The Indigenous Peoples worldwide have been freely living for centuries in their ancestral domain; roaming the jungles, mountains and valleys. Today, they face the most unprecedented threat and challenge in their lives - of survival and dignity – of its bio-cultural diversity and traditional institutions; most importantly, their eco-centric and communal way of life. They bear the brunt of capitalist policies and hegemonic practices of the State, keeping them preoccupied with doles, handouts and scraps (economic packages, greater autonomy, etc.) A tipping point has reached for the indigenous people’s movements to raise the pitch and turn the tide to reclaim what rightfully is theirs and for the integrity of planet earth.
To understand; and more crucially, ground The Essence of Ultimate Leadership and Service into “a way of life”; a paradigm shift (back to our roots) is required in the way we look at the world, its various forms and symbols, fully conscious of the past, present and future of the Nagas.
Leadership of the kind indigenous peoples worldwide show by example is the one that needs to be revisited, cherished and upheld. It is the leadership that encompasses the emerging politics and political economy with a global perspective - a collective leadership founded on sound and genuine democratic principles.
Today we are plagued by the bigger than life images of icons, crafted and cleverly foisted on us as the ones who will deliver us. In the absence of a collective leadership and democratic principles, these icons turn demonic against the people. Watch the Arab spring, the occupy Wall Street, the uprising in Greece…. upsurges sweeping across the world, against the system that exploits us and the mother earth. It is we, the people, who should rise and democratically assert our will for a future that is peaceful and prosperous. This is a collective endeavor. It is the people who usher in the genuine change. The ultimate leader is a humble enabler of people in their path towards progress.
And that to me is “the true essence of ultimate leadership and service”.
Why is this form of leadership so important and increasingly relevant? Not just in our region but worldwide? India as we know is no more the same. Our armed cadres in the Northeast continue to fight the India of the past which has long since transformed. But our resistance is still premised on everything that embodies India of the past. We are still in relative darkness, unconscious of the new and incarnated India. The Look East policy and its various facets are part of the new India. Reactions to the Look East policy, etc., in newspapers and elsewhere, show ignorance of the implications on one hand and its disastrous consequences on the other. We might think that we do have the choice to take advantage of the changing contexts and realities or be a part of the exploitation. But, have we analysed thoroughly and understood the bigger picture? Are the choices we make founded on solid ground?
Perhaps, the stealth with which such policies and practices creep into our backyard, strike at the very foundation of our traditional institutions, our collective conscience. Realizing this, in the case of mega dams, for instance, stiff resistance has made some of these projects in the Northeast unviable and challenging to pursue. Globalisation, per se, is not what one is up against. The Washington Consensus model of globalisation is. Many critics of trade liberalization, such as Noam Chomsky, Susan George, and Naomi Klein, see the Washington Consensus as a way to open the labor market of “underdeveloped” economies to exploitation by companies from “more developed” economies. The prescribed reductions in tariffs and other trade barriers allow the free movement of goods across borders according to market forces, but labor is not permitted to move freely due to tough visa laws.
What is our position on this? Do we subscribe to the political economy of capitalism or that of the communal way of life of the indigenous peoples? To have an informed position, we need to understand the new India, the new enemy which is far more dangerous. It is now asking for everything we have, our resources – land, water, rivers, forests, minerals and commons. Not that the old India was any better, though, but our approaches and strategies need to realign to be relevant and purposeful to the changing contexts and realities.
India today means Corporate-Government nexus. Without sorting out the colonial remnants and its new incarnation – the LPG (Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation), we cannot take a firm position.
The uranium conflicts in Meghalaya, oil and dams conflicts all over the Northeast and elsewhere are getting more pronounced and bloodier. What does globalisation and Look East Policy mean? What are the manifestations on the ground? Efforts are in full swing to change the policies and institutions that govern the Northeast. The International Financial Institutions like the World Bank, IMF, ADB, etc., are part of the nexus to break the old institutions. They are working overtime to restructure and reconfigure the traditional institutions and the earlier structures of governance. They attempt to manufacture our consent.
This is true of the whole of India and the Northeast but the focus now is to make the region market friendly. Therefore, projects are coming up in various parts of Northeast. For the mega hydel projects, politicians are bought over or co-opted, traditional institutions are tricked or bypassed to push through projects.
How do we resist these forces dismantling the traditional institutions? All roads leading to the Northeast come through the Ministry of DONER. The Ministry is allowing or facilitating free movement of capital, market, multinational companies. So that, the International Financial Institutions (Banks) can fiddle around with the traditional institutions and systems. An example is the World Bank helping set up a Central Agency called the North Eastern Water Authority. This is being resisted by various groups now. Unlike dams, uranium and similar projects which can be seen and therefore resisted, these (destroying the traditional institutional institutions) are the less visible manifestations of globalisation, which are easier to infiltrate. Because, it is not easy to see the subtle and irrevocable changes happening in them.
