J Churchhill Tangkhul
Almost all societies have undergone some kind of suppression or oppression. However, while they have overcome their problems, we Nagas after scores and decades remain stagnant. Why? Our sufferings be accepted or challenged? Our rights be compromised or defended? Are we to defeat or defeated? Are we a society without conscience?
Factionalism became possibly the single greatest hindrance to Nagaland’s progress and aspiration. We Nagas should realize that factionalism is our apartheid. Factionalism helps some people but fails to address root issues. It took away our love for one another and brought hatred among us. Thus it creates a fresh problem which eventually led to a blood bath, greater animosity and to our Nation’s disintegrity. We proudly proclaimed that our Nagaland is for Christ but there is no love in the Naga family which is the greatest gift of God. If anyone says that I love God and hate his brother, he is a liar (1 John 4:20). False ideas and lack of moral absolutes has over rode our principles. In our society today, social justice was only to get power. We don’t have individual freedom or freedom of conscience. Political freedom begins with individual freedom and freedom should grow in all dimensions. We should guard our freedom. What does freedom means if we are not free to live an honest and righteous life? What does freedom mean where there’s no reason for living? Is there no one Naga leader who will stand up and say we are guilty? Is there no Naga social Organization that would stand up against such evil? Let us be bold enough to discover the truth and liberate our land from the lies that were the root of our misery.
A clash of arms will crush Nagaland. It is not at all arms nor force that will save our land but the freedom to change the evil within us. Education, unemployment, constitutional and political rights are insufficient to liberate but the truth will liberate our land. Let us contemplate, speculate and make careful choices. I am sure no responsible Naga leader would want to lead on the path that would be regretted by the later generations.
In 375 BC, Alexander the Great invaded India and her army was already at the Jhelum. On the other side a much bigger Indian army, for many days Alexander couldn’t garner / gather the courage to launch an offensive / attack. Then his curiosity was aroused by the smoke rising in different places in the Indian camp. He (Alexander) finally discovered that the Indian army did not dine and sleep together because of caste division / differences in the military or the soldiers’ ranks and files. That information encouraged him – Alex- to attack and win. It was a painful event for the mighty Indian army, or to every Indian patriot. Such a societal divisions was not an isolated incident in our society too. It is commonly believed the Jaichan of Kamrag invited Mohammed of Ghur to defeat Prithiviraj. Consequently India was enslaved by the Turks from the early 13th century. Another Hindu king, Rana Sanga invited Babur, the Nongol who was then ruling Afghanistan to attack India and defeat Ibrahim Lodhi. Later, Sanga along with his Indian Muslim forces was defeated by Babur in 1526. With such a heritage of allying themselves to foreign invaders for advantage over their domestic rivals, India made easy for Robert Clive to defeat Indian armies and established British rule with a few hundred soldiers and bribery. But for Nagaland – ‘Factionalism,’ if we had not been in bondage to factionalism, defected from NNC, the first and only mandated political institution of the Nagas,’ Nagaland could have become another amazing nation.
Now it is up to the leaders, Nagas. We can choose to continue in oppression if we wish. Or we can choose to pay the cost and take hold of our God given dignity and liberty.
