Jonah Achumi
An Aesop’s Fable goes like this, ‘An Eagle was soaring through the air when suddenly it heard the whizzing of an Arrow, and felt itself wounded to death. Slowly it fluttered down to the earth, with its life-blood pouring out of it. Looking down upon the Arrow with which it had been pierced, it found that the shaft of the Arrow had been feathered with one of its own plumes. "Alas!" it cried, as it died: Moral: We often give our enemies the very means of our very own destruction. In the name of development and bringing advancement here in our land, we cannot just debunk some of the most important issues that had been and will be bringing our own doom for the coming generations. Opinions by several other concerned citizens in the past have been raised on this issue about the railway connectivity from Dimapur to Zubza. When one first hears it, one cannot but just gloat and cheer that finally a real development in our means of transport and communication is about to happen which will bring easier means of transporting raw materials, goods, products both finished as well as unfinished goods from within and outside. One very serious and dangerous issue this railway will be bringing along with its blessing is the curse of the long impending dangers that will be falling on our people, especially our coming generations. That is the complete deluge of the native population by the illegal immigration happening here at an alarming rate in our land which we are yet to wake up. Who doesn’t want development, of course anytime? But are we ready to bear the price that comes along with it?
With its porous borders, the Dimapur town and its adjacent areas have huge population of immigrants that have swelled up at an alarming rate over the years. Huge areas of Niuland, Chumukedima and Dhansiriphar is now already flooding with their abnormal population growth but we only pretend to be asleep when we are actually not. Here one big question about this Zubza railway link remains to be answered; Will the present ILP Check-post at Chumukedima be shifted to Zubza once this rail link has been introduced? Remember, the present ILP check gate has been shifted twice from the Nagaland Gate to Purana Bazaar and now to its present site at Chumukedima. And now yet again? Will the Article 371(A) be anymore relevant once this railway link has been launched?
In this age of globalization, many may label me as a xenophobic or an alarmist but before accusations are flayed and hurled, make sure that we are ready to face the consequences on the impact of globalization and its negative impacts which has reached our tiny state as we too cannot escape the winds of change blowing throughout every nook and corner of the globe. When we think about the positive aspects of any matter we should be ready to accommodate any negative issue or implications that come along with it.
Many propounders of globalization will argue and stand their ground that globalization has opened doors to the far unreached places and corners which before could not be opened or reached for one or the other reasons. And we cannot ever deny though development has increased, knowledge broadened, trade and development opened up or opportunities rained down due to Globalization but we cannot hide or ignore the other dark side of the Globalization which many small cultures, national identities, languages, communities and race are fast eroding and disappearing. Many small identities, cultures and communities are being swallowed by the bigger ones rapidly. So are we ready for that? Increased mixing of culture has greatly resulted in vast cultural diffusion and erosion of more homogenous cultures.
The homogenization of mix culture due to the globalization process results in the process results in the marginalization of small cultures and communities which ultimately results in their disappearance. Throughout the history all over the world, the majority race subdues the minorities.
We Nagas cannot be termed as a major race in any circumstances. If we are and had been, would we have the need for Article 371(A) to protect our identity, our land and our resources? Take the example of the Jarawa tribe of the Andaman, the Govt. of India under a special act that prohibits outsiders to mingle and mix with the Jarawa tribe so that its language and the traditions of Jarawa race does not becomes extinct.
A small race of people, we Nagas which according to the last census data of 2011, our Nagaland population hardly stands presently at 20 lakh plus. But we all know the truth behind these boosted and inflated figures of our villages, sub-divisions, circles, tribes etc by ourselves only for vote-banks. If we go by the church statistics of respective denominations, there would be some startling revelations of this stark reality of our inflated population figures. Our population in all actuality is sky-rocketed and shot up northwards by ourselves in our own conveniences only to increase our voters list, to get more subsidies, to cash in more central aids and to get countless governmental benefits, which are non deserving to many of us. We add up superficial census numbers to please ourselves and show others of how and what we are not and which in reality is quite contrasting.
