Andrew Lathuipou Kamei
On the onset let me make it clear that the thousand odd words to follow will be devoid of any attempt at academic writing. This piece of writing can be construed as a critique of the sometimes very hollow idea of ‘Naga unity’ or just another random ranting of another frustrated Naga youth or both nevertheless the conclusion I leave the reader to decide.
A few years back in Bombay as a part of the MA programme we had a topic of Tribal Movements, I distinctly remember my Naga friends in the hostel lecturing the entire Hostellers on the Naga National Movement. The 20 odd students sat in rapt attention lapping up all that we had to say on what we understood and made of the movement, I am pretty sure most of them ended up writing about the Naga movement. Although this attempt does not count for much in the attempts to disseminate information and sensitize people on the Naga movement, I want to bring to note the level of effort that some of us students take in mainland India to propagate the story of the continued struggle of the Naga people. I am sure a lot of other students do the same in many of the various Universities that they have enrolled for. However this picture of unity and continued struggle against a repressive and often paternalistic Indian state by the Nagas are shattered time and again by the clashes between proclaimed brothers (read tribes); the factional fighting’s of the major underground groups (UG’s) included.
The very recent Angami-Sumi clash in Dimapur, being the latest feather, comes in the long and illustrious lists of sectarian clash in the history of Nagas. Whatever triggered this latest clash, let us be clear that there is a very high level of covert animosity and resentment between the constituent tribes, how else can you explain the descent to a mob mentality of the better educated and relatively well off Nagas residing in Dimapur? Let’s be honest, if you have made it to Dimapur you are in fact well off albeit in relation to the 20% of the state population categorized as BPL by the Planning Commission of India (it was 8.8% during 2004-05 a rise but I hear no organized protest over increasing poverty in the State). We are always complaining that the mainstream Indian media takes no interest in covering the issues of the North Eastern states, at times like this I am grateful that no mainstream Indian media picked up the story of the clash and if they did they did not make such a hullabaloo over it. The much vaunted commercial capital under curfew and mind you civilians and not armed cadres fighting pitched battle against each other, one can well imagine how this would reflect in the Indian media and the debates that would be generated over such images. Such incidents reflects poorly of us, and only providers more cues to the Indian Government on how to make good of such divisions among the Nagas.
It’s as if the factional killings among the various UG’s aren’t making enough news that this particular incident had to be added. This year itself has been marked with as many as 3-4 incidents of factional fights despite claims of renouncing violence by the majority of these groups against each other. The New Market incident in Kohima in August and the killings in Zunheboto during mid June being some of the latest examples of such altercations. Other examples being the clashes between the Zeliangrong United Front (ZUF) and NSCN (IM) in Manipur, the covert and sometimes very overt tension between the Tangkhuls and Sumis in an around Nagaland, the irony being that two men from these two tribes head the leading organization of the Naga political movement.
What I want to emphasize is that each time such clash occur we only undermine the unity which we so brazenly claim we have. Others have said about it, written about it, yet, we have an uncanny skill of repeating it time and again that it would shame us to even call it a mistake. We have yet to arrive as something as fundamental in egalitarianism or even representation in the movement be it at the level of the civilian government or, who knows, of the Underground Government. To a large extend the politics of size and number continues to dictate the pace and direction of the movement, we have been unable to transcend the numbers game, no wonder we are unable to do away with this ‘superiority complex’ that afflicts us. This is not to discount the influence of this superiority complex I for one am inclined to believe that the Nagas are together in parts because they believe they are so much better than Indians. Yet in so many ways this superiority complex could well bring about our own downfall, the clashes are perhaps indicative of this trait. This I say because I find it hard to believe that the many lives lost in unnecessary factional fights are over ideological reasons.
The majority of us have never questioned the Naga identity, we have accepted and embraced this identity and many are without doubt proud of it, the allegiance of the various tribes across 4 states and Burma is a testimony to it. However the numerous split in the political movement since the inception of the Naga Club right to the split in the NSCN there must be something fundamentally wrong with the conception of the Naga identity, a difference of opinion among the leaders seems rather a guarded and simplistic explanations for such splits and clashes. It could well be that the many clashes over the years could be indicative of greater malaise among us, something we are unwilling to acknowledge, the truth being the shallowness of the Naga identity. So who is a Naga? Nobody seems to be quite sure, the anthropologists, sociologist, ethnographers, Naga leaders and intelligentsia all have their own understanding. The common Naga on the street have a different understanding, frankly the Nagas in Nagaland have little idea of their counterpart in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Manipur and even less of the Burmese Nagas. The situation would be the same of the Nagas in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Manipur.
We have been galvanized for nearly 8 decades now towards a dream of a Homeland yet we know so little of each other, certainly this is a foundation on shaky grounds, maybe this is why there are so many clashes and not just egos as it may seem. The lingering remnants of inter village inter, tribe warfare that we claim to have overcome is perhaps another pointer to the covert animosity between so many of the tribes. I am inclined to believe that peace and unity between the tribes is ‘make believe’ a history of hundreds of years of warfare ending within a generation with the positioning of a new adversary (the Indian state) and the acceptance of Christianity. Our actions amply illustrated by splits and clashes in the political movement nevertheless seem to say otherwise, bad blood remains, reconciliation it would seem is superficial. Possibly taking into consideration our long history of feuds all this talk of peace is premature if we analyze our resistive nature it would seem we are perhaps not ready for these ideals. The gains of the political movement have seen little consolidation, we are in fact in limbo and clashes of the kind in Dimapur only undermines any claim that we might have been won.
This account may seem like an excessively negative understanding of the Nagas and or as I have mentioned just random ranting of another frustrated Naga youth but for all that is said and done I for one am a firm Naga nationalist, its best we perceive and understand our own contradiction instead of some ‘outside intellect’ tell us where we have faltered. The travesty of the state of our national movement is indeed disillusioning and disheartening but to conclude I for one am not willing to accept that in the last 60 odd years the thousands of Nagas, whose faces I have never seen whose voices I have never heard, died for nothing.
Kuknalim.
.JPG)
