K Filip Sumi
Will the Nagas ever learn the art of forgiveness? In today’s scenario almost all of us are revengeful. We are satisfied with being revengeful and do so to quench this evil thirst. If one says that one has forgiven his inflictor, we cannot fully trust him as he behaves like a saint and tries to avenge in such a way that his inflictor will not know that his victim has avenged him.
With such attitudes, will Nagas move forward with peace and harmony? “To err is human, to forgive divine” and without forgiveness we’ll go on making much more mistakes which we Nagas haven’t imagined.
Are Nagas no more what Nagas were? There were times when Nagas lived peacefully and harmoniously through the act of forgiving and forgetting. Those were the times Nagas lived in perfect harmony which we’re searching for now. But with passage of time we Nagas have forgotten what our forefathers practiced. Instead we have become self-centered, greediness and selfishness has overtaken us. Everyone has become an egoist. In short, our society has become a narcissistic society. How can such a society move ahead of others? And we are here very easily talking about development, improvement, civilization and of competing with others and not forgetting the talk of Integration. Fellow nags it’s almost time for us to realize that we are eating up our own words of development, civilization, etc.
Much have been said, talked and done to bring about integration. But why are our move for integration have not yielded satisfactory result? A car missing a wheel or more cannot move ahead. So do we at least realize that some of our wheels are missing? Don’t we believe in cooperation and unity?
We Nagas know that there is victory in unity and failure in division. Knowing this fact can we bear further to live in division and rush for the big failure? Our society witnessed fratricidal killings with the division among ourselves and in this process we have killed many of our own brothers and sisters. I wonder if the GoI guaranteed us our wants if we kill each other. And even if they do so none of us will know that they have granted us our wishes because by then we would have killed each other. Maybe the division among ourselves is a good reason for the GoI to keep us divided by not answering to our call for Integration.
Dear Nagas, why must we continue killing each other if our goal is to achieve peace? Can peace prevail where there is continuous killing? If fratricide is the key to freedom from the clasp of others, why are we still under the grip?
This writing is to call upon our leaders in every field, in particular and Nagas in general to create a room in the heart to forgive and forget the same so that we may join in unity and move ahead to reach our destination. If everyone contributes his best on his part towards peace, then nothing can stop us to achieve our goal.
As far as my knowledge derived from the local dailies, about the Human Act of forgiveness by Honito Sumi, father of late Akato Achumi goes; it is a perfect example, the perfect road to our goal. It takes a bit of an effort to forgive the one who is responsible for the death of one’s son. Brethrens, let us all try to forgive and forget and unite. And if every Naga could find in his heart to do so then we could begin the countdown for peaceful times ahead.
