Civic Action

In the Army we are taught Civic Action, an effort to win over people while in occupation of a territory. Here is an interesting example of Civic Action in Nagaland during the insurgency. 

The Army got engaged in a prolonged counter insurgency operation in Nagaland during the seventies. After a decade of fierce fighting in the region military pundits wanted more focus on the welfare of the local population. A new strategy to engage the villagers in developmental activities was articulated by the GOC. He wanted the troops to fraternize the villagers while fighting the insurgents. How to fraternize the villagers? We discussed this in the operations rooms in the divisional sector and several ingenious ideas came up. A bright Commanding Officer(CO) came up with a fantastic idea, to gift a few buffalos to a village. It was appreciated by the higher commanders. The Brigade   Commander gave his approval and on his recommendation, the GOC sanctioned funds for the program, under civic action.

The CO, a Jat from the Punjab did a meticulous job of getting six good buffalos with their calves all the way from Kapurtala to the Naga village, Chakabama. He ensured the training of the villagers on how to take care of the buffalos, milking them and also how to use the milk for the children. He monitored  the program daily. The Village Head and the men and women took part enthusiastically to make the program a success, as reported by the battalion. The Brigade Commander hailed it as an example to emulate!

Time passed and this Punjab battalion became due for turn over. A unit from Assam Regiment came to relieve. Normal change over took place in three months' time. Once the new unit was settled the Brigade Commander came on a visit. In the course of his briefing by the CO, the Commander enquired about the civic action program started by the previous unit. The CO didn't have any clear idea. The Commander insisted on an immediate report on how the buffalos were.

This caused a probe into what had happened in the last three months as far as the civic action was concerned . Several facts came to light. The villagers appreciated the intention of the previous CO, albeit they remained highly skeptical about its merit. They didn't want to offend a well meaning CO, therefore went along with the training and program implementation. They knew the turn over of the the unit was due and that the program would die a natural death by the time the new unit took full charge. They also had worked out a plan to celebrate; slaughter the animals one by one over a month's time and have regular feasts! This plan was implemented immediately after the main body  of the Punjab unit moved out. The villagers thoroughly enjoyed  the feasts with their abundant supply of buffalo meat thanks to the civic program accompanied with wine and of course,their traditional music and dance. On some occasions they had invited the new Assam unit men as well!

During the probe ordered by the Brigade Commander, the Village Head confessed to what had happened to the civic program and the buffalos in particular. He gave a convincing and plausible explanation. Nagas love their children and they feed their children only mothers' milk! Nagas are fond of beef and many varieties of meat. They found buffalo  meat  excellent and that too plenty of it to feed the whole village. So they celebrated for more than a month by sharing the meat and that too equitably among all the villagers! A young Naga added," That's our culture, we didn't want to offend the well meaning CO, so accepted the gift gracefully and waited for the Punjab battalion to move out."!

 You must factor the culture of a people while planning civic action! Yet another lesson for us in the Army!