Al Ngullie
What the Nagas need today is not so much a singular initiative but a reinforced, practical perspective towards confronting the problem of illegal immigrants’ in Nagaland.
Mokokchung district must now appear more like Mokokchung district. The Ao Kaketshir Mundang (Ao Students’ Conference) and the district’s administration has embarked upon an initiative so reflective of the urgency that the indigenous peoples must now lay total claim to what is rightfully own. The AKM has taken up to a task, a disease so malignant yet so overlooked thanks to fickle exigencies which are determined by prevalent socio-economic realities.
Under a vision, “Survival 2007,” a theme so pregnant with the Nagas’ socio-political reality, what assignment the AKM has taken upon itself is highly exemplary. This task is not so much a social initiative as it is to redefine the very concept of indigenous ownership. The AKM must be in cognizance of the myriad challenges ahead. Having made a virtual declaration for ownership and to confront the very disease that has gnawed into the local economy, and bred highly poisonous repercussions in the Naga society, let the AKM find accomplishment in its notable endeavor.
Comparatively, I am reminded of Kohima and Wokha district of the last two decades. The very mention of ‘illegal immigrants’ itself was as foreign as any deviation could be. It remains established that Kohima, Mokokchung and Wokha were the only fast emerging townships circa 1980s. Dimapur even then was a cosmopolitan township owing to its serving as the economic gateway into Nagaland – this reality meant Dimapur was a point of convergence for almost every NE prospector seeking a conduit to build a decent future. Kiphire, Peren and Longleng were yet to be birthed. Mon of the 80s was still nascent in its entirety and still struggling immensely with her more progressive neighbors. Phek and Zunheboto were more a convenient outposts rather than proper townships in the context of infrastructure and reach.
Those days, small groups of Bihari coolies huddled in wait to cater to a citizen’s domestic bidding. If childhood observations, and early travels to Kohima, Mokokchung and Wokha are anything, it suffices to say the only non-Naga faces, and a tiny section of them, were Marwari, Bihari and Thakhur businessmen. This is not to say no Muslim population was there, but they were bona fide Indian citizens with at least legal sanction to be in Nagaland. An insignificant Nepali and Bhutanese population completed the business community. Other than these peoples, “Bangladeshi” was a word as alien as “illegal immigrants” was. A decade down the years, today we have virtually hundred thousands of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. Encouraged by these peoples’ easy access to all that can be had, prospectors from Nepal, Bhutan and where-not today have now joined the terrifying population.
In all intend, I am given to understand that the problem of influx of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh surged prominently to the forefront of the then nascent Naga minds only from the mid 1990s. This is not to say the problem had no existence prior to the mid-decade. But it is a fact that only with the advent of urban education and welfare-centric initiatives that national politics impacted, modern Naga minds slowly came to birth to challenge unjustified variance in the society. In all confidence, it may be opined that the 1980s is the point of reference that progressive minds actually began to be redefined, refined and prepared to face the threat of illegal immigrants.
From my personal viewpoint, it may be safely opined that only three socio-economic issues gained prominence in the last two decades: government service, substance-abuse and the question of illegal immigrants. Sadly, leaders of the yesteryears, while endowed with a mind, could do little owing to constraints involved in leading a then nascent nation. The dynamics could not have been easier considering that the Naga movement for self-determination ascended to a bloody ‘low’ during the middle 1980s.
In the midst of the factional bloodbath, the issue of illegal immigrants seems nothing lesser than just another appendage that emergent economies have to tolerate. Today, we have a war on our hands, if not less.
The Naga civil society remains tepid to the problem – at best vociferous only in political affairs, and at worst non-committal on welfare. The Naga apex organizations’ struggle against the malady was limited only to loud statements and an even fewer action plan, leave alone implementation of the same, if at all. The NSF at one time had made a somewhat assertive stand around 1996-98 but was only in reaction to a number of crimes committed by the illegal immigrants during the period. Readers will recall a flurry of murders, rape incidents and a good number of thefts committed by “outsiders” during these three years. While civil society reacted, their reaction failed to acknowledge the larger picture – the bleak reality of an impending doom of Naga ownership by illegal immigrants.
What the Naga people should acknowledge today, I observe, is that the issue should not be viewed in terms of ‘invasion’ but in terms of ownership. The media’s perspective is this: illegal immigrants are a matter of either legitimacy or illegality. The state government’s viewpoint? For the government, it is a matter of economic administration where constitutional sanctions are the only weapons to tackle the influx.
And what thought has civil society for the problem? I believe Naga civil society still remains in the mind that illegal immigrants are controlling local economy. The truth is, (illegal) non-Nagas are not only controlling the subject-that-be – they are already in the process of owning what is the Nagas’ own. This perspective can be supported by the fact that Naga civil society rise to highlight the influx of illegal immigrants only when a crime is committed by one such. It is simple logic, I believe. Therefore, it is about time the people view the problem in the context of ownership, not invasion.
In all honesty, I feel a sense of easy shame that Naga civil society continues to exist complacent in an own sense of (false) security. If I may say, I am yet to recall any worthwhile, strong, decisive pronouncement of the Naga Hoho and yes, the state government on the issue. Tribal Hohos continue to exist within their respective comfort zones of check-and-redress but never address. The very fact that students’ organizations seem to be the only entities regularly highlighting the issue tells a loud story – that the thinking entities are the only ones making a stand. This is a positive illustration of a measured, refined action. On the regrettable side, the entities expected to provide social leadership, the elders, remain obsessed only with political decisions. No wonder that even youths today are convinced that only the NSF can address the issue. This is a regrettable and wrong perception and is to be blamed on our own selves.
Nagaland is faced with a colossal problem – a task so imposing that only a concerted, sustained and determined effort of the state government and civil society can make a dent.
Today we have the minds and the capacity to decidedly challenge and interpret the mind into action. Perhaps a tad late, but better late than never; but a word of caution: There must be no more, no longer delay to confronting the disease.
We cannot afford to be complacent and let efforts such as the AKM’s to fizzle out half-way, like civil society’s initiatives of the yesteryears have been. Nagas must wake to the reality of illegal immigrants; the slumber must be no longer. The truth is we are slowly already entering into a terrifying night of gradual subjugation…unless, of course the other Naga entities decide to join the fight.
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