Students’ community and leaders need to look at this closely and thwart any attempts that are pro-capitalist (of the Washington Consensus model), anti-poor and anti indigenous people’s world view, before the carpet under our feet get pulled away.
A big concern today is that India is cozying up to South East Asian countries with Free Trade Agreements. Our cultures may be closer to the South East Asian nationalities, but opening up trade is a totally different story. Already, a treaty has been signed with ASEAN. A Trans-Asian Highway and Railways are underway passing through most of Northeast. They pass through Nagaland and Manipur and other parts of the Northeast and Bangladesh. They have named the National Highway 39 and 53 as The Asian Highway 1 and 2 behind our backs. One of the highways and railways come from China and the other from Bangkok, passing through Kohima, Dimapur, Mizoram, Assam, Shillong, Silchar, Dhaka, Kolkata, Pakistan and beyond. The other comes through China, Burma, Tamenglong connecting at least 26 countries. The Northeast is being connected to the global trade network.
The implications are devastating, to say the least. Our communities and villages and some tribes are small, living self-reliant and sustaining on subsistence agriculture. Will we be able to match the giants in trade and survive the market forces or compete with the global trade? How many families, for instance, have more than one or two cows or pigs? How big are our fields and lands to compete with those who have a thousand cows and hundreds of hectares of land? Even domestic trade, like the one in Moreh, has had its impact on small farmers and local communities, particularly the tribals, by our own breed of traders and middlemen. Are we even remotely ready for a global trade? Will there ever be a level playing field?
India has moved ahead by leaps and bounds signing agreements after agreements without consulting the northeast people for projects that are envisioned for them. How have the vested interests been able to thrive on the culture of silence? Like the MNREGA and other Right to food schemes and handouts people are kept preoccupied with scraps like the 100 days job guarantee, Mid-Day Meals, PDS, etc. so that people don’t come out to protest. MNREGA is a World Bank idea. How do we handle all this and more. How do we as indigenous peoples reconcile with who we are, at the same time come to terms with the forces of globalisation? The battered world is looking for solutions and alternatives. Voices are increasingly heard that indigenous peoples’ world view, have actually ensured the very survival of humanity from the current climate chaos, with their forests serving as carbon sinks. Could we also position ourselves with the indigenous peoples’ way of life to the world?
Whose responsibility is it going to be if not that of the leaders of the Naga students’ bodies? Like any institution, it is time the Naga students’ leadership reinvent itself. A constant renewal and rebirth is required to become consistently relevant to the changing times. Perhaps, time is ripe for forging alliances and building bridges across the Northeast and beyond to take on what is a much bigger threat than can be handled by Nagas alone. To fight globalisation of the kind talked about and resisting the sweeping changes brought in its wake, we need to find ways of thinking out of the box rather than remain engrossed with our own issues, however urgent and pressing they might be. All our efforts at protecting ourselves will come to naught when we will be surrounded and overwhelmed in all directions by the very people who could have been in that alliance, earlier on. Northeast groups need to find common ground to work together on issues that bind us and surge ahead.
Because, the enemy is larger than we have ever imagined. The stakes are too high to be delegated to “others”. A UK company and an American multinational company, to name but just two, have set up base in the Northeast. They are planting Jatropha in Senapati for bio-fuel to power airplanes, jet and fighter planes. This is a new form of colonial land grab. A parallel we can draw here is that USAID’s work in Bolivia is not just oriented towards strengthening the opposition to Evo Morales and promoting separatism, but also involves attempts to penetrate and infiltrate indigenous communities, seeking out new actors to promote Washington’s agenda.
The world is looking for solutions. Across the world struggles against dams and mining are rising. Where are the alternatives? And who has them? We don’t have to look very far away. Merely five kilometers off Kohima or even Dimapur we’ll find relatively self-sustained communities. Struggling, but nevertheless holding fast to their cultures and traditions. Together, with other indigenous people’s struggles, we have a model world view to portray to the world. 168 mega dams were envisaged in Arunachal Pradesh itself. Forget that the state hosts one of the worlds 12 hotspots of biodiversity. Nonetheless, the pitch of resistance is rising with each passing day. It is not so easy now for the project proponents to have their way and get away. However, challenges are increasing manifold; threats are looming from all sides. With Burma transiting into some semblance of democracy, the bottle-neck that hampered “progress” for globalisation forces has gone. Now there is no stopping for corporate India and the allied forces to go the whole hog. More agreements will be signed and more destruction of pristine forests and bio-cultural diversities will follow.
