising’, Neiphiu Rio sought External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s intervention in the auction taking place on October 9.

Noted auction house The Swan at Tetsworth has listed ‘19th century horned Naga skull’ in one of the items on sale, valuing at £3,500-4,500.

Following objections, the item was not found on the list of items up for auction Tuesday evening.

Neiphiu Rio’s repose came after the Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR), which includes Church leaders and civil society representatives, wrote to him regarding the auction on Monday.

In his letter to Jaishankar, Neiphiu Rio said that all sections of the society in the state received the auction ‘in a negative manner’, adding that it is a ‘highly emotional and sacred issue for our people.’

Rio pointed out that remains of ‘any deceased person belongs to those people and their land’, and the termed the auction an ‘act of dehumanisation’.

Seeking to halt the auction by taking up the matter with the Indian High Commission in UK, Rio urged the Centre to ‘do everything possible to ensure that the rights and emotions of our people are protected’.

The Naga community has long been trying to bring back ancestral Naga human remains from the Pitts River Museum in Oxford.

These objects belong to a collection of approximately 6,500 Naga objects taken away during the British Empire and colonial era and housed in the museum for over a century.