Aheli Moitra
An activist-educator in North America recently remarked that there are forty thousand statues of MK Gandhi in India and only two courses that teach his methods. While the precise figures of this claim could not be ascertained, it can be said with confidence that we know fairly little about how Gandhi designed civil resistance in a way that hacked at the roots of British colonialism in India. Through school, students are exposed more to chronology of historic events than the action plan of a nonviolent civil resistance movement. It left us with Gandhian nostalgia but without the skills to organize along those lines when a situation of injustice unfurled.
Similar is true in the Naga areas. The Naga armed struggle did much tactical work to eventually bring the Government of India to the negotiating table. Few states in the world are engaged with indigenous peoples in a dialogue of equals. Some of the methods of the movement are known, some unknown.
There were also a host of unarmed groups that played critical roles in highlighting issues of concern. On behalf of the Naga people, they gave voice to issues of violence, human rights abuse, life in a militarized atmosphere, ownership over land and resources, rights of peoples, and so on.
Precious little is known, at least to the common people, about the extent of these organizations’ contributions as well as their methods. What kind of organization dealt with what kind of issue? Did they collaborate? How did they design a campaign? How did they organize? How did they mobilize? Were the campaigns successful? What were the lessons learnt from campaigns and movements? Can we apply lessons learnt to future campaigns?
Movements are not easy to build. They require persistence, innovative strategizing and the willingness to maneuver around strategies when required. They require strong leadership that is courageous, visionary, analytical, active, decisive and inspiring. They also require the building of future leaders.
This is hard to do unless more young people are able to learn about the methods of organizing and mobilizing. With issues becoming more complex, education institutions in the Naga areas would do well to bring in expertise from existing movements and design a curriculum that facilitates learning from these rich local resources. With the help of activists, pedagogy can be designed in a way that promotes indigenous learning methods.
The Naga movement was intuitive in the way it tapped into the grassroots and spiraled upwards. It not only enriched itself but also the Naga society in its wake, drawing wisdom from one another. In its utopian form, it created a perennial dialogue between people and political process. Education institutions in the Naga areas have the incredible opportunity to learn from this and build empowered students in any and every field.
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