Arkotong Longkumer
At a dinner conversation, we had a heady discussion on ecology. One of the guests aptly described the nature of birds. He said, “Birds have an instinct to detect fear.” “That’s why we don’t see any birds in Nagaland,” he prodded laughingly. He quickly pointed out that the Nagas have this attitude to hunt everything in sight, everything that moves is meat. So even the birds adapt to survive: hence, no birds in Nagaland; a simple, logical formula and a simple conclusion.
Let me point to another example. At a recent sermon one of the analogies for fear was this: a certain person died in Jorhat and to carry the body they needed an ambulance. But, apparently, no one wanted to drive into Nagaland. Finally, they coaxed one seemingly innocent driver to drive into Nagaland. The Assamese officials, recognizing the ambulance lights, gave them a green light, hassle free. Once the ambulance entered Nagaland, at the dead of night, some police officials stopped the ambulance and asked everyone to get out. With an air of superiority (since the driver was Assamese) they indulged in their mighty act of questioning: “someone died?” Duh!! One just wonders if ignorance or silliness wreaks havoc in these well fermented minds. Or are we just prying and making play of everything? As they were driving back, the Assamese driver quickly said, “When I enter Nagaland, my body becomes heavy and distraught, but as I cross the Nagaland gate, my body heaves a sigh of relief.” Whew!
This apparently said with an air of indignation (for an Assamese Muslim person to pass that comment onto our so called Naga Christian state, should make us question our righteousness). Is righteousness divorced from the New Commandment of “Love God, and your Neighbour”?
Are we really barbarous? Does meaty aggression give way to a rule of life: “Violence; More Violence” (blink, blink). Sociologists will have a field day constructing a new paradigm “Violence, a new metaphor in everyday life”; Freudians will finally say “see, I told you, humans are ruled by the basic instinct for aggression”; while Ethicists will reinvent the law of morality, “there is no morality; violence is the new standard.” Or even the bards will laud our indifference to compassion; we will give Physicists deeper meaning into the “chaos theory”; or for that matter Religionists will finally understand why rituals are violent. Nagas will become field study specimens. We will be dissected, pruned, cleaned, hung out to dry—and out of our own volition we will plan our demise.
Are we just chunks of meat eating malevolent muscle? Will we be the first race to debunk the theory of the survival of the fittest (ours is more like, even the fittest don’t survive)?
Oxford Dictionary should add new meaningful words to their post-colonial array of language. “Kabo” (said with oomph!!) and “Markabo” must be definite clinchers. Even the etymology of the word has similar roots: notice the similar verb, “Kabo.”
Ironically we seem to hover around these two words most of the time. Even the birds of appetite do not tread, fearful of what dish will be concocted in their honor—and as for the second verb, ask any rickshaw driver or outsider who drives or breathes the air in Nagaland. If eating is the common verb in both the terms, then our loosely styled “Kachamese” (as my Grandmother refers to Nagamese) is apt: eating and violence is intertwined (a fascinating study for the anthropologist). For this, ask any Naga.
I think Nagas are good examples at debunking theories: we debunk theories not because they are junk, but because they are meaningful. And I suspect that we have an innate desire to be unconventional; hence, common phrases like “This is Nagaland, nothing works here—or “Hau, Nagalandya palaka jaaaaa!” (in the expressive colloquial Ao) plague our mindset. But not to be saddened: we have seen a turn in our fortunes. Slowly, we are seeing youngsters taking the helm and turning unconventionality into conventionality: we are realizing that some theories are worth proving—and that not all theories are worth debunking!
Let us appreciate life in all its intricacies. Let us know that we must honour the world through our actions, whether in work, play, prayer, study and survival; let us rise from the ashes (and not our meat burning ashes) of indifference and realise that we can be barbarous, Barbarous in Beauty!! And for god sakes please remember the birds !!!!!!
