On November 30 two of the biggest villages in Nagaland formed a concord of friendship and brotherhood. Kohima village the biggest, and Tuensang village the third biggest agreed to have a bond of brotherhood. What is more significant is that the two villages are from two different Naga tribes of two different districts that do not share a border. It deserves plaudits from all on the magnanimity of the citizens of these two villages to have come to such an understanding.
As rightly mentioned during the function to mark this historic agreement between the two villages, such alliances were not alien to the Naga communities. In olden times there have also been strong treaties that were practiced by the Nagas not only between villages and tribes but also with non-Naga communities. Traditional oral history recounts that these bonds were taken very seriously by the citizens of both the parties that the question of breaking it never arose. The village elders and the leaders of the traditional village setup ensured that stringent punishment was also meted out to any of their villages’ citizen who was found to have knowingly acted against the principles of such alliances.
With the coming of the modern western education and the contact with other civilizations such strong bonds of friendship among villages saw a decline. Then it was aggravated further by factionalism of the Naga Nationalist into so many groups in the more than 60 years history of Indo-Naga political conflict. For a period in this long history of political conflict the trust deficit among the Nagas was at its lowest. The air of suspicion was not isolated between villages and tribes but even the citizens of the same villages were suspicious of each other due to the split of the society itself into sympathisers and active supporters of various different factions and also the section of the status-quoist. In such a scenario, such Naga traditions not only took a backburner but the distinctive Naga sense of honour was completely lost along with the respect for human lives. What remained was also mostly entangled further in the imbroglio and instead of bringing peace it might have aggravated the conflict in some cases.
Even though there is noticeable peace prevailing in the state at present the unresolved political issue has every chance to lead the state into another phase of violence unless this current period is utilised for building bridges and mending old wounds by the Nagas. The step taken by these two villages is in the right direction and will surely foster in a new era of understanding not only between the two villages but also between the Angamis and Changs leading to a more understanding and brotherhood between the Tenyimis and the Eastern Nagas in the near future. Such alliances when utilised wisely will go a long way in completely obliterating tribalism from the Naga society.
