Khekiye K. Sema IAS (Retd)
Thilixu Village, Dimapur
One hopes that 2019 will be a productive year where Nagas of Nagaland awakens to the realisation that we as a people have lost a vital exclusive platform and with it our voice, our honour and our self-respect. We need to make positive amends to retrieve what was once ours. Somewhere along the way we the Christian community have become everything that our Animist forefathers would have abhorred. Even as head-hunters they upheld more Christian values as Animists than the Christians of the present times. It is not as if our forefathers had lived in a world devoid of temptations and amoral tendencies. That omnipresent desire for power to expand their social standings and materialistic comfort zone existed in their time as well. Despite the urging pressure of it all, they nevertheless held something very dear to their hearts…the dignity of existence with HONOUR! This word was the social currency of respect within the community they lived in. A word of honour was never given lightly…but once it was given, one did everything possible to uphold it or 'lose face'. As compared, where are we now? Our honour and our dignity lie in the marketplace.
Let's take a glaring case of the Nagas without a sense of self-respect…the Naga Hoho. At the outset we had a semblance of a forum that worked as the mouthpiece of all the Tribes of Nagaland to express the sentiments of the majority of what was right and wrong in any given situation. The Nagas of Nagaland had our exclusive Naga Hoho. We then knowingly or unknowingly allowed the camel to drive us out of our own tent. Members of ENPO, despite being generally referred to as the economically backward tribes, taught the rest of the Nagas of Nagaland a very relevant lesson…they preferred to walk out of this forum that no longer truly represented the interest of the Nagas of Nagaland. They were the intelligent ones in this instance, leaving behind the so-called forward tribes to drown in this forum as a minority. ENPO displayed a rare sense of honour. This is not a self-centric statement. Consider the issue on a fair realistic analysis. In Manipur, our Tangkhul brothers have UNC as the mouthpiece of the Nagas living there. This organization has rightly represented the Naga cause to the outside world….and should be applauded for their efforts. Similarly, the Nagas of Nagaland ought to have maintained the sanctity of Naga Hoho with only the Apex Tribal Hohos of Nagaland affiliated to it. Rather than sensibly consider the formation of an equally required Pan Naga Federation, we instead opened the gate of Naga Hoho for all the other Nagas from elsewhere to join this exclusive club…thus diluting the very essence of the much needed regional identity and become a minority within our own kitchen, the moment ENPO walked out. Slowly but surely, some of the Tribes who realised the imbalance in representation in this house also decided to leave the forum…transforming this so-called Naga Hoho to an obsolete toothless organization without the ability to command respect within Nagaland. Now that all Tribes of Nagaland have finally abandoned the present Naga Haha, (sorry…Hoho) the Nagas of Nagaland needs to carefully rethink and rebuild.
Nagas must realise that we are at a very crucial juncture of history facing a superior adversary…where a united voice is a must. Other common issue such as integration ought to have been addressed through an equally important Federation: the 'Pan Naga Hoho' with cohesion. Instead of creating a different forum to meet this challenge, NSCN (IM) along with some of our leaders with vested interest, chose to wipe out the exclusive identity of Nagaland by surreptitiously silencing the original Naga Hoho and giving it a new garb to do their biddings. Just as much as UNC represents the Naga voice in Manipur, so should have been the Naga Hoho of Nagaland. The inclusive voice of all the Apex Tribal Nagas Hohos from all the Naga inhabited regions would have then been a more forceful and meaningful organization to at least address a subject such as 'integration' or even emotional, cultural integration. Silencing the exclusive voice Nagas of Nagaland was absolutely counterproductive, neither being able to help itself nor re-enforce the common legitimate cause. This paints a rather gullible picture of the Nagas of Nagaland being fooled so easily…and still not know it.
Now, let's take the example of Mukalimi fiasco. Had the original 'Naga Hoho of Nagaland' been in existence, its intervention could have had an entirely different outcome. Each Tribe understands the importance of interdependence within the confines of a shared boundary and have a definitive knowledge that no single Tribe can exist in complete isolation. Therefore if the Naga Hoho of Nagaland had requested the Sumi Tribe to go slow, there was a possible likelihood that the Sumi Tribe might have acknowledged the collective request of all the other brother Tribes from within Nagaland with due curtsey and respect. But the so-called Naga Hoho composed of representatives from everywhere beyond our boundary could not salvage genuine respect. They could not even dare to intervene meaningfully. NSCN (IM) suffered a loss of face…if they did have a face…in this unfortunate incident.
The simple proposition being made here therefore is for all the Tribal Apex Hohos of Nagaland to first reclaim Naga Hoho as it originally existed and thereafter consider restructuring and renaming the present Naga Hoho…which is a 'misnomer'…to that of a Pan Naga Hoho (Federation) with a set criterion of fair representation within it. If Nagas of Nagaland has any sense of honour left in us, this is an exercise that demands fulfilment. Nagas of Nagaland cannot continue without a legitimate voice of our own at a time like this. Any one of the Apex Tribal Hohos should take the initiative and facilitate a consultative council where all the Apex Tribal Hohos of Nagaland can gather and reason together on this issue.
