“The Land where Life is Good”: Naga Song Responses to Political Conflict

Lecture by Dr. Christian Poske
University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna

How does music become a vehicle for communicating suppressed political views and processing traumas caused by colonial and postcolonial conflicts marked by excessive military violence? Various culturally diverse Naga communities have lived in the eastern Himalayan region for generations, repeatedly affected by prolonged political conflict and resulting military violence. World War II thrust Naga villages between the British and Japanese frontlines. Since 1947, there has been a seven-decade unresolved conflict between Naga nationalists and the Indian government. Considering theories of historical and colonial trauma, the talk explores how Naga artists have processed direct and indirect experiences of armed conflict through their poetry and music. Examining songs from Nagaland, surrounding regions, and the Naga diaspora about military operations, internal displacement, armed resistance, and the prospects of reconciliation and peace, it scrutinizes the motivations of military personnel and civilians for writing songs on these topics and the meanings they have carried for them.

Christian Poske is an ethnomusicologist who investigates the performing arts of east and northeast India, Bangladesh, and adjoining regions, which he explores through applied research and grassroots engagement with cultural heritage communities. He completed his BA and MA at Rabindra Bharati University in Kolkata and his PhD in Music at SOAS University of London and the British Library. Since 2024, he has pursued a three-year project on the interrelationships between music and conflict in Naga society at the Music and Minorities Research Center of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. This year, he teaches a course on music and religion in South Asia at the Department of Musicology at the University of Vienna. He is a co-chair of the Special Interest Group for Music and Violence of the Society for Ethnomusicology and an editorial board member of the journal of the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives.

Part of the Nazir Ali Jairazbhoy Colloquium Series, this event is sponsored by The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music Department of Ethnomusicology

Host or Publisher Dept. of Ethnomusicology, UCLAalpert