We need to look at the policies closely, consistently and meticulously and critically engage in grassroots advocacy; also at regional, national and international levels.
[Speech topic at the CONFLUENCE of the National Conference of Naga Students Unions (NCNSU), New Delhi]
To understand; and more crucially, ground The Essence of Ultimate Leadership and Service into “a way of life”; a paradigm shift (back to our roots) is required in the way we look at the world, its various forms and symbols, fully conscious of the past, present and future of the Nagas.
Leadership of the kind indigenous peoples worldwide show by example is the one that needs to be revisited, cherished and upheld. It is the leadership that encompasses the emerging politics and political economy with a global perspective - a collective leadership founded on sound and genuine democratic principles.
Today we are plagued by the bigger than life images of icons, crafted and cleverly foisted on us as the ones who will deliver us. In the absence of a collective leadership and democratic principles, these icons turn demonic against the people. Watch the Arab spring, the occupy Wall Street, the uprising in Greece…. upsurges sweeping across the world, against the system that exploits us and the mother earth. It is we, the people, who should rise and democratically assert our will for a future that is peaceful and prosperous. This is a collective endeavor. It is the people who usher in the genuine change. The ultimate leader is a humble enabler of people in their path towards progress.
And that to me is “the true essence of ultimate leadership and service”.
Why is this form of leadership so important and increasingly relevant? Not just in our region but worldwide? India as we know is no more the same. Our armed cadres in the Northeast continue to fight the India of the past which has long since transformed. But our resistance is still premised on everything that embodies India of the past. We are still in relative darkness, unconscious of the new and incarnated India. The Look East policy and its various facets are part of the new India. Reactions to the Look East policy, etc., in newspapers and elsewhere, show ignorance of the implications on one hand and its disastrous consequences on the other. We might think that we do have the choice to take advantage of the changing contexts and realities or be a part of the exploitation. But, have we analysed thoroughly and understood the bigger picture? Are the choices we make founded on solid ground?
Perhaps, the stealth with which such policies and practices creep into our backyard, strike at the very foundation of our traditional institutions, our collective conscience. Realizing this, in the case of mega dams, for instance, stiff resistance has made some of these projects in the Northeast unviable and challenging to pursue. Globalisation, per se, is not what one is up against. The Washington Consensus model of globalisation is. Many critics of trade liberalization, such as Noam Chomsky, Susan George, and Naomi Klein, see the Washington Consensus as a way to open the labor market of “underdeveloped” economies to exploitation by companies from “more developed” economies. The prescribed reductions in tariffs and other trade barriers allow the free movement of goods across borders according to market forces, but labor is not permitted to move freely due to tough visa laws.
What is our position on this? Do we subscribe to the political economy of capitalism or that of the communal way of life of the indigenous peoples? To have an informed position, we need to understand the new India, the new enemy which is far more dangerous. It is now asking for everything we have, our resources – land, water, rivers, forests, minerals and commons. Not that the old India was any better, though, but our approaches and strategies need to realign to be relevant and purposeful to the changing contexts and realities.
India today means Corporate-Government nexus. Without sorting out the colonial remnants and its new incarnation – the LPG (Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation), we cannot take a firm position.
The uranium conflicts in Meghalaya, oil and dams conflicts all over the Northeast and elsewhere are getting more pronounced and bloodier. What does globalisation and Look East Policy mean? What are the manifestations on the ground? Efforts are in full swing to change the policies and institutions that govern the Northeast. The International Financial Institutions like the World Bank, IMF, ADB, etc., are part of the nexus to break the old institutions. They are working overtime to restructure and reconfigure the traditional institutions and the earlier structures of governance. They attempt to manufacture our consent.
This is true of the whole of India and the Northeast but the focus now is to make the region market friendly. Therefore, projects are coming up in various parts of Northeast. For the mega hydel projects, politicians are bought over or co-opted, traditional institutions are tricked or bypassed to push through projects.
How do we resist these forces dismantling the traditional institutions? All roads leading to the Northeast come through the Ministry of DONER. The Ministry is allowing or facilitating free movement of capital, market, multinational companies. So that, the International Financial Institutions (Banks) can fiddle around with the traditional institutions and systems. An example is the World Bank helping set up a Central Agency called the North Eastern Water Authority. This is being resisted by various groups now. Unlike dams, uranium and similar projects which can be seen and therefore resisted, these (destroying the traditional institutional institutions) are the less visible manifestations of globalisation, which are easier to infiltrate. Because, it is not easy to see the subtle and irrevocable changes happening in them.