Besides, airways, ship ways or road-connectivity, the railways had opened and boosted up the globalization phenomenon in its own way because of its cheap and safer transportation of goods, timely arrival at place and pace if not hampered by unavoidable circumstances, of course both natural or man-made. The railway connectivity’s only real achievement, besides connecting our interior regions with the mainland from the proposed railway connectivity of our hilly areas will be the confirmation and the fulfillment of our worst fears; Our Naga populace being submerged and absorbed in by the huge unabated influx of the outside population will be hard to sustain itself.
The Red Indians say’ the white men came and gave us the Bible and in return they took all our land’. It’s not about wanting any foreigners to come inside our land (I think we all do) but we as a very small race should instead protect and preserve not only our culture but our identity before we open the floodgates of an alien submersion and domination of our own people. With the advent of this railway line, the article 371(A) which protects and safeguards our identity, resources and our land will be a mere paper tiger and not something in spirit. Now why should we knowingly welcome this deluge of our local population which will be happening in a decade seem to be falling on deaf ears and blind eyes is something that is perplexing and an enormous bewilderment for the people who are worried about their future generations.
With a very little or a complete absence of infrastructures and sheer lack of development, keeping swathes of land under forests cover or just for the heck of its ownership status does not serve any purpose to the owner or anyone except for preservation of flora and fauna and only giving an impetus or boost for the environmentalists. Everybody wants to atleast mint some cash having such huge lands because only a bleak scope or an utter barren hope of future industrialization seems to be in stock for them because people need money to survive and to meet their essential needs which are increasing day by day. Sometime back I was conversing about this issue with higher echelons of some bureaucrats and technocrats. All shared same opinion and concern about the future of Nagas with the advent of railways in our hilly regions.
But as usual, we Nagas always end up in talks, talks and talks only. Not much walking the talk follows suit and every worthwhile discussion ends up in nothingness. Railways do channel the growth toward dense city agglomerations and along their arteries and eases traffic too. But in a tiny state like ours, here we are expanding our high-ways into four-lanes, so is there any requirement for the railways in our interior parts and regions?
Damage to the environment also usually happens greatly and in a place like ours where we have weak environmental laws, the environment is sure going to suffer heavily. Though our local Naga employment opportunities and some small scale industries in our land may benefit us to a certain extent but the real big profits all go outside rather than the hosts. Railways may bring increase of trade and commerce but due to easy accessibility and availability of markets, major players and big corporations start investing their huge sums for bigger returns.
As a result the government starts dancing to their tune. In many places and history of railways, it ends up sucking the milk and honey of a land and exploits the rich mineral resources making the land dry up to its bones that end up at profits for only the rich industrialists and investors. That’s what happened to Indians during the British Raj too. The Indian Government in all sincerity should not encourage this venture as the North- East is already a hub of huge influx from outside especially from Bangladesh. If it is serious in erecting the border fencing to protect its frontiers and the NE states from the influx why be determined on bringing a railway in our interior parts?
This railway link surely needs a serious debate involving the civil societies, student bodies, every Naga intellectuals and the church too. We need to give more seriousness about the repercussions on our future generations by the deeds we are doing without any thought at present .While our neighboring states govt. of Meghalaya and Manipur has started taking drastic measures against illegal immigration in their states, our state government is yet to show or make any step lackadaisical attitude and passive insensitivity in this serious issue will only bring decimation and depopulated Naga population in the very near future.
An old Arab proverb says ‘Trust in God but tie your camel.’ A more modern American version says ‘Trust in God but lock your car too’. Our land given by God should be our utmost duty to preserve and hand it over to our generations. I have written in the past about an old Red Indian proverb and I am writing it again now too ‘We do not own this land but we have borrowed it from our children’. Today I see many of our Naga people who starts saying that we should only be praying whenever such important issues are raised up.
Yes, prayers are very necessary and they bring wonders and miracles. But faith without work is hopeless as the Bible clearly says that. We should do our part and God will do the rest as God also helps only those who help themselves. As God has given us wisdom to do our part we ought to do that. Or else we may end ourselves like the Eagle in the fable above by our own deeds.
