What makes a people docile? Perhaps that example can best be reflected through the Nagas. Where, How, What happened? This is a question I have pondered over again and again. I have studied from different angles- culture, history, tribal prejudice or customs and including the Naga freedom struggle. Did the Nagas deserve a fair trial? Did we commit a mistake asking to be left alone, to be free to choose what we want to be, be free to be ourselves?
These ‘savages’, these wild hill people of the most primitive form knew more about freedom and pride of self than the whole sub-continent of India, one of the oldest civilizations of the world. It was the strongest message that the Nagas ever sent to the world- the colonized nations, the colonials or Britain. “Leave us alone”, nothing more than that. Should I be proud of that? Was some part of my dignity salvaged because of their actions? That I can stand proudly today and say I am indeed a Naga. These insignificant Naga hills inhabited by ‘wild savages’ defied one of the greatest empires of the 20th century and the Indian sub-continent. I do not need more than that, I do not need to justify Phizo, or that my tribe was right, or hate the Semas for that matter. At the core of it, I don’t know if you see –that was the beauty of our sacrifice, the undenying strength that we portrayed to a bully and to the world.
The other day on an online internet discussion when we were talking about the Plebiscite of May 16, 1951 one member said the Plebiscite was a farce because only 6000 people gathered to sign which was less than 20% of the population, and that Tuensang district was not ‘part of the deal’. I knew the details so I corrected that a countrywide (Nagaland) voluntary plebiscite was carried out previously for six months and at its inaugural function about six thousand people had attended. I also gave the official account about the Tuensang side of the story. However he was not satisfied and deigned not to believe the facts given. I am not proposing that we should rat out this person, rather, there are many like him nowadays. Also I’m not too keen on giving a history lecture because it has already been said enough. But I’ll tell you a different story, many Naga people do not know their own history nowadays. It is not simply that they are willing to absorb what the Indian government provides, but they are unwilling to believe from their own people. Here, I want to know what happened.
Decadence
I can understand, I can even empathize with someone for ‘switching allegiance’. Yet I am perplexed what exactly we will become when we forget our own history intentionally. Will no one try to find out our own story, will no one try to right the wrongs? Have we, the generation of today become so indifferent that we couldn’t care less?
Decadence is all too familiar in Naga society nowadays. We teach our children decadence, we teach each other decadence. There is no guilt in throwing the biggest wedding of the year (someone’s going to conquer you next year) for your daughter/son. There is no guilt in owning a big mansion financed by a government’s corruption and indifference. Nor is there guilt in driving, living, breathing, reveling in wealth, decadence that is not actually earned. And the more important point here is not you have ‘betrayed’ your people, the cause and the nation. Or that you sold away the cause. But rather it’s asking, ‘what have you taught your children?’ What future are you leaving behind for them? Do you carry any guilt?
Nagas are asking for peace, peace, peace. This peace is underlined somewhere with a comfortable life, bubbled-up calm, under a big slogan that Nagas are progressing and indifference. It is the indifference that worries me. It is about our future, as much as it is about our present. It is about what our next step would be. I understand we want peace, I want peace as well but why do we go to the other extreme? Learning Hindi, wearing a salwar kameez, knowing how to Namaste does not make me Indian: Gujarati, Rajputani, Bihari, Tamilian, Muslim, Jat as it is to come under the pan-Indian nation that the British created. Do we realize that?
How are the Nagas doing? They have no identity. They would embrace anything: Indian, Chinese, American, Indonesian, South Korean etc. etc. So it is perhaps pointless to try to fight off ‘the Korean influence’ when what is wrong is with us. Is it Christianity’s fault? Is it because we have not indigenized the religion? Is it because we are far too traumatized now, we have grown indifference? Who will tell our tales, who will be Nagas after us?
The rising class-society in Nagaland
Anthropologists, both British and others, exclaimed over how we did not practice any form of class system among us, unlike the Indians they had come across. In fact, even when human slaves were taken into the village, they were not ill-treated and could intermarry. Some of us practiced a chieftain form of leadership but besides the Angh, his whole clan were like any ordinary citizen of the village partaking in fieldwork, etc. We have not practiced class-system in our customs and culture. Is this an Indian influence? Is this because of education? Or because of Christianity even? Where has this class-system developed from? I need to ask some straight questions because I am wondering as much as you are.
It is also needless to say, undeniable to refute that we have imbibed many attributes from outside. Parts that are not us, also parts that are negative. Are we insecure about ourselves? When I observe this class system in society today where I am sized up by the clothes I wear, car I drive, house I have and friends I keep I see very little ‘Naga’ in them. Will Naga diminish into a class society where your existence is about material possession, boasting, envy and indulgence?
Summing up
These bunch of Nagas that we around us today are certainly different than our forefathers. It isn’t because we live in ‘modern times’ or because we’ve come out from the darkness now. We’ve lost something, something that sustained us in the darkness of the jungles. We’ve embraced India without preserving our identity. We’ve embraced Korean, American, Pop, boy-band culture without preserving/appreciating our own culture. We justify our wrongs, we justify our positions so we can seep deeper and deeper into indifference. We have become indifferent.
When the rest of the North-east India is rising up and voicing out against the tyranny of India Nagaland is sublimely quiet. That beam of light which was the voice of the North-east –its rejected people of the 20th century ignored by both Britain and India, that light is flickering in the distance. What happened? I did not think India would get at the core of us –our identity. Money can buy most things, I opine, but not certain things in life which have no value. I guess I will stand corrected here.
