Divine Right

Unlike in a monarchy, the concept of divine right was absent in the Naga society, period. Any attempt to bring in contradiction citing Naga chiefs of villages or group of villages is invalid. The concept asserts that the monarch is not answerable to anyone but only to God and can only be judged by God, even though unjust. However since the Nagas came into contact with different cultures from outside seems to be testing the Naga system to the extremes. At present the emergence of organisations if not individuals with the collective understanding that the organisations have the divine right is a dangerous trend. The trend being that many of these institutions and organisations that are actually fairly new consider themselves as inviolable. This trend is the other face of the ailment in the Naga society of ever increasing so-called pressure groups in the form of organisations and associations. Currently it is like a mad rush that all these organisations have an opinion for everything under the sun and also ensure that it finds space in the media. Any criticism, howsoever constructive is considered more as politically motivated or tribalism trying to sabotage their objective for the common good. The common good many a times in reality is mostly, if not only, for their kind; those who are part of that entity. In case of a tribe based organisation if the ones critical about is it from another tribe then the easiest way out is to paint the communal colour against the critic. In case one is from their own then either it is supposed to be hushed up and in case of failure, just ostracize that person. There can be many other scenarios that are played other than these two. It becomes unimaginable if the person is from outside the state or a non-Naga. The reason can be attributed to the ‘us versus them’ mentality is still deeply ingrained, for the newly Christianised tribes who in recent past were living in isolated villages and hunting human heads. However the import of a concept very similar to that of divine right conferred on an organisation though not an individual is the growing problem. The skewed concept that the organisation and the majority is always right either persists or is made to persist. The nationalist groups also without exception exhibit similar characteristics. It has reached such levels of stupidity that some organisations no longer functions for the sake of its professed mission put purely for the sake of keeping the organisation intact, sometimes even at the cost of its aims and objectives, where the word ‘unity’ and its concept will be utilised. The so-called proud Naga warriors finally need to call it a day and have the guts to survive alone too with one’s own grit and determination to come out of this conundrum.