ITANAGAR, 11 Feb: The Nyishi Festival Council (NFC) – the apex body of the three traditional Nyishi festival committees, viz the Central Longte Committee (CLC), the Central Boori-Boot Yullo Committee (CBBYC) and the Central Nyokum Committee (CNC) – on Friday nullified the Nyishi Indigenous Identity Society’s (NIIS) move to rename Nyokum Yullo as Nyokum Sonam.
In a press briefing on 30 January, the NIIS had claimed that it had prepared a manual of Nyokum celebration, including celebrating Nyokum without rituals and renaming Nyokum Yullo as Nyokum Sonam.
Taking strong exception to the move, the NFC on Thursday decided to issue an advisory to the Central Nyokum Committee (CNC) and all the local Nyokum Yullo celebration committees within and outside the state “to ensure maintaining the sanctity of the traditional festival.”
“The amendments, if any, should have the social mandate of the community, with the approval of the parental body – the Nyishi Elite Society (NES) – duly proposed by the NFC, as may be proposed (or) moved by the CNC.
“As such, any Tom or Jerry cannot propose mode of celebration (or) nomenclature of Nyishi traditional festivals, except the concerned central festival committees, ie, CBBYC, CLC and CNC and NFC and NES,” the NFC stated.
It further said that “no individual or section or organization can claim the right to ownership of the common legacy of the traditional Nyishi festivals.”
“All sections of the Nyishi community, cutting across religious and other affiliations, must celebrate Nyokum Yullo in its popularly accepted original form, without any deviation,” it said.
“The committee outright scrapped the proposed controversial change of nomenclature of the grand festival of the Nyishi community – Nyokum Yullo – which has been the unifying force of the community, especially after the introduction of the centralized celebration system at Joram in 1967,” the committee said.
