Aga Rengma
A Young Concerned Naga Father
Dimapur
Naga tribes are known for bravery, hospitability and sociability in all aspects with diverse languages and festivals yet with common culture, tradition, history and aspirations.
Our ancestors have lived as independent villages until the British arrived. Since time immemorial we have lived as independent people and have survived the colonial era without being disintegrated or assimilated; in fact, the colonial powers actually sowed the seed of Naga nationalism through the Naga Labor Corps of 1917 which united our people and led to the formation of Naga Club in 1918. When the British were to leave colonial India, our ancestors chose to stay independent of any external domination as made known to the world through our representation to the Simon Commission in 1929.
Growing up in the late 80s in Dimapur, I could witness some very significant events in our Naga society. I saw and witnessed the atrocities of Indian military forces on our people. Have witnessed the meteoric rise of Naga nationalism, had heard the trumpet call for youths to participate in the Naga national cause of Integration and Sovereignty. Have seen parents mourn for their young ones, children mourn for their parents and siblings for siblings while the Naga people in general yearn for peace. There was a time when not a day went by without news of a family mourning for their loss of loved ones killed by Indian forces in one of the Naga villages around the Naga homeland. Yet no tribe, village, organization or individual showed signs of giving up the struggle for our Right to Self-determination. There was a silent and willing sacrifice by every Naga in our homeland, no one more or less than the other. Yet those were nothing compared to what our ancestors lived through in the 50s, 60s and 70s.
Though it was nothing like in the 50s and 60s, we still witnessed occasional cases of rape, torture and murder in the open by the Indian occupational forces. Our people yearned for peace but never yielded to the violence and oppression of India. The unity of our people and organizations those days was reassuring with minimum necessary number of organizations having absolute mandate in a way. There was violence, pain and suffering but hope and faith accompanied them.
Every single triumph or achievement against the GoI anywhere in the Naga homeland by our public organizations or our national workers was a Naga victory, a reason for celebration and we experienced joy. True joy is not the absence of sadness, suffering, pain and sorrow but the feeling of overcoming all those through an accomplished cause or hope. Today we have peace and progress comparatively but no hope or joy for Nagas as a whole since there is no achievement to be called collective. Today any achievement seems to belong either to this group or that group, this tribe or that tribe etc. There is no noticeable feeling of collective Naga Achievement/victory today.
As a small boy I could not understand what was happening and why. I couldn’t possibly fathom the significance of all those violence, pain and chaos. I wish I could say, “Today it all makes sense, it was so that one day we may live as a free people/nation, united with our rights to self-determination.” But alas! It still doesn’t make sense with the present scenario…
According to elders, there used to be a time when national workers were supported voluntarily by our Naga villagers through donation of their hard-earned money, vegetables, foods and live stocks to carry forward the Naga national movement. Whenever they pass through our villages, they were warmly welcomed and assisted in all possible manners by our people even without being asked for. Everything was spontaneous, gratis and it was of utmost dignity and pride for our national workers.
When we align two lines perfectly parallel and extend them, they would go infinite miles and yet would neither drift away (negative deflection) or come closer (positive deflection) to each other like the tracks of a railroad. But if there is even a slight deflection no matter how negligible, either towards or away from each other, in the long run the deflection is bound to magnify and the lines will either meet at one point or become non-existent for each other as the distance between them increases infinitely irrespective of their proximity at the beginning.
Apparently, there was a negative deflection between our organizations and leaders somewhere in our past.
We were closer to being called a Nation then, but now, we are drifting farther away from being called a Nation, People or even a tribe! So much of growing distance between our Organizations, Tribes and even between villages, clans and individuals that we appear to be fighting for independence from each other and not India or Myanmar! We need to revisit the “NEGLIGIBLE DEFLECTION” in our history today, introspect and re-align ourselves positively before we lose sight of each other and our ancestor’s aspirations in the far horizon as time goes by.
I am just an insignificant layman Naga, yet I dream and hope for a better and common future of our people as aspired by our ancestors. Nagas to live as a people, free from any non-Naga domination over our geographical, economic, social or political decisions; decision that would shape the “TODAY” of our children tomorrow. Therefore, however insignificant I am, as a Naga and as a father, I humbly pray and earnestly request all our people, elders and leaders in the vast Naga homeland to try and Be The Positive Negligible Deflection (if not a huge one)towards each other today, for a meeting point of our children tomorrow.
The continuity of our ancestral aspiration is being deflected negatively by our petty differences. Let us not be the deflection in such a way today, that up ahead in the next few decades our children are light years apart.
