Nagas are more than just a political entity — Wati Aier

Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, Nov. 24: The convenor of Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR), and one of the foremost Naga intellectuals of this age, Rev. Dr. Wati Aier on Saturday suggested that to indentify the Naga people according to the colonial label of ‘tribe’ was to reduce the Naga nation to a mere political entity.

Delivering the maiden Chalie Kevichusa Memorial lecture in Dimapur, Aier argued that ‘the lived ethos of the tribe then, the nostalgia of the tribe after, and the academic romancing of the tribe now, have been clouded with thick layers of colonial interpretations.’

Tribalism, he explained, is a tool of self-exclusion and communal division and ‘can too easily be used to incite one against the other.’ According to him, the term ‘tribe’ gained currency with the advent of colonialism.

“The ‘tribe’ has become a double-edged means by which social iconoclasts seduce the public for numerous reasons and ends. As such, this seduction repeats itself by situating the ‘tribe’ in the past, ultimately reducing the nation (tribe) to a mere political entity in the midst of an overarching Naga belonging—the larger entity,” Aier shared.

The challenge, he said, was to look beyond the singular use of the term ‘tribe’ and move towards a simple human understanding—which is to sustain the ‘Naga ecology of belonging.’ In this context Naga pioneers of the early twentieth century were ahead of their time and their generation, Aier shared.

“With their innate imagination, these pioneers knew that the meaning of independence in our context lay in protecting and preserving our common identity. Analytically, the de-constructionist malignancy of the tribe is one of the reasons for our present socio-politico-theological fragmentation and hostility. It seems that we are incapable of moving past our usual tired patterns of reactive justifications and defensive reactions,” he observed.

“Naga people want to see wisdom in our leaders—a wisdom that assures us that our lives and communities will not be used as mere objects of interest. Throughout our modern history, the politics of divide and limit and subtle domestication has only led to one group scapegoating (sic) the other, and has only fanned the flames of mistrust and violence. This kind of politics is the fastest way of isolating oneself from the whole. It has not worked in the past and it will not work in the future,” according to Aier.

The challenge today, he said, is to look beyond the singular use of the term ‘tribe’ and the “ensnarement that follows it.”

“We must remain imaginative by creating new possibilities of untapped potential within us and build around the primordial idea of belonging…believing in our creative energy, we must accordingly forge an alternate history—the history of common belonging, and a history constructively woven into an identity called Naga,” Aier said.

The alternate Naga history, he said, is of common belonging and a history constructively woven into an identity called ‘Naga’ that is spread across lands beyond the present state of Nagaland.

‘When it is clear that Naga political history remains the only memory of common belonging, culturally it remains a taboo to quash this de facto in favour of a mythological memory that has no history. Such a cult of rationally-developed thesis cannot be the plumb line for Naga people. Nagas who remain aware of the sacredness of Naga history must vigilantly safeguard against the desperate rationalisation of any bedrock,’ he said.

According to Aier, in the end, it is the Naga groups, with peoples’ solidarity, who will have to steer the Naga people to the finishing line. “This is a reason enough to embark on relationships of cooperation. Clearing the air of fear, mistrust, and all stereotypes, Naga institutions and citizens must scale higher planes in inter-relationships. Our future, though not fully understood now, is intertwined,” he pointed out. “A successful paradigm can be forged when Naga institutions move beyond sectarian mentalities and invest in relationships of cooperation.”

The lecture was an initiative of the Kevichusa Charitable Foundation instituted by the Kevichusa family in 2017 with ‘Veritas et Aequitas’ (Truth and Justice) as its motto.

Aier described Chalie Kevichusa as a man of “seminal personality,” “a rarity among a handful of lucid and luminous individuals who invested in safeguarding Naga rights.”

The lecture was on the topic: Beyond Tribal Seduction–A Personal Reflection.