Bharat Bhushan
Someone once said, “Every man dies but not every man really lives.” Today we are gathered here to celebrate the life of man who lived life fully, with dignity and while displaying great amount of wisdom.
Isak Chishi Swu’s life was dignity, wisdom and statesmanship personified. I knew him as a proud Naga nationalist who knew when to pick up the gun and equally, when to put it down to negotiate peace with a nation as big and as powerful as India. He will always be remembered as a peerless leader who steered his people successfully and with a steady hand through turbulent times.
He may not be there when the detailed Naga peace arrangement is put in place but he must have died happy knowing that he had laid a solid foundation for it. Isak Swu not only taught the Nagas the importance of pursuing peace, he also had a lesson in leadership for the Indian political class.
He taught his Indian counterparts the importance of wisdom, farsightedness and patience in peace negotiations. The organization he helped found, the National Socialist Council of Nagaland, is today re-negotiating the federal structure of India. This would have been unthinkable only a decade ago and speaks volumes for the wisdom of Naga leaders like Isak Swu.
I have no doubt that a lasting and peaceful Naga solution that will eventually come about through the ongoing negotiations. It will be a stellar example for future generations of how mature democracies ought to deal with the nationalist aspirations of their people. I think this is greatest contribution that Isak Swu’s leadership.
I met this remarkable Naga leader for the first time in September 1997 in a suburb of Bangkok, along with my friend Deepak Diwan.
He was, and he remained till his passing away, the Chairman of the NSCN (IM) and the President of the ‘Government of the Peoples’ Republic of Nagaland (GPRN)’.
He had agreed to be interviewed along with Mr. Thuingaleng Muivah, the General Secretary of the organisation and the Prime Minister of the underground government. I met them with great trepidation as both were legendary figures among the Nagas, having spent the better part of their lives fighting for the Naga cause.
However, I need not have worried. I was quickly put at ease by the manner of the two Naga leaders. What struck me most about Isak Swu was that not only was he gentle and soft spoken but that he always carried a Bible with him.
I asked him why he did that. He explained that like his father, who was a preacher, he also preached. He prayed before every meeting with Indian officials. “Even in the talks with the Indian Prime Minister, we begin with a prayer,” he told me.
Clutching his Bible, he said, “We believe that God did not create Indians to kill the Nagas. God wants India to glorify His name. India is one of the greatest democracies in the world. And just as He created all of us for a special eternal purpose, so it is the case with India. If the Indian leadership believes in the power of force, then it would be acting against God.”
His words that “God did not create Indians to kill the Nagas” have always reminded me that he saw a larger purpose in seeking peace with India.
He believed that he was doing God’s work in helping India recognize that the Naga issue was a political one and not a law and order problem; that it could not be solved by using the armed forces or the police but by dialogue.
He argued that the continuation of the Naga problem did not profit anyone and that the Nagas, even as the “aggrieved people” understood that “the eternal friendship between the Nagas and the Indian people is a must”.
Neither could change geography, he said, “We have to continue living together – we can’t shift out of where we are and nor can India.”
While giving me a crash course in Naga history, Isak Swu, claimed that nearly 150,000 Nagas had died because of the wrong policies of India.
However, what is important is what Swu said after that. He said that the Nagas felt no bitterness towards India or Indians.
He explained this by saying, “The Indian people did not know us. They simply knew us as head-hunters, that we are half-naked people and that we are dog-eaters. In this way we were belittled. It is with kind of ill-informed attitude that our Indian friends approached us”
He wanted to change this perception of the Nagas among Indians and in India. And he managed to do that through his pursuit of peace, through continuous dialogue with Indian officials and Indian civil society organisations and, of course, through his personal example.
In the end, we all know that death is inevitable. Nobody lives forever. However, what great leaders do in their lifetime lives on after them.
Isak Chishi Swu will live on in the memory of the Nagas and other Indians because he led by example – by choosing peace over conflict, morality over opportunism, wisdom over ignorance and love over hate.
I salute this great Naga leader and statesman.
I feel privileged that I had the opportunity to know such a wise man.
.JPG)
