In the year 1974, a Hindi movie named ‘Roti, Kapada Aur Makaan’ was released. It was a film directed by the patriotic Manoj Kumar and it had Manoj Kumar himself playing the lead role. Besides, the film also had stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Zeenat Aman and Moushumi Chatterjee. In one sense, it was just another typical Hindi movie with a hero, a heroin, some villains, songs, dances, romance, fights and a story-line designed to entertain, enthrall and captivate the viewers. However, this film was also a little different from the typical movies of the early 1970s because it had a social message to deliver. This film attempted to address the fundamental needs of man, i.e., food, clothing and shelter in the background of the Indian society of that time. In this way, the film tried to strike a chord with the viewers not only as a commercial entertaining movie but also with a message on basic issues that confront millions of Indians across India.
In dealing with these basic and fundamental needs of man, the film also delves into related issues like unemployment, corruption, hoarding and greed. I believe these are issues that confront almost every modern society not only then but even today. When we look at world history, we find that the issues of food, clothing and shelter had been at the root-causes of wars, revolutions, unwarranted conflicts and even annihilations. For instance, the French Revolution erupted because the common people could no longer tolerate the high-handedness, greed and arrogance of those in power and authority. The royalty, the rich and the well-to-do in France were in a way responsible for the French Revolution because they wanted everything for themselves at the cost of the poor men and they did not want to share anything with the common people to such an extent that even basic needs like food, clothing and shelter became a rarity for the common man. In such a scenario, the common men had no other option but to gather courage to undo the established system and hierarchy through violence and bloodshed. Many other societies around the world might not have experienced a revolution of the stature of the Great French Revolution but we can all identify and sympathize with the French Revolution because we all know what it would mean to go without food, clothing and shelter and to be ill-treated and exploited by those in power and authority. Again for those societies where the people are lucky enough to have easy access to food, clothing and shelter, they have to constantly deal with related issues like unemployment, corruption, hoarding, material greed and exploitation. I believe these are all offshoots from the three basic and fundamental needs of man, i.e. food, clothing and shelter.
Man cannot live a decent and worthy life without these basic needs and it is this reality which drives people to accumulate as much as possible of these basic needs and this ultimately leads to social issues like corruption, hoarding, unemployment, exploitation etc. It is human nature to want to be in a commanding and dominating position and those people who are not in dearth of the basic needs normally tries to gain a commanding foothold for themselves in the societal hierarchy by controlling, manipulating and taking advantage of these basic needs of man. This is the story of human society throughout the long history of man and this will continue to be our story…
The Nagas as a people are also no stranger to these issues. It is said that the world has enough for everybody’s need but not for everybody’s greed. Today Nagaland is plagued with issues of unemployment, corruption, exploitation of all sorts and a false sense of pride. And I believe that at the root-causes of these issues are our greed, our laziness and our false sense of pride. This is why hoarding not only of money but of all imaginable things is a big reality even in our society. If some investigating agencies are to bring out the value of black unaccounted money in Nagaland, it would surprise even the gods. The money that comes down from Delhi for various developmental works and welfare programs seldom achieves it purpose because a big portion of the amount is pocketed by those who receive the money on our behalf. Here again, the root cause is greed and selfishness. In the olden times, the Nagas did not worry much about food, clothing and shelter because we live our own lives undisturbed in this part of the world where every Naga had his own land and house to live in and his own paddy-field to cultivate to feed himself and his family. And our forefathers knew how to stretch out their hands and do their own works without expecting others to do their works.
It was only in the 1950s when the whole Naga populace was on the run due to the Indo-Naga conflict that the Nagas experienced in a horrid manner what it meant to go without food, clothing and shelter. In fact, during this time, many perished due to want of these basic needs. God forbid that such a destiny befalls our people again. But by the grace of God, today we Nagas are again in an environment where we don’t have to perish because of want of food, clothing and shelter. Only if we are willing to stretch out our hands to work, we will find that we are surrounded by opportunities not only to feed ourselves but also to make our dreams come true.
As believers of Jesus, we can also find answers and comfort from the gospel when it comes to the issues of food, clothing and shelter. The gospel says that life is much more than food and clothing and that we should not worry about what to eat and wear if we believe in the provision of God. For the God who feeds the birds will also feed us. Food is vital for our survival but eating without working is shameful, disgusting and an insult to the creator himself. Clothe is also vital because we are social beings but our body is much more important than clothes and we should be more concerned about the health and well-being of our body than wearing fancy and fashionable clothes. As is rightly said, “It is not the clothes that make the man but rather it is the man who makes the clothes”. In other words, being a man of character and integrity is much more desirable and worthy than wearing good, costly and high-quality clothes because character and integrity should be our true clothes. As for shelter, Christ said that even wolves and foxes have their resting places but the son of man did not even have a place to lay down his head. What we can draw from this is that our mission or purpose in life should be bigger than our concerns for our shelters (houses). Christ came to save man and to die for mankind and so He was not concerned at all about not having a resting place to lay down his head as long as His divine mission was accomplished. If we look at history, we will be inspired and encouraged to know that great persons like Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln or even A.Z. Phizo never bothered about building a house or mansion for themselves but their contribution is such that their people for whom they worked and spent their whole lives still remember, respect and revere them with great sense of pride and gratitude.
Yes, we all need food, clothing and shelter to survive but our approach and attitude towards these basic needs have to be in tune with what God intended them to be.
And lastly, like I said above, the Nagas today suffer from a false sense of pride. And it may be this false sense of pride that is gradually putting the Naga society and economy on the verge of collapse and extinction. Our false sense of pride is that we are not willing to stretch out our hands to do any manual work and this scenario is inviting a mass influx from outside to come and take full advantage of our home environment. We know and talk about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt in ancient times. And I sometimes wonder if the mass influx of outsiders into our lands from all over India and even beyond is as alarming as the Israelite exodus from Egypt. But the irony may be that many of us are not even aware of the actual magnitude of the influx that is taking place into our lands and the consequences that may befall upon our people, land, society and economy in the near future.
These outsiders come to our land because they know that they can survive here because they know that there are enough works for them here in our lands. And as of now, we Nagas are surviving on the works and services rendered by these outsiders. But a day may not be far when the Nagas and their society become so dependant on the services rendered by outsiders that the outsiders reach a position where they can not only control but also manipulate and blackmail our economy and society and thereby our lives, our land and our children’s future. As of now, these outsiders do not enjoy permanent domicile in our lands but still then they are able to earn enough to not only feed themselves but also send money back to their near and dear ones in their native places. How are they able to do this? The answer is simple….. because they never hesitate or think twice to stretch out their hands to do the jobs which many Nagas consider as filthy and small jobs. Yes, the differences between us and them is that they see opportunities even where we see only filth and dirt.
Yes, all these are happening just because most of us are not at all willing to do our works and we prefer to employ these outsiders to run our shops, to drive our cars, to build our houses, to cut our hairs, to polish our shoes, to baby-sit our children etc. Thus, even though most Nagas today do not have to worry much about food, clothing and shelter, a much more serious and dangerous issue in the form of this mass influx of outsiders confronts us threatening all that we hold dear to us i.e., our people, our children, our land, our society, our economy and our very own lives…….. so the sooner we wake up to this reality the better it will be for all of us…..
