Xavier P Mao
21st century is known as the century of Dialogue and Negotiation. Therefore, I propose a dialogue among all the Four Naga factions namely the 2-NNC and the 2-NSCN to be mediated by two representatives each from Naga Hoho, Naga Mothers’ Association, Naga Students’ Federation, Naga Peoples’ Movement for Human Rights, United Naga Council, All Naga Students’ Association of Manipur, Naga Women’s Union Manipur, Naga Baptist Church Council, one representative each from each Naga Tribal Hoho and five nominees each from each Naga Political faction and about 10-15 Naga intellectuals from different walks of life having integrity and honesty to be selected by each Naga political faction. This proposed multilateral negotiation among the four Naga political factions to be mediated by different prominent Naga NGOs and Social activists shall sit together for a series of consultations to thrash out the serious differences existing among the Nagas once and for all; for the general good and development of the Nagas. So far we Nagas have been relying almost exclusively on the use of physical force in our struggle for sovereignty and in the internal struggle for power and economic interest. If we continue to rely on brutal, senseless physical force, we will be condemned to live a marginalized existence with a primitive mind-set. As modern education spreads within the Naga society we should also adopt the more powerful, civilized and effective method of struggle, that is, relying on ethical rational and emotional forces; in other words, truth-force and soul-force as our weapon of struggle against any form of injustice, oppression and exploitation. It is high time for the Nagas to engage in the pursuit of the goal of development, iron out internal differences through dialogue and uphold a policy of “Live and let live”. We have been wandering aimlessly for too long and having blood bath among ourselves since the 1975 Shillong Accord and the 1988 split of NSCN. If some of the far more pluralistic and culturally diverse societies of the world can live in peace, why can’t a much less diverse society like that of the Nagas do the same?
The present trend in which the infighting is proceeding is seriously detrimental and counter-productive for the society. There is no disagreement among the great human beings that the least coercive type of influence is the best. Of course, this would be true only if freedom could be regarded as an absolute value. Freedom is valued and cherished by all great and small. Reason and rationality cannot be developed truly and fully if they are under any control or restraints, physical or psychic. We have learnt from history that absolute intellectual freedom is achieved by only a few great minds in the world. The average human mind is molded by a so-called free educational process, only accepts certain prevailing assumptions and view points rather than the alternative view point which might be inculcated by an older or newer political or religious idealism. Psychic coercion has far reaching deleterious consequences, as all coercion is. Its ultimate value depends upon the specific social purpose for which it is recommended.
As almost all Nagas profess to be Christians, at least we must try to imbibe that essential message of Christianity, i.e. the ideal of love, the spirit of good will, self-sacrifice and forgiveness. This involves for a Christian, freedom from personal resentments, and a moral purpose, free of selfish ambition. It is the temper and spirit in which a political policy is carried out, which a Christian is truly designated rather than a particular political technique.
It can be strongly argued that the social and moral effects of moral good will are tremendous in any conflict situation. In the case of the Nagas, the factional fighting is so intense that each faction is so obsessed with the wrongs and guilt which the other faction commits against it, that it is unable to see its own wrong-doing. In such a situation, a non-violent temper will surely reduce these animosities to a minimum and therefore preserve certain objectivity in analyzing the issues of the dispute.
Resistance to aggression and attacks easily makes aggression more stubborn and intensified conflict easily arouses dormant passions, which completely obscure the real issues of a conflict. Many a times, the real objective of the goal of the Naga struggle is completely destroyed consciously or unconsciously. In this context, non-violence will reduce these dangers to a minimum. Non-violent method preserves moral, rational and co-operative attitudes within an area of conflict and thus adds the moral forces without destroying the goal. The moral resources and spiritual caliber/character /capacity of the leaders can make a big difference in the society. But unfortunately this is not visible at present in our society. Rational and moral forces should be increased for the improvement of the relations among the four factions, and the society as a whole.
It is a time-tested principle that hate cannot drive out hate and violence cannot drive out violence for good. Therefore, if any attempt to wipe out the other factions will accentuate the animosities and prejudices of the other faction and their supporters. So if the present path of coercive weapons is continued this will bring forth the most violent passion of which ignorant men are capable. The attitude of repentance and forgiveness, which recognize that the evil in the opponent is also in the self, and the impulses of love and empathy, which claim kinship with all human beings in spite of intense social conflict, are the peculiar gifts of Christianity to the human spirit. If the continuous factional fighting is put to a stop somewhere, the Naga society may drift toward catastrophe. In other words, whatever achievement we have made till now as we are just stepping out of the pre-literate society, may gradually be destroyed. We will continue to suffer from cruelties and be harassed by animosities, which destroy the beauty of human life. There are both spiritual and brutal elements in human life. The perennial tragedy of human history is that those who cultivate the spiritual elements usually do so by isolating themselves from or misunderstanding the problems of collective men, where the brutal elements are prominently evident. These problems, therefore, remain unsolved, and force clashes with force, hate clashes with hate, blood clashes with blood, with nothing to of mitigate the cruelties or remove the futilities of the social struggle.
The unutterable violence and hatred by Nagas against Nagas and the barbaric factional killing do not give us hope for decent politics in Naga society. Peace making ideas are lost in the overall discourse in the Naga society; even the noble ideas of freedom struggle are lost. What apparently remain are the vanity of physical prowess, vengeance, selfish economic interest and indiscipline at the expense of the masses, without leaving a clear demarcation line from mafia or any criminal organization. These are the strong feelings echoed by many Nagas today. Naga population is a little more than 3 million. In the context of globalization where free flow of people is on the increase, our people can easily become extinct when we no longer have creative capacity and do not allow constructive criticism. To reverse the Naga situation, intense negotiation among various Naga groups and primarily the four factions are imperative. Dialogue should be conducted as many times as possible meaningfully. Then only the human spirit will triumph over the dark forces of ignorance, ill will and prejudices. If and only if dialogue is successful among the four factions of NNC (I & II) and NSCN (I & II), a progressively higher justice and more stable peace can be achieved within the Naga society. With such social milieu, we can build a future for flourishing and prosperity of Naga civilization along with the rest of human kind, a future which is worthy of our pursuit.
