Lhouvi Tseikhanuo
Kohima Village
Free-will, reasoning, identity, self-determining, though immaterial are the most valuable possessions of a human being. Take these away and what’s left is an intelligence slave to its creature needs, easily satiable and content but living a hollow and meaningless existence. Reasoning led us to question; who are we? Is there a relevance to life? How should we live? Higher civilizations of the past perceived the universe primarily as of a dual nature, opposing forces yet simultaneously co-existing as one with qualities that are symbiotic and reciprocal, a continuum. This entirety; creation/destruction ying/yang synonymous with feminine/masculine, weaker/stronger was the pervading law, the natural order which the Vedas called Rta, Tao in Taoism, Asa in Zoroaster and with variations the belief of many indigenous peoples. Heraclitus the Greek philosopher first called it Logos in the western world and was later developed by Neo-Platonists. Applying the principle of this entirety; the right balance and equilibrium, brings reason and meaning to human society and life. Manifesting as a concurrency with others and with nature for mutual cohabitation whereby individuals are independent self-governing parts forming a larger cohesive collective will. A sort of non-zero game: a win-win for all. These knowledge’s were shelved away in modernity as abstruse and esoteric.
Post colonial India was not alone in her enchantment of the new world order, starting with the Enlightenment Age which is acknowledged as the foundation of modern Western political and intellectual culture, it emphasized reason, skepticism and individualism and was a precursor to modern interpretation of democracy. Revolutions and rebellions resulted in France then Europe, America, Russia, China and the world beginning new chapters. This new world order split into two camps both engendering collective common good, one championed socialist, communist principles and was authoritarian, dogmatic and repressive. The other championed individualism, capitalism and was liberal, ambiguous, permissive, yet despite the pronounced differences, both gravitated towards a similarity; concentration of power among the few. Of the two, order one system is dead and the other dying. The apparent flaw is the implicit quietness of good for all and the explicit loudness of good for the few. India must realign her own structure by heeding this conceptual failure of most Western democracies. Yet in doing so, She must bear in mind that Tamas and Rajas are synonyms of the primal dual forces, one isn’t necessarily bad and the other isn’t necessarily good, they both have their positives and negatives. Hardliner Rajasic elements understand better than most that their stance is borderline conceit, hubris, arrogance, jingoism, authoritarianism but are dismissive of the consequences and their persuasive and compelling sway can push Sattva further out of balance and stability. Successful systems integrate a measure of both dual forces with an absence of bias.
That’s the larger world. In the smaller world of the Nagas it’s a tribal reality. A visitor would find it exasperating-invigorating, mediocre-exceptional, fierce-gentle, that’s what their world is; good? Better! bad? Uglier! Democracy? Aye, you have those that are vertically bent, the Hierarchies and those that are horizontal, the Egalitarians. Visibly living in the past and remaining the same they however are not the same, their dialogues and diatribes impel a constant self-assembling an evolvement enabling resilience and freshness to democracy. Back then they could’ve your head as a trophy, today in the given circumstance they would’ve liberated your soul. They are as diverse as the colors in a rainbow but have one thing in common; they are warriors of order and of chaos, imbued and existing in the strangeness of the two dimensions, space-time. Does this make them powerful and dominant tribes? No, it is an empty shell as power is dissipated to villages and by degrees further on to khels, clans. Take out this equation and there’s nothing to dominate at the same time when consequences are on the collective then as one organism reciprocating they become powerful and dominant. If these tribal mechanisms were absent the state government initially strong and confident in its machinery would face criminality, delinquency, subversion and unrest and from within its ranks insubordination and non-compliance leading to misrule and anarchy. Conversely, take out the government and after the expected hiccups the tribes would soften chaos and equilibrate order as they have always done through a consensus that consolidates polarity into a coherent whole while attempting to avoid partisan decisions that could weaken the collective. So bear witness, do these tribes justify as self-governed and thus be recognized? In the words of T. Sakhrie, the first General-Secretary of the Naga National Council who said in the 1950’s “We govern ourselves by government that does not govern at all. We believe in the form of government which permits the rule, not of the majority, but of the people as a whole. We talk freely, live freely, and often fight freely too. We have no inhibition of any kind. Wild? Yes, but free!! There is order in Chaos, law in this freedom”.
The new sciences of complexities though abstruse and esoteric to the general public are in the words of the author M. M. Waldrop…..”Edge of chaos is a term used to define a kind of abstract phase transition space between order and disorder that is hypothesized to exist in a wide variety of systems. All these complex systems have somehow acquired the ability to bring order and chaos into a special kind of balance. This balance point often called the edge of chaos is where the components of a system never quite lock into place, and yet never quite dissolve into turbulence, either. The edge of chaos is the constantly shifting battle zone between stagnation and anarchy, these systems can be organized to perform complex computations, to react to the world, to be spontaneous, adaptive and alive.”
Meanwhile, if bureaucracy is employing a version of Medellin Cartel’s Plata o Plomo, Silver or Lead, it is justifiably sound. Money is seductive and addictive lulling the user till its next fix as compared to conflict and stress, problem is, these Tribesmen walk the divide and dynamics can change instantaneously, effortlessly as underneath a seemingly calm rational order lurks a vitality, a defiance and contrariness inclined to rebel. They can sip Moӫt champagne, nibble Almas caviar and talk inanities and just as equably snack on the world’s hottest chilli chutney, chase it down with rotgut whiskey and philosophize, yet as the sun goes down it is prudent to build a rapport rather than domineer them. Cold, hard metal Escobarian approaches are stop gap measures that do not last or heal.
