Lumsuthong Janger
MA Political Science, St Joseph’s College (A), Jakhama
If anything bad happens in a family, every members worries. But if something good happens, everyone celebrates- so loudly that even the neighbors applaud.
We love to speak of Nagaland as ‘one family’. We print it on banners. We sing it in songs. But families do not let some children walk barefoot while others ride in cars. And yet, when we hold up a mirror to Nagaland, the reflection does not, match the words.
Every morning, buses and sumos leave Tuensang, Mon, Kiphire, Longleng, Shamator, and Noklak. They carry our youngest, our brightest, our future, our hope. They are going one way:
West. To Kohima. To Dimapur.
We do not call it Migration. We call it “going for studies”. We call it “seeking better treatment”.
We call it “job hunting” and “a better life”.
We use soft words for a hard truth. The East is emptying because the colleges, hospitals, and roads are not there- they are there not here. So we must move there. Yet it is also possible for them to come here: to study, to heal, to work, to live on good roads, and enjoy life like they do in towns and cities. It does not always have to be us going to them. They also can come to us, like we go to them.
This is the Migration we don’t talk about. Not because it is secret, but because it has become normal. And that should alarm us- not to create any issue or bring disturb among the people, but to ring like a bell that wakes us up in reality.
If Migration is understood as the movement of people from one place to the other, why can’t the West move to East? Today, the reality is very simple yet holds a profound meaning: the movement goes only one way: East to West. Why is that something stops the West from coming to the East? It is not impossible for them to come and live in the East. It is always possible. How do we make that possible abd translate it into reality remains the question. There must be a reason in that movement. The people in power know it best.
Is it not more beautiful to see our families from town and cities come to our villages, and live with us as one family- rather than watching us from afar, telling us to catch up?
How good it would be to see if those far away came nearer, lived among, and shared happiness together.
The Road only Goes One Way
Ask a boy from Tobu where he will write his degree. He will not name a college in Mon. He would either name Kohima Science College, or Patkai, or a private institution in Dimapur. Ask him why. “I want to name Mon Science College”, but sadly, there is no college, Sir”.
Ask a mother in Shamator where her daughter was born. “On the way”, she says. On the way to Kohima. Because the PHC had no doctor that week. Because the ambulance had no fuel.
Because the road from Shamator disappears after rain. We often praise and talk of the beauty of village life. We put it on tourism posters: the Morung, the traditional shawls, the field harvest, the traditional festivals and many more of cultural heritage.No doubt, It is beautiful. But that beauty does not stop bleeding. Beauty does no have proper roads. Beauty does not teach Physics.
Beauty does not have proper infrastructure. Beauty does not file a government form online when the network dies for three days. Beauty does not have proper health facilities. Therefore, its true that there is a beauty, but it has no purpose. So beauty without purpose is worthless.
So they leave their homes. Not because they hate home, but because home cannot keep them alive, cannot keep them learning, cannot keep them growing.
We are not against Kohima. We are not against Dimapur. We are thakful for the ways cities have led villagers into more conscious living, and making them know what’s happening around them in their everday-living. We are for a Nagaland where a boy from Aghunato can dream of becoming a doctor or IAS in Aghunato or a girl from Kiphire can dream of becoming an IPS officer in Kiphire. Where a girl from Shamator can say, “My University is two villages away”. I once travelled to Kohima-Dimapur to study. Now, education has reached home, and so I can dream of like those friends and become a valuable person in the society.
A good leaders swim for the people - bad leaders sink them.. Stop telling us our villages are beautiful. Make them livable. Just as a mother nurtures and cares for the whole family, the government must care for the whole state. A state’s governance is like items in a box: if you pull one out, the others begin to move. Similarly, when one part or section of society or people is affected, the whole society feels it.Let your people swim instead of letting them sink in your empty promises.
Everyone should care for each other and accept the differences for shared responsibility. To advance governance, collective efforts are key. The government cannot do it alone- it needs collaboration from Civil society, NGOs, business leaders, farmers, educatores, intellectuals, and citizens from all walks of life to drive progress.
In the ideal of Sarvodaya or Sarvodaya philosophy, Gandhiji emphasized on welfare and upliftment of people and of all living beings. It means not the welfare of ownself alone but that of the others as well. It stresses on co-existence and mutual love and understanding.
Nagaland would be a better place to live if no one is exploited or treated less at the expense of others, but instead we uplift each other. The philosophy of life is this: we each need each other to grow and to love. And to grow and love each other, we need everybody. For no human being lives in isolation.
Let home be a destination for cultural exchange
Let students from Kohima come to Tuensang to learn.
Let doctors from Dimapur and Kohima serve in Shamator.
Let Colleges rise in Mon.
Let hospitals stand in Kiphire, so our mothers do not bleed on long journey.
Let roads connect us, not empty us, and leave us behind.
Let the East and West meet as equals, not as giver and beggar, nor big and small, but as one
family that cares for each other and loves each other.
Let people come together- not just to leave, but to stay, to share, to love, and to grow as one.
Let home be a destination. Not a departure.
Don’t leave. Let’s live.
God bless my Nagaland.
