Kaka.D.Iralu
What would have become the fate of countries like Poland, Czechoslovakia, France, Norway, etc, if they had quietly surrendered to Germany’s invasion of their lands in 1939 and 1940? Where would England be today if the British had not fought back against the German Blitzkreig that overran all of Europe and even threatened Britain’s sovereignty and independence in 1940? The answer would have been a simple German Nazi rule of the whole of Europe from 1939 onwards.
In their hour of attack, though initially overwhelmed, all these countries fought back for six years until by the end of 1945, all the Axis powers were defeated and the sovereign democracies of Europe were again restored. In this bitter war of defending their own histories, cultures and democracies, every young man and woman of Europe, irrespective of their various professions, collectively fought back until their own independence and sovereignties were saved. This was not a fight where their educated class fled to other countries and returned only when their soldiers had fought and won the victories for them. Far from it, doctors, engineers, architects, scholars and scientists all fought shoulder to shoulder with peasants and farmers in bloody battlefields not only in Europe but all over the world in order to destroy the evil intentions of the leaders of the Axis alliance. Had they not fought back against this invasion, Nazism and Fascism would have ruled Europe and even parts of Asia, Africa and the Americas. Today there is a vibrant Europe playing its vital role in international politics because yesterday they fought back and did not surrender.
Now, coming to our own context, despite our declared independence on 14th August 1947, when massive Indian troops invaded our country in 1954 - 1955, where did our educated Nagas disappear when our villagers and farmers rose up to defend our sovereignty and our independence? Where were these people when our villages were razed to the ground and our womenfolk and children were hiding in the jungles dying from starvation and disease? With the exception of a few patriotic and partially educated Nagas, all the rest of our educated people stayed back in our towns, indifferent to the plight of our political future or even worse, actively participating with the occupational forces in our land. They simply surrendered their rights without a fight and then threw in all their efforts into building the enemy’s political infrastructure over our lands and our people.
After the invasion, what did our pathetic villagers do when they came back from their jungles and were herded into concentration camps? Despite their broken lives and their blinding tears, they rebuild our villages, re-cultivated their fields and went on supplying rations for those of our soldiers who have continued to wage a guerilla war up to date. But where were our educated and intellectual Nagas throughout this invasion of our lands and the protracted conflict in our lands that has devastated our polity, our economy and our political future? Well, they simply went on building their own careers and their own wealth without any regard or concern for the common good of the nation to which they also belonged. In the end, many retired as high Indian government officials only to close the chapters of their lives with a stint in Nagaland state politics ending up as MLAs, Ministers and even Governors.
When two generations of educated Nagas have betrayed their history and their country like this, can we Nagas (or any outsiders) expect a vibrant Nagaland to be in existence today - a Nagaland throbbing with economic prosperity, peace and social harmony? Only the fool and the dreamer can expect such an utopia in Nagaland when in the first place our educated Nagas had sacrificed almost nothing for the freedom and prosperity of our nation and our land. We should also not be too surprised to see lawlessness and chaos reigning in our lands today because these educated Nagas have given their life’s services to the foreign occupational government instead of our own government.
Now, whether one likes it or not, it is a universal fact of life that we always reap what we have sown. This business of sowing the right seeds in order to reap the right harvest is not a game of life that can be played as a pleasant pastime. In fact, one cannot sow seeds of irresponsibility and expect a harvest of peace, prosperity and social harmony to dawn in one’s land. Without sacrifices of courage, sweat and toil, there cannot be harvests of prosperity and tranquility. For example, a farmer cannot expect to harvest a bounty of crops without first going to his fields to sow the seeds and weed the plants until harvest time comes. Now, sowing of seeds and weeding of plants is not at all a pleasant pastime. In fact, it is back breaking work involving sweat and toil. But however unpleasant these activities may be, these activities are the absolute pre-requisite for reaping a bountiful crop.
This same economic principle applies to other areas of our lives whether it is in the moral dimension or the social and political dimensions. In the political field, without first doing the right moral and political things we cannot expect to harvest a rich return of political peace and harmony in our society. Now, doing the right moral and political thing involves both physical as well as mental sacrifices. In the case of Europe, it was six years of physical sacrifices that secured back Europe’s political and economic prosperity of today. Without sacrifices like this we cannot expect political freedom, social harmony or economic prosperity in our lands. To sum it up, discharging human moral, political or economic responsibilities is not at all a pleasant activity. However if we fail to discharge these responsibilities, we end up with very unpleasant consequences. Here I want to emphasize the word WE because the social and political problems that we are facing in our society today is not somebody else’s problem but OUR own problem.
Now a problem can never be solved by ignoring it or running away from it. In fact, if we try to ignore a problem or run away from it, the problem does not automatically solve itself but only gets multiplied. In our Naga political context too, our problem is not getting solved on its own accord over the years. It is in fact getting worse and worse.
Yesterday the problem was an invasion issue. And that issue still remains to be tackled and settled. But because we educated people tried to ignore and run away from that problem, today that first problem has multiplied into another additional problem called fratricidal killing among ourselves. This is how problems multiply when we try to ignore them or try to run away from them. These two problems could still further multiply into another three problems called The Southern Nagaland problem, The Western Nagaland problem and The Eastern Nagaland problem. As indications show today, instead of a united free and independent Nagaland, we might instead disintegrate into a broken and fragmented Nagaland at war with itself.
Is this what our half a century struggle is all about?
Like any other nations on earth we Nagas also have social, religious and economic problems. However let us remember that the primary problem in Nagaland is a political problem. Let us also remember that all these other problems like economy, religion, social, etc, has its existence under a political umbrella of any modern nation state in the world. When the political umbrella is leaking, it affects all these other areas of our lives because they all function (or dysfunction) under a political umbrella.
As just stated we have religious problems among ourselves. But we must remember that we do not have a national religious problem. After all, that is to say no Nagas are persecuting or are killing fellow Nagas over religious issues. Our religious problems are but personal problems and not national problems. In the economic dimension too, we also have economic problems like disparities between the rich and the poor with the rich getting richer while the economic condition of the poor is becoming pathetic. However, we are not having riots in Nagaland because of starvation and poverty. In fact, if we are not lazy we have many economic opportunities where we can become even richer than our bureaucrats and ministers. Our economic problems like our religious problems are therefore again mostly personal problems and not national problems.
Therefore in the light of all these facts, let every Naga, especially the educated ones, wake up to this political problem that has killed over two hundred thousand Naga lives and has also devastated our economy and polity. Let us also wake up to the fact that fratricidal killings have already taken a toll of more than 2500 Naga lives. This fratricidal killing is today the greatest threat to Naga society. As such, we must tackle this problem first, before trying to tackle the political invasion issue. In this connection the Naga public must rise up en-mass and confront our national leaders with ultimatums rather than bowing down to their nefarious activities.
In conclusion, let us remember that even if we have committed political crimes of indifference and irresponsibility yesterday, it is never too late to rectify it today. If we do act today, we can still have a secure tomorrow in the future. However if we refuse to act today, our problem will not magically disappear but go on multiplying until we are all rendered futureless. Let us know this very clearly that without our active commitment and involvement, no political miracle is going to fall down from heaven or come sailing from across the seas. Fellow Nagas, the time has come for us to ACT, not WATCH. Surely, this is not the time for us to be pursuing our own small dreams and ambitions. It is rather the time to solve our common political problem so that we can pursue those dreams and ambitions under an atmosphere of peace and security. While living under political insecurity as in the present situation, how can we go on building mansions and palaces that can later come crashing down on our heads? First, under a politically stable umbrella, let us secure the land on which to build our mansions. Then, and only then will our mansions stand.
