From an Observer to Silverstien

Sir, With all due respect I don’t mean to bother you with this post or undermine any of your refined perspectives about the issues of Nagaland as I do understand why you think about your opinions about our situation. But as a concerned citizen of Nagaland and since I have been following your debate with Mr. Kaka Iralu in the daily papers I feel obligated to respond to your articles just so to more or less shed some perspectives about the genuine situation in Nagaland. Firstly I see that you have concern for the lives of the Nagas that if during our pursuance for our sovereignty will there be blood to be shed of the general people all because of some idealistic leaders who approve of patriotism even in not the worst case scenario as it is in this modern world. That is very much justified because like you said India does not harshly mistreat us or stoop us to the level of the Dalits it’s just that there is a lot going on for the progression of India itself so as to give us full undivided attention and rid Nagaland of all the menaces like corruption, poor infrastructure, ever stagnant economy and on and on. And the saddest part is that we Nagas can’t even actually progress on ourselves for a zillion reasons. Since you have come this far imparting us with sense for our own benefit and mostly because you decided to do your part on a small geographical nation that is not much heard of to the rest of the world, I think I should tell you about the real truth circulating and affecting the lives of the Nagas. The truth is rather simple only of course dwelling in the entire complexity of the root cause of all the problems. Nagaland is a unique state in the whole of Asia and I say it with such assertion because no other section of all the diverse people in Asia ever comes close to the adaption of the western cultures and specifically that of the Americans as us Nagas. Yes surely I don’t mean it in the sense of economical development but rather in our day to day lifestyles, ideals, and perceptions. We emphasize English in our education and literature as such that it has or is rapidly becoming our first language unlike any other Asian communities mostly because we don’t have our own writing script and language to communicate among the different tribes other than our own dialects and mutt of a dialect called nagamese. But all the western influence on our society peaked only recently since the last two decades through western cable entertainments and media platforms and apart from the new generation of Nagas, most of the less literate nagas aren’t familiar with ideals like liberty, equality, civil rights as deemed by the constitution etc. and the older matured people who holds the high government offices are from primitive decades as Nagaland was, thus they don’t do much for the growth of the state as their mind is still instilled with solitary confined success. That being all said we Nagas are indeed suffering Sir. Our economy is a moot and can’t be defined any further unless in the declining scale. There are many reasons and facts as to why and what are the problems we are facing but I guess you might have done your own research. So since those Nagas who have woken up from the primordial ignorance of life have indeed had enough of all the unjust and irrational system in our state to such extent that we know for sure that no longer this has to continue but some kind of change has to be imminent at some or the other cost. And of course if the price is doomful then we will have to eventually compromise or approach with different tact but one thing is for sure which is that we will not succumb to the carnage of the present system.

Ihcis Hikt. Dimapur, Nagaland.