Evolving Identities -10, 20 years down the line?

Agono Iralu

My friend said, “It is very important for people to know where they come from and who they are. In this globalized world that does not necessarily mean you may identify yourself with your roots but it is still important. Why would people America try to find their roots back to Ireland centuries after they migrated to the Americas?” We were both ‘displaced’ people and all too familiar to that feeling of not really belonging anywhere. 

What is Identity? Is it important to us? I know I obsessed over it for a long time and it really bugged me that I didn’t know much about where I came from. My friend continued her discourse saying identity and culture are not static elements. In fact they change, imbibe and ‘revolutionize’ with their environment and the times too. “Nagas as an identity has evolved from the mekhala-wearing lady in the village to a more modernized western-clothed, city-dwelling, English-speaking ‘Naga’ too”, she said (Here, the ‘Naga’ she mentioned would probably mean one who had already come into contact with some form of the outside world as compared to the previous ‘Naga’ who lived in a village, head-hunted, wore minimum clothing and had little or no contact with outsiders). But in this way, as you can observe, we are slowly evolving. 

However, what are the challenges ahead for us?

Challenges ahead of a healthy, evolving ‘Naga’ identity

My motto, as such, has been that imbibing something from outside is not wrong. Whether that is positive or negative is another topic however I like to think that it strengthens us, if not we learn something from it. I’ve also realized that culture is not static and it is a process of the human understanding to take as much as it can, according to its capacity. But our challenge, as such, is that there are so many things to choose from and those choices are hard especially for a reasonably nascent, infant people and identity. We risk losing ourselves in it altogether. In this globalized and technology-flooded world we are bombarded by cultures and identities. It is not only us, studies have concluded that India may be the only country where so many poor people have been subjected to so much technology (post-liberalization and privatization of companies competition is heavy and although you have a more open market the stark difference in living standard is more visible). I guess it is not surprising, this is India, economists had once concluded that in order for India to move forward it will inevitably need to exploit its poor.

As for us we have just stepped out of our thresholds into the big, wide world which had already industrialized, developed and progressed while we were (as most Nagas like to say) sleeping. Yes, we were reclusive, territorial people who lived in unfriendly terrains but I don’t think that was the only reason why we remained out of touch from the rest of the world for 5, 6 decades (mind you, although we were all of this we still had contact and trade with the outside world pre-British era). Pre-liberalization Indian market/economy was a pretty much aloof or reclusive market from the rest of the world, investing instead in a self-sufficient, investment-of-the-poor stance. Those ideals went through a drastic change post-liberalization and we witness a more open market, more FDI investments also more interactions with the outside world. India is changing and changing still and we are also affected in that churn. More and more north-easterners are getting jobs in the cities and the consequent ‘outside-world’ influence in the cities in turn affect us who come from reasonably sleepy town districts or villages. The long drawn Indo-Naga conflict had isolated us from the rest of the world for as long as India has been independent. There were so many restrictions, RAPs and ILPs in regard to visiting Nagaland and the missionaries had long been sent back to their countries. These effected our development and now the present full-blown exposure to an outside world through tourism, trade connections etc. now may have great consequences for us in the future I believe. We can witness those changes even amongst ourselves and within the lifespan of one person too. Whether all these are actually positive for our society or people is really a different matter altogether I believe again. 

What do we do about that? Do we look inwards? I have often wondered whether we Nagas think about who we are and what we will be, say, in 30-50 years time –whether all of that is of any importance to us? Listening to people’s opinions sometimes I’m inclined to think it isn’t anymore. We are, in all candidness, indifferent about who we are or were once. Whether this ‘indifference’ is a result from denial of a fundamental right, in turn extremism over Naga identity or insecurity over being a nascent people/identity is a different matter requiring perhaps a different study. But as of now we are pretty much indifferent.

Evolving Identity, and changing still 

I can’t help but see a lot of parallel similarities between South Korea’s development or evolving and us. Although I usually deign from comparing ourselves with other cultures because we tend to superimpose that over ours simply for the reason, because we are too young, yet I do so because I could not help seeing uncanny similarities. First thing though, I think Korea has one of the longest history of mankind, much longer than Japan’s or neighboring countries. However it is both tragic and unfortunate the way in which the two Koreas have evolved today. Worrying still is America’s large influence over South Korea, its very materialistic outlook of its citizens as well. It is very popular in South Korea that surgical operations try to make the otherwise Mongoloid face look more ‘Caucasian’ (didn’t know there was such a face). South Korea is also a predominantly Christian country and that also worries me. If we do not learn from history or if we do not learn from those who have tried the waters before what insight do we expect to gain at all? Not to forget also that we are very influenced by South Korean culture in a strange way. 

In that same discourse I have wondered why our Christian faith cannot live side-by-side with who we are too. If we try to find out who we were would that mean we go back to the old belief? Learning values or heritage of our people would not necessarily mean we go back to our villages, forts and start head-hunting again, would it? Or would it not? That is a question that you can fill in yourself. However, what is our next step? What insight do we have to take our next step? Where are we Nagas headed, who are we becoming eventually?

 



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