Can younger Naga generations overcome our tribalism to build a peaceful multi-cultural Naga society? Well this is a very good question put up by the Morung Express in its weekly poll. And in the aftermath of what happened on August 31 and September 1, 2012 where we were witness to mostly young Nagas indulging in mob violence along tribal lines, some may doubt if the younger generation can actually rise above the virus of tribalism. It is in fact an irony of sorts because one would imagine the 21st century Facebook-Twitter-Youtube inspired generation of young Nagas to be more progressive in their outlook and thinking when it comes to society’s challenges. It will be interesting to try and probe the mind and attitude of our youths and try and find out why they act or behave as they do. A few weeks ago, there was a picture of Miss Dimapur participants in swim year (introduced for the first time) that was uploaded into the web. The comments on social media were anything but liberal and there was a definite inclination towards conservative thinking in the expression of young Naga minds. One would have thought that the modern educated young Nagas would have been more tolerant towards having a bikini round in a beauty pageant. Another report that appeared in the media was the resolution issued by a certain students union wherein it firmly resolved to stop selling of land to people from other communities/tribes. Young Nagas instead of trying to develop a liberal worldview they seem to be more and more looking back to the past, one that was defined by exclusivity of my tribe and their tribe.
The point is that to be young does not necessarily mean tolerance for the other or to be forward looking. Or in other words, are young Nagas becoming too inward looking? Or maybe it could be that our elders have not been able to resolve problems of their times and therefore what we get is the burden of our past is being transferred to the younger generation. But then some may not agree in putting the blame on the elders? It was in fact the good sense demonstrated by the tribal hohos and other civil society organizations, which was able to defuse the havoc and tension between rampaging youths on the fateful day of September 1, 2012. However it will be naïve to blame only the young people for what is happening in our society whether it is our corruption, conflict, indiscipline, mob mentality, assertion of might and power etc. Do these things sound familiar? Haven’t we ourselves as politicians or political parties resorted to such kind of practices in order to win our electoral battles? Or to our tribal hohos and village elders, under whose patronage and blessing is there so much of youth fronts being created across the length and breadth of our existence. Are we all preparing for war against each other? This has become a kind of cliché but our diversity is taking the wind out of our sails. As a result we are losing direction of our common goals and aspiration to become one people in Christ. Perhaps it is a collective failure on the part of all of us that young people are behaving as they are—with malice and anger. In order to overcome our tribalism and to build a multi-cultural Naga society, not only our youths but all of us, we must learn to live in peace if we are to live at all.
