In Nagaland, an itch for reviving prickly cages for offenders

Some villages in Nagaland are trying to revive a traditional form of punishment that seeks to check crime with an itch in time.

Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2021

Social offenders or violators of Naga customary laws have over the ages dreaded a cramped, triangular cage made from the logs of Masang-fung, a local tree that people avoid because of the irritation it causes.

The dread is more of humiliation or loss of face within the community or clan than of spending at least a day scratching furiously without any space to move.

Such itchy cages are referred to as khujli ghar in Nagamese — a pidgin lingua franca — but each Naga community has its own name. The Aos, one of the major tribes of Nagaland, call it Shi-ki that means flesh-house.

The cage is usually placed at a central spot in the village, usually in front of the morung, or bachelor’s dormitory, for the inmate to be in full public view.