Dr Akum Longchari’s book is a challenge to the dominant narratives where peace building becomes a part of foreign policy
Morung Express News
Dimapur | November 14
Self-determination is understood as a source of conflict in mainstream narrative. But how do we imagine it as a source of peace and de-constructs the traditional Westphalian paradigm?
It is one among many provoking questions and dilemmas, the book, “Self-determination – A Resource for JustPeace” wrestles with and provides new pathways to re-imagination.
The book authored by Dr. Aküm Longchari, the Editor of The Morung Express, and published by Heritage Publishing House was released here today at DABA’s Elim Hall, Dimapur by Dr. Xonzoi (Sanjay) Barbora, Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS).
A challenge to Western model
Giving a prelude to the book, the author said while the world’s most violent armed conflict in the last century revolved around the question of the right to self-determination, most of the time it was clothed in “exclusive western legal language.”
A comprehensive peace building approach to self-determination is missing, Dr. Longchari pointed out, though the events in last century created conditions for 21st century to be the “century of people’s determination” based on shared values, dreams and imagination.
The book challenges the dominant narratives where peace building becomes a part of foreign policy, he added. “If we are to enable the self determination of the people, challenge the dominant narrative where the idea of peace building never incorporated those living in the state of conflict.”
A view precisely highlighted by Prof. John Paul Lederach, Senior Fellow for Humanity United and Professor of International Peacebuilding at the Kroc Institute, University of Notre Dame, in his forward.
He called it a “significant a contribution” to the field of peacebuilding from the soils of “grounded authenticity and hard won experience” and and providing long waited “correctives and contributions” in the wider field of peacebuilding.
"With a compelling indigenous voice, Aküm is urging us to cast away fear and to be more creative, imaginative and audacious when reexamining the global system of nation-states as a key source of conflict” Babu Ayindo, Storyteller, Writer and JustPeace Activist said about the book.
Voices of ‘unrepresented and unheard’
Deliberately avoiding the state-centric or top-down approach to peace process, the author examines the Naga struggle for self-determination through the lens of civil society; and from unrepresented and unheard people. Thus, deliberate choice was made not to interview representatives of the State and Naga nationalist groups (NPGs), Dr Longchari stated.
“The rationale was to primarily elicit the perspective and experiences of a vast section of ordinary people that largely goes unrepresented and unheard of in the theatre of power politics,” Dr. Longchari explained.
Furthermore, according to the author, the purpose of this book is not to indulge in the historical intricacies and chronological events of the Naga struggle. The intention is to explore how the idea of having a shared language of inclusive self-determination can act as a potential resource in unlocking the deadlock to finding Justpeace in the Naga context.
Prof. Lederach maintained that the book’s greatest contributions are the centrality of humanization and the commitment to develop ideas and proposals from the “grounding of lived, indigenous experience” where those ideas are vividly illustrated with practical application in people-to-people engagement and dialogue.
Engaging with truth through encounters
Dr. Lansuangla Tzudir, chief editor and publisher of Heritage Publishing House said, “This is not a random collection of data for the sake of doing research in order to get a PhD but his clarion call to embark on a journey of imagination exploring the dream and vision of self-determination from the perspective of a Naga man.”
“One cannot ignore the commitment of the author to engage carefully with truth and reality as it and to raise the challenge of common humanity while giving space to collective voice and action,” she added.
The idea of a constant journey is resonated through this book, agreed Dr. Barbora and the author engagement with diverse personality give its real meaning and profundity.
But at the same time it questions how representative we are when confronted with question of solidarity and associating together at free-will and also “unmasked” the right to self determination from the cloak of militarization.
The Naga Caravan and the question of the ‘other’
Later in an interactive session, the author along with Dr Tzüdir and Dr. Barbora discussed question and issues reflected in the book and its applicability to Naga context.
How do we evolve the system of peace? How do we deal with contestation of the geo-political reality and the question of ‘others’ in our imagination? What kind of different imagination and political realities that we live with?
To answer these queries, Dr. Barbora referred Seamus Heaney’s Nobel acceptance speech stating that as people coping with a new reality, the biggest challenge is to keep “Justice and reality in a single thought reality.”
The dream of justice cannot be subsumed into the callousness of reality, he said alluding to Heaney.
To me, Dr. Longchari said, Nagas seem to experiencing something called “Exhausted Nationalism” – necessitating new pathway.
The image of a bicycle wheel comes to my mind when we look Naga question, he said. If peace process is the wheel - the centre is the hub connected to outer wheel with spokes.
“We have to question whether the spoke is connected to the hub. It seems the peace process has reduced to the hub. But for the hub to move, it must be connected to the wheel with spokes.”
“These spokes - trust, healing, transparency, respect and so on and so forth - which connect hub to the wheel is slowly disappearing. We may come to a situation when it moves in opposite direction,” he added drawing analogy of recent Colombia peace process.
The panel agreed that a path can be found if we know who is writing the script of our imagination.
For the Naga Caravan to move forward, ideological and philosophical framework has to be clear. Naga should write their own story, a story before the colonial narratives and a story transcending the colonial framework, Dr. Longchari opined.
“We overcome to transcend understanding of cultural other and embrace the idea of shared humanity.”
Joining the debate, Rev. Dr. Wati Aier said that the book is call to get away from idealism, deconstruct and imagined a new reality devoid of the “seduction of tribeness.”
Self-determination is a historical de-facto, but it should not be at the expenses of others, he reiterated.
On his part, Dr. Longchari said that the book is a work in progress.
“Rip it apart, refine it and engage in constructive conversation. My hope is to provoke you to ask question and thinks outside the box and challenge the common narratives and re-imagine the idea of self determination.”
In his concluding remark, Dr. Pangernungba Kechu of Oriental Theological Seminary, who was chair for the day maintained that the book is “groundbreaking” in a sense that it challenges the narratives of peacebuilding of ‘power that be” and confront us to find way of expressing JustPeace through Self-determination.
