Aheli Moitra
As a journalist, one most often engages with people in their homelands. Over the years, The Morung Express has provided a platform for engagement with the various neighbouring peoples of the Nagas—the Karbi, the Axom, the Meitei, the Zomi, among others.
On May 13, however, representatives of the Axoms and Meiteis congregated with the Nagas in a systematic setting in Kohima and Dimapur respectively. While the former was a meeting of the who’s-who of Nagaland with those of Assam, the latter was more of a grassroots peace activists’ meet. At the end, each came up with a dialogue forum/working group respectively to formulate plans on how to carry their relationships with each other forward. This simultaneous play of events has re-affirmed the potential of this region’s people as active generators of peace, rather than hapless by-products of violence.
In the Nagaland-Manipur peace activists’ meet, a multi layered exchange of perceptions occurred. The Naga people who find themselves in Manipur State today, for instance, have a better understanding of Imphal valley’s Meitei people and vice versa than the Naga people as part of Nagaland State do. But Naga people everywhere have a worldview that is unique to them, as do the Meitei. As moderators fine tuned the discussions on problems faced by each peoples’ group in their region, the Meiteis and Axom in the room heard something new about the Nagas and Nagaland; Nagaland learnt something more of Manipur’s dilemma.
The exchange left a mark in a way that dialogue continued outside the conference room. Why do the Naga people want the Church to take up the cause for change? What does the Church mean to them? How is the Imphal civil society organised? Why is it difficult to speak against the tide there? Do we all belong to constructed identities? How then do we share our stories to build a shared humanity?
These are not questions that are raised only by people reaching out for a concept as volatile as peace. Questions that build relationships are raised everyday as people interact with each other—when Meitei or Karbi women sit with Naga women in the many markets of Dimapur or Imphal, when environmental concerns stop regarding ethnic boundaries and force people to flexibility or when love breaks loose and folksongs cannot shed one’s identity from the other.
Peace efforts on a larger scale have been made possible today because despite external factors, like nation state boundaries and ensuing policies, that have pushed people away from each other, peace is made every day on the grassroots.
It is now up to those in positions of power, particularly on the level of the people (as opposed to that of the State), to be honest with each other, share their “truths” and dilemmas, listen to each other, attempt to understand, empathise with each other, and provide solutions to each other’s problems by standing up for one another.
This is the process that has re-started this May—a recognition that my right to self determination is as essential as yours in order for all of us to move forward together.
Suggestions on how to enhance these processes may be shared at moitramail@yahoo.com
