Hitoho Sumi
If we Nagas are genuinely serious about our identity and our struggle for a nation state then we should be on an equal understanding to be governed by common laws concerning the welfare of our society at large. The existence of multiple authoritative organizations imposing and exercising their own laws contradictory to the common laws will ultimately result in conflict either violently or non violently. The existence of such organizations exercising their own laws is a direct and unconstitutional challenge to the larger accepted governing body and hence we should all endeavor to discourage, prevent, and abstain from such practices. We should all participate actively and contribute towards improving our government with progressive laws that will liberate us rather than resorting to parallel governments which will bring only destruction to our nation.
Our history is a history of struggle and even today we are caught in a perilous struggle for establishing our nation state so why can’t we be more cautious and courageous instead of losing hope and being disillusioned to the point of forming a separate entity? Why can’t we learn from our violent history that violence will not give us solutions to our problems? Why can’t we resolve inter-tribe or for that matter any issues pertaining to the welfare of Nagas with patience and deliberations with unbiased reasoning?
A brutal incident whereby self appointed vigilantes, who claims to have the consent of general tribe known to Nagas as Angami, murdered, according to the reports by those who were responsible, a bike thief raises a critical question pertaining to the existential unrest among the Sumi tribe driven by that incident. Should Sumi tribe in particular and other tribes in general follow such suit and constitute their own sovereign rule of the land just like the days of head hunting or should we all condemn such practice? The answer, as is clear to any reasonable person, is to condemn and discourage such practice.
Of course condemning such vulgar exercise of muscle over helpless individuals to the point of killing them does not justify the Quick-Hot-Headed-Response by victim’s tribe. Ironically the extension of that very vigilante organization is christened as Quick Response Team! However violence should always be avoided as far as possible even if that means reacting to violence or violent incident. We are no longer hunting heads. We have surrendered to the culture of capitalism so why can’t we find a solution through reasoning and/or allow a legitimate government, which we all pledge to, to decide and give their judgment free from prejudices.
This is not the first time wherein the organization has been involved in murdering a person. It is no surprise then to witness a violent reaction to the organization’s misuse and perversion of power given to them by the larger Angami tribe. For instance we have all recently witnessed their disregard for common laws governing all tribes when they disqualified All Nagaland Taxi Association (ANTA), locked up their office and roughed up members of ANTA in order to set up an extension of their own organization to control the taxis plying in the capital. The silence and failure on the part of Angami intellectuals, who otherwise are always condemning this or that incident if it happens to be with other tribes, to condemn such practices is just-plain-sad.
Given the organization’s historical records of dispensing their own judgment on various individuals and groups we should no longer tolerate and be silent about such practices. The demand on the disbanding of such organization by All Sumi Students Union (SKK) is a valid and reasonable demand, of course i do not endorse the so called consequences warned by SKK on the failure of meeting their demands, given that there is a danger of every tribe forming their own organization with their own laws governing their areas. In such a situation the idea or the existence of government will be a mockery and sooner or later it will spiral into anarchy. Well if Nagas happen to endorse and love anarchy then it is ok but i do not think that we would want such a situation or endorse such system.
The precarious political condition with the existence of numerous governments of which many are self-appointed-illusory-governments and the pathetic performance of various machinery of government installed by Indian state, is one of the root causes for the current predicament. Nevertheless we should not take this as an excuse for setting up a sovereign organization that takes the role of vigilantes rather we should all endeavor and contribute to resolve the larger political issue with courage and perseverance so that it will benefit us Nagas.
Our forefathers decision, abandoning their practices of head hunting and intertribal wars, to stand united to safeguard and promote our larger interest that will enable us to stand on our own feet free from any foreign rule and proudly call ourselves as Nagas will be in vain if every tribe starts establishing their sovereign body and promote vigilantes or social policing with disregard to human rights or human life. As a matter of fact the current predicament was bound to happen sooner or later as this is not the first brutal murder committed by the organization in the name of protecting and safeguarding their tribe, since no tribe or for that matter no rational person or community will allow such practice to continue.
This is not the first inter tribe clashes and we should not be under any illusion that this will be the last so i believe we should all be on our guard to prevent violent or quick-hot-headed-emotional-response from taking the better of us all in case such situation arises in future. I am sure that we Nagas are better than that. I hope that we all learn from the incident and become a better individual and a citizen of Naga and work together towards a greater good beyond tribe and narrow-my-tribe-your-tribe attitude. Kuknalim!
