A word said here and there without proper thought or a contentious statement made in public has the potential to create misgivings in the minds of people especially if it has to do with something as important as unity and peaceful coexistence. This column is not authorised to pass judgement on the utterances of our public leaders. Nevertheless, it is our obligation to point out the concerns that many people will be having when harmful thoughts are propagated and that too in an open public forum where there is wide media coverage. We need to be cautious of what we say in public. All of us are aware about the ill effects of ism in our Naga society. When Nagas are working to bring about unity and integration of our people, it becomes somewhat contradictory for responsible leaders to speak about amalgamation of any particular tribal groups. Much more important is for us to come together as one people irrespective of tribal affiliations and protect the common interest of the Naga people and not just your tribe/s, group/s or region/s. For instance, one can well avoid mixing the special recruitment drive, which was purely a government policy initiative, and the protest thereof with any brand of ism, whether it is of a single tribe, grouping etc. Because one of the tribal students body had protested against the SRD along with other (forward) Naga tribal students, one public leader had expressed concern on the ‘disunity among a common group of people’. Such kind of mentality and attitude is going to create more isms in our Naga society. Further we must be consciously aware that government programmes or policy cannot be based on tribal lines.
We can learn something from Indian history where it was the communal ideology which finally led to the partition of India and Pakistan along religious lines. The ideology that people belonging to a particular tribal lineage or region have separate social, economic and political interest which is incompatible and even hostile to those of others is very dangerous and Nagas must not subscribe to such dogma. It is a matter of concern that narrow identity politics and fundamentalist beliefs are becoming more pronounced even though we all talk of peace, reconciliation and unity. It is not surprising to come across the reiteration of the old dogmatic belief of ‘we’ and ‘us’. Given that relationship is central to peaceful co-existence, what or who we are i.e. our identity should not in anyway impede one’s affiliation to a common cause of unity and progress. At the same time we need a strong Naga civil society to absorb the ill effects of tribalism, which if not contained will remain detrimental for our peaceful co-existence. We need to create a big enough space where Nagas irrespective of our tribe, grouping or regional affiliation can cooperate and work for the general common good. And that is the reason why it is vital for us to nurture and strengthen some of our pan-Naga organizations like the Naga Hoho, Naga Students Federation, Naga Mothers Association etc.
We can learn something from Indian history where it was the communal ideology which finally led to the partition of India and Pakistan along religious lines. The ideology that people belonging to a particular tribal lineage or region have separate social, economic and political interest which is incompatible and even hostile to those of others is very dangerous and Nagas must not subscribe to such dogma. It is a matter of concern that narrow identity politics and fundamentalist beliefs are becoming more pronounced even though we all talk of peace, reconciliation and unity. It is not surprising to come across the reiteration of the old dogmatic belief of ‘we’ and ‘us’. Given that relationship is central to peaceful co-existence, what or who we are i.e. our identity should not in anyway impede one’s affiliation to a common cause of unity and progress. At the same time we need a strong Naga civil society to absorb the ill effects of tribalism, which if not contained will remain detrimental for our peaceful co-existence. We need to create a big enough space where Nagas irrespective of our tribe, grouping or regional affiliation can cooperate and work for the general common good. And that is the reason why it is vital for us to nurture and strengthen some of our pan-Naga organizations like the Naga Hoho, Naga Students Federation, Naga Mothers Association etc.
