In pursuit of some unusual news, somebody suggested that I should go to Longwa village which is located right on the Indo-Myanmar international border. I was informed that the village which comes under Phomching assembly constituency in Mon district was unique, in the sense that some portion of it still remains under the jurisdiction of Myanmar, with the majority belonged to India. The villagers, although aware of the international demarcation, rarely follow it as they roam freely towards the ‘other side of the international border’ for various reasons – agriculture – being the main reason among them.

One fine morning, as we set out for the village in a hired old fashioned ambassador car, we came across several clusters of hills, now denuded for the traditional jhum cultivation. Small huts of villagers here and there looked like small matchboxes as we travelled through the 35 km long zigzag hilly road which was comparatively better than the other roads in and around Mon. In between, our journey was halted for more than an hour as one of the tyres of our vehicle got punctured. However, we were lucky enough to get the assistance of the occupants of another public vehicle after which we could manage to fit the spare tyre and resume our journey. We started from Mon at around 7 in the morning and reached Longwa at around 10-30 am.

Like many other bordering villages of the region, Longwa too presents a quiet and calm atmosphere. The scene of anxious villagers peering out of their windows to watch you, children playing with footballs made out of rags and just one or two small shops, is exactly the scene at Longwa. An Assam Rifles company had the responsibility to man the post, where according to locals no major dispute has taken place till date since it is a peace zone. “Here you don’t find soldiers pointing their LMGs or sniper rifles eyeball to eyeball, as the case is with soldiers manning the Indo-Pak border. It is a peace zone here and soldiers do a lot of ‘other work’ to help the civil population and make their lives better,” a young Assam Rifles officer said. In fact, on the same day that we visited Longwa, the Assam Rifles donated around 100 plastic chairs, some tables, etc under its civic action programme to the village, for use during meetings, festivals, social gatherings etc. Shenwang Konyak, the headman, Longwa village said that since there are no health care facilities available in the village or its vicinity, villagers generally depend upon traditional medicines and when any critical situation arises they approach the Assam Rifles camp. “Till date we have attended to numerous patients and provided them with medicines too. In some cases we have arranged transportation since the poor patients cannot do this on their own,” the officer said. The officer also added that a veterinary health camp will also be organised in the village very soon for the benefit of the domestic animals of the villagers. In one way at Longwa village, the Assam Rifles is doing what the successive Governments had failed to do over the years.

Another unique feature of the village is the geographical demarcation of the village about which I had pointed out at the start of this article. What is more unique is the fact that Ngowang Konyak, the chief angh’s (king) residence is located right on the border, one part of the huge house is in Indian territory and the other part is in Myanmar. During the elections, some families in this Indo-Myanmar bordering village crossed over to the Indian side to cast their votes.

As the international border runs across some portions of Longwa – although Government officials or some people in the village do not like to disclose officially – it is a matter of fact that over the years, people from Myanmar come to India to cast their votes in the polling stations set up in the village. This time there were six polling stations in the village.  In fact, this correspondent was privy to a lot of flags from various political parties – mainly the Congress and ruling NPF – fluttering from various village huts on the other side of the international border, Myanmar. When queries were made, the Ngowang Konyak, the chief angh of Longwa village said: “They are also our people; this is very much a part of Longwa village. Therefore, they will definitely come and vote. The international boundary has been drawn by the Government only which has divided the village, but we cannot follow this,” Ngowang said. Longwa comes under the Phomching assembly constituency. There are 734 houses in the village which pay `10 /- as annual house tax against each house. There are 19395 voters in the constituency of which 4310 are from Longwa only which indicates that voters from the village had always played a major role in deciding the fate of the candidates during elections.   

Sources say that although the international boundary has been demarcated by the Government, villagers are keen to follow the ‘village border’ which has been in place for several ages. Generally, dependent upon jhum cultivation through which the villagers grow paddy, maize, vegetables etc, the villagers are least concerned about development activities taking place in their village. Quite a few of them are excited about the fact that the Myanmar Government is constructing a concrete road on its side and up till the international border. The road will link Longwa to Taklang, a small town in Myanmar which is expected to be completed by 2015. Most of the villagers are illiterate and there is very low attendance in the three schools – two LP and one ME – there are no facilities of health care in the village and electrification is poor. However, recently there has been some Government activity in the village and 613 families have job cards now under the MG-NREGA.

Ripunjoy Das
Photo by:-  Pronib Das