Village elders at a trial in a Naga village. Picture by Nishit Dholabhai

Mon/Ukhrul, March 20: How does one settle a land dispute when conventional law fails to distinguish right from wrong?

To some Naga tribes, especially the Konyaks of Mon district, the ultimate test of the authenticity of a man’s claim to a plot of land is to make him eat a clump of earth dug from the disputed area or drink muddy water. They believe that the claimant or someone in his family will come to harm if he is dishonest.

Totok and Lyangah, two residents of a remote village in Mon, went through a similar test last year. The duo had been locked in a land dispute that could not be settled despite several attempts by village elders and the district administration. The tribal court’s ruling went against Totok because there was a death in his family soon after the “land test”.

T. Aiwang Konyak, a customary law magistrate based in Mon, said “wise” village elders were the most appropriate candidates for his job. “Our rulings cannot be overturned even by the Supreme Court,” the tribal leader added. Claiming to have resolved at least six land-related disputes over the past year, Konyak said the practice of making claimants to land eat mud was the “last resort” and not the only way out. “It is only when arguments cease to work that we fall back on nature.”

On whether a dishonest person would surely die or take ill on eating a slice of earth, Konyak said, “That does not always happen. So, we look out for secondary signs.” The Tangkhul tribe of Manipur’s Ukhrul district has similar customs. The arbiter asks both the defendant and the plaintiff to drink muddy water and waits for nature to do the rest.

Rationalists scoff at such practices, but most tribes believe their customary laws are the best. In Ukhrul, tribal courts resolve almost every dispute. “We receive an average of 70 cases a year and the punishment for all the crimes is common: monetary fine,” Somi Mayar, vice-president of the Tangkhul Naga Long, said.