French philosopher Raymond-Claude-Ferdinand Aron’s caricature of ‘enemy brothers’ fits the case of today’s Nagas. This is because we can neither make war nor peace among ourselves. There has been an unspoken rule that each uses restraint (since I am a Naga and my enemy is my Naga brother) even if there are serious differences between communities.To cite a case, there has been simmering tension prevailing in Mao-Southern Angami areas along the Manipur-Nagaland border in the past one month. We are witnessing off-on stray incidents during this period. Although no visible measures have been taken up either by Manipur government or Nagaland government to defuse the highly charged situation things did not escalate. This is because ‘enemy brothers’ caricature is very much at work between Southern Angamis and Mao community. But the Naga values and belief system regulate the ‘enemy brothers’ caricature.
We may recall here that for several days the government allowed certain group of people to screen commuters while looking out for a particular community along Imphal-Dimapur road. Fortunately, nothing catastrophic had occurred during that period. This fact also provides a reason why Nagas should uphold their values and belief system at any cost because at the end of the day we learnt that we can never rely on the government for our security.
Coming to the societal security of the Nagas, the pall bearers of the community should not allow lethargy to win over them while chalking out finer mechanism for the safer Naga society. A section of Nagas may feel today that the “authority” is secure, but the fact is that Naga values and belief system are under threat from the challenge of cultural imperialism of others which the “authority” remains indifferent to it.
