Introduction
Christianity in Nagaland has affected us for good in several ways – education, peacemaking, generosity and hospitality, Clean election process by NBCC, Community support and mobilization, missions support, evangelism, social consciousness and in many other countless ways.
We also have several problems.
Of the several issues that plague Naga society – two issues seem to stand out
Bad roads and Tribal conflict
One of the most common statements that we hear from Christian visitors to Nagaland is this
“Nagaland is supposed to be 95% Christian. How come it does not show?”
Generally when they say this, they usually mean the bad roads and several other bad practices in our society. However the most prominent and glaring thing is the roads.
In the visitor’s eyes, the bad roads seem to equate with Bad & superficial Christian profession.
We know that good roads do not mean good Christian practice. You can have excellent roads and yet be very pagan or even atheistic in your beliefs. However almost everything else is forgotten in the sight of the roads. The Middle Eastern countries are not Christian and yet have excellent roads due to oil money.
Visitor’s comments sting us badly and we feel terrible every time this statement is made. We feel it every day and people curse the government which is bankrupt or unable to do much, considering all its well known limitations and inherited problems.
Tribal Conflict
Nagas have a track record of communal/ tribal conflicts which seem to emerge every now and then. The Aos Vs Sumis, Angamis vs Sumis, Changs Vs Konyaks, Nagas vs Kukis, Southern Angamis vs Maos and endless squabbles which seem to be our trademark.
In my Geography textbook, when I was a student in Darjeeling, all states were described relative to their land and resources. When it came to Nagaland, it was a one liner – “Nagas are Trouble makers”. Several generations of Indians grew up knowing only that Nagas were trouble makers.
Over the years, we have learnt to make peace or create a ceasefire till the next spark ignites long suppressed anger and hurts in an incompletely healed population. We have an uneasy peace or absence of war.
Naga community potential
Naga communities have the fantastic potential to do good. 30,000 Ao people cleaned up Dimapur city on a single day. The Sumi people did likewise. Social work efforts are very common. Khonoma and Mopungchuket are exemplary villages of community mobilization. Church centenary projects are times of phenomenally productive activities. Pangti village is an example of a wonderful community led wildlife conservation process.
One day, 1000 Ao people descended on CIHSR campus and cleaned the whole place, cut the overgrown weeds and painted the dividers. It was an overnight miracle.
Recently the Eastern Nagas in Dimapur took responsibility of a stretch of road in Dimapur. These are laudable examples of Naga communities taking charge of their lives.
The scriptures have something to say to the believers in every area of their lives – legal issues, governance, integrity, healthy living, food habits, marriage, family life, technology, time and business management, education and teaching methodology, agriculture & environment etc.
Likewise the present day church has authority and responsibility to be involved in every area of Christian living.
People often comment saying - the church should restrict itself to missions and church life. However when things go wrong, they say – where is the church or what is the church doing about it? This is a dichotomy that is hard to explain.
I am of the opinion that the church should get involved in every area of life of the Naga people since 95% of its members are Christians. Every area of living comes under the purview of the church. I am convinced that the church is the only realistic hope for our people. For this church leaders need to work very hard and do their homework of integrating scripture with real marketplace life.
We are quite aware that people tend to behave very differently in the church and outside the church in their offices or business establishments. We are capable of making beautiful church buildings on some terrible highways. People repay their loans when it goes through the church whereas they default in payments when it goes through the village councils.
Could we use the community potential of the church to bridge the gap and address the problems of our state?
I would like to suggest that we create roads that are joint projects between conflicting tribes or those who have had some history of conflicts. We could complete these in less than 52 days.
The national highway maybe too big a task and is anyway being made now. Maybe some prominently bad roads in Dimapur town could be taken up.
This could just be a small beginning whereby they can take on several other projects like –
Working together for achieving common goals would in some way create some confidence building measures to these tribes who were originally in conflict with each other and hopefully prevent future conflict.
We have often heard people say – ‘enough is enough’ out of frustration. Till the frustration develops into concrete actions, we will remain a complaining hopeless people.
We have the potential. Can we take up the challenge? The alternative is to stay put, complain, remain sceptical and continue suffering this great indignity for several years more to come.
