Witoubou Newmai
Upholding the vision and aspiration of the Club's founders is a good stepping stone
The founders of the Naga Club were, indeed, votaries of justice. And it is heartening to learn that the Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) is preparing to commemorate the centenary of the “epoch-making” event—the formation of the Naga Club.
Announcing its preparation for the commemoration, the NSF succinctly put it that “the coming together of our elders to form the Naga Club was epoch-making for the Nagas to realization of identity and to social and political consciousness.”
In its press note the NSF said that the Naga people should “celebrate the glorious legacy and take time to retrospect and introspect and thus find inspirations to continue our journey with renewed vigor towards finding our rightful place in the world.”
100 years ago Naga labourers/porters who were part of the Labour Corps during World War I, recognizing the significance of nations, formed the Naga Club in 1918.
In celebrating the Naga Club centenary, this generation of the Naga society needs to take a bow and retrospect on the 100-year track of the Naga journey and find out whether the vision and aspiration of the Naga Club founders have been upheld or slowly fading away.
Most importantly, it is pertinent to retrospect on how the responses of the Naga society to various circumstances along these 100 years have spawned numerous power centres driven by vested interests, thereby further assaulting the foothold of ‘Naga political consciousness.’
100 years ago, the consciousness of the sparse Naga men in foreign lands became sharpened resulting in laying of the foundation for a new national movement by way of forming a club.
In commemoration of the Naga Club formation, the Nagas need to admit their inability to withstand the onslaught of ‘material culture’ and weakness for ‘convenience and comfort’ at the cost of the Naga national principle and morality. The trend is fast steering the Naga course elsewhere. The Nagas also need to admit that the everyday business of vested interest, hypocrisy and tribalism is fast draining out our energies and resources.
Such state of affairs is ripe for rise of demagogues - either with rationalistic or tribalistic aspiration - within the Naga society. The script of alleged victimhood – genuine or otherwise - has become one of the greatest challenges to the Nagas’ campaign for collective journey. We will be only accepting the macabre trend unless we seriously raise and address the same collectively.
To what extent the present Naga generation can make progress toward the understanding and realizing of the vision and aspiration of the Naga Club founders? Upholding the vision and aspiration of the Naga Club founders is a good stepping stone.