Students’ community and leaders need to look at this closely and thwart any attempts that are pro-capitalist (of the Washington Consensus model), anti-poor and anti indigenous people’s world view, before the carpet under our feet get pulled away.
A big concern today is that India is cozying up to South East Asian countries with Free Trade Agreements. Our cultures may be closer to the South East Asian nationalities, but opening up trade is a totally different story. Already, a treaty has been signed with ASEAN. A Trans-Asian Highway and Railways are underway passing through most of Northeast. They pass through Nagaland and Manipur and other parts of the Northeast and Bangladesh. They have named the National Highway 39 and 53 as The Asian Highway 1 and 2 behind our backs. One of the highways and railways come from China and the other from Bangkok, passing through Kohima, Dimapur, Mizoram, Assam, Shillong, Silchar, Dhaka, Kolkata, Pakistan and beyond. The other comes through China, Burma, Tamenglong connecting at least 26 countries. The Northeast is being connected to the global trade network.
The implications are devastating, to say the least. Our communities and villages and some tribes are small, living self-reliant and sustaining on subsistence agriculture. Will we be able to match the giants in trade and survive the market forces or compete with the global trade? How many families, for instance, have more than one or two cows or pigs? How big are our fields and lands to compete with those who have a thousand cows and hundreds of hectares of land? Even domestic trade, like the one in Moreh, has had its impact on small farmers and local communities, particularly the tribals, by our own breed of traders and middlemen. Are we even remotely ready for a global trade? Will there ever be a level playing field?
India has moved ahead by leaps and bounds signing agreements after agreements without consulting the northeast people for projects that are envisioned for them. How have the vested interests been able to thrive on the culture of silence? Like the MNREGA and other Right to food schemes and handouts people are kept preoccupied with scraps like the 100 days job guarantee, Mid-Day Meals, PDS, etc. so that people don’t come out to protest. MNREGA is a World Bank idea. How do we handle all this and more. How do we as indigenous peoples reconcile with who we are, at the same time come to terms with the forces of globalisation? The battered world is looking for solutions and alternatives. Voices are increasingly heard that indigenous peoples’ world view, have actually ensured the very survival of humanity from the current climate chaos, with their forests serving as carbon sinks. Could we also position ourselves with the indigenous peoples’ way of life to the world?
Whose responsibility is it going to be if not that of the leaders of the Naga students’ bodies? Like any institution, it is time the Naga students’ leadership reinvent itself. A constant renewal and rebirth is required to become consistently relevant to the changing times. Perhaps, time is ripe for forging alliances and building bridges across the Northeast and beyond to take on what is a much bigger threat than can be handled by Nagas alone. To fight globalisation of the kind talked about and resisting the sweeping changes brought in its wake, we need to find ways of thinking out of the box rather than remain engrossed with our own issues, however urgent and pressing they might be. All our efforts at protecting ourselves will come to naught when we will be surrounded and overwhelmed in all directions by the very people who could have been in that alliance, earlier on. Northeast groups need to find common ground to work together on issues that bind us and surge ahead.
Because, the enemy is larger than we have ever imagined. The stakes are too high to be delegated to “others”. A UK company and an American multinational company, to name but just two, have set up base in the Northeast. They are planting Jatropha in Senapati for bio-fuel to power airplanes, jet and fighter planes. This is a new form of colonial land grab. A parallel we can draw here is that USAID’s work in Bolivia is not just oriented towards strengthening the opposition to Evo Morales and promoting separatism, but also involves attempts to penetrate and infiltrate indigenous communities, seeking out new actors to promote Washington’s agenda.
The world is looking for solutions. Across the world struggles against dams and mining are rising. Where are the alternatives? And who has them? We don’t have to look very far away. Merely five kilometers off Kohima or even Dimapur we’ll find relatively self-sustained communities. Struggling, but nevertheless holding fast to their cultures and traditions. Together, with other indigenous people’s struggles, we have a model world view to portray to the world. 168 mega dams were envisaged in Arunachal Pradesh itself. Forget that the state hosts one of the worlds 12 hotspots of biodiversity. Nonetheless, the pitch of resistance is rising with each passing day. It is not so easy now for the project proponents to have their way and get away. However, challenges are increasing manifold; threats are looming from all sides. With Burma transiting into some semblance of democracy, the bottle-neck that hampered “progress” for globalisation forces has gone. Now there is no stopping for corporate India and the allied forces to go the whole hog. More agreements will be signed and more destruction of pristine forests and bio-cultural diversities will follow.
We need to look at the policies closely, consistently and meticulously and critically engage in grassroots advocacy; also at regional, national and international levels.
[Speech topic at the CONFLUENCE of the National Conference of Naga Students Unions (NCNSU), New Delhi]
