Atongla Rothrong
“Burying much of the past, let us step out into the future, with new vistas unfolding and horizons cracking. The future and our world have much to offer in the way or richness of life and experience”
Why do we do it all the time? True, many people do it, but we Indians/Nagas are past masters at this- the art of glorifying the past and dragging it into the present! How many times, indeed, we say sanctimoniously, “In the good old days” or “when we were young, we did this and not that” or “what happened to today’s youth? We were so good when we were young”.
We speak of the old times as if they had been some Utopia of happiness, peace and bonhomie. We wax eloquent on our ancient traditions, our rich culture and the beliefs and the rules which our ancestors in their wisdom laid down for us. We wallow in our delusory past, defying it and coloring it with a golden hue.
In a sense, we think it is sinful to change or do something different “because our elders and ancients did it some other way”…..and they must be respected, obeyed and emulated.
Is it not this, unthinking dependence on our past, which is making our country so slow to progress? In many ways we are becoming retrograde. We are pushing ourselves into the past instead of marching into the future. We are going backward and not forward…
Many of our cultural Gurus and political leaders have taken on the self-appointed roles of “protectors of our past traditions and ancient culture.” “We cannot do this as it goes against our ancient traditions.” Thus, progress is stalked at one stroke, and we are sucked back into the past.
Let us take a moment, however, and think about the phenomenon. Will our constantly living in the past help us to move forward? Not much, surely. We cannot, definitely, let the past and its beliefs and ideas shackle us to such an extend that we do not move forward, or that when we do move; we do it with trepidation and misgiving.
Change is important, and is taking place all around us. The only thing we can be sure of in life, says a philosopher, is change! And it is important too. To effect change, however, we have to, to certain extend, let go of the past, and grab the new future.
The fact of the matter is that most of what we believe to be true of the bygone days is always not true. We tend to remember the good aspects and ignore the bad ones. And believe me; the latter is far, far more than the first. Of course, there is no denying the fact that we must not forget the old days and the lessons we learnt then. Indeed as is often said, if we forget history, we are liable to commit mistakes. We have to remember our past, but with prudence and a sense of honesty.
