Dr K Hoshi
Durga Puja or Diwali are, as we all know, the two important festivals of India. They are celebrated everywhere on the country including Nagaland, the constitutional state.
There is nothing strange if these two festivals were celebrated in the state. What was so strange was that, this year, more Nagas than Indians, specially in Dimapur and Kohima celebrated the occasions. The celebration of Durga was marked by gambling where one could see Naga mahajans in every gambling table. While the Indians quietly celebrated Diwali, the festivals of light, by lighting candles, the Nagas celebrated the same by bursting the powerful fire crackers sounding boom and bang everywhere. As usual for Nagas drunkenness added to the flavour of the celebrations.
What a way to celebrate alien festivals when we are fighting for independence! In the fitness of the occasions, there is no doubt whatsoever that Nagas have become truly Indian, culturally. Another feather added on our so called enemy’s head for their successful psychological operation. Where has our national principle for freedom struggle gone?
To a good Christian, partaking in such celebrations amount nothing less to pagan worship, abominable before our God, Jehovah. While our Christian missionaries suffer torture in the hands of the Hindu fundamentalists elsewhere in the country, here we are, totally absorbed in their culture, alien to us. Little deed we realized that in the name of cultural fusion our religion has been slowly but steadily invaded.
For our God sake let us not say that as part and parcel of the country and its society there is nothing wrong for the Nagas to celebrate such occasions. If we have accepted paganism in the Christian context as cultural celebrations, the Nagas should rather worship Durga or Kali than Christ as their gods. It looks like the dooms day for the Nagas isn’t very far. The good Lord blesses our Church.
