From the very start when the British first came into contact with the Nagas, the Naga traditional village polity was what endeared the Nagas to the white men who had till then considered the Nagas just as savages. One very distinct characteristics was the coming together of the village folks to decide on various matters pertaining to the village. The Nagas may not be the only distinct people after the Greeks for having developed a similar setup in the course of their history but for the British that came into to contact with the Nagas, it was undoubtedly their first hands on experience, as per their accounts.
The continuum after the Independence of India, from being a district in Assam with some parts in the then North East Frontier Agency that was integrated and later became a full-fledged state, the Nagas came into contact with various other systems. Some got assimilated automatically in due course of time as a result of the coming in contact with other cultures whereas some were enforced. In the last 70 years after India's independence, the Nagas are slowly losing one of their very basic characteristics of what makes up the Naga system; that of open debates discussion and deliberations.
The biggest travesty to the Naga system will be the recent practice of keeping readymade resolutions even before a meeting is conducted. It has started to surface in almost all the forums and has not even spared the tribal bodies. In their objective to show consensus and to show a more united stand the leaders today are actually committing forced consensus by indulging in this practice.
The political parties in the state may have been one of the first entities to start this practice that has only been accentuated in recent years due to the excessive use of money in politics, especially in the electoral process. The very crude import from the mainland of opposing everything of the opponent's policies whereas supporting every policy of one's own party or alliance is rearing its ugly head. It's a sham for the political parties in the state to churn out resolutions, without any sort of debate but just after some speeches by a few.
The consultative meetings with various stakeholders that the government conducts is another example. It usually starts with a few speeches and ends with a set of resolutions. This is followed by the various tribal organisations formed by coming together of various tribes in the state. If there are any cases of differences, it is well hidden away from the purview of the public lest it be seen as a sign of weakness by the other groups. The consultative meetings conducted by various Naga Political Groups also somehow ends mostly in similar way with very less time for debate and open consultations. The recent ACAUT rally also was somewhat in the same manner where inspite of the many well intentioned resolutions there were omissions and commissions that the public are currently discussing it in cyber space and probably in their offline groups too. It could have been avoided if there were some form of discussions in some way or the other. In all these cases, there is always some sections of the crowd or the audience who feel that along with the many points that one may agree with some were also forced along with the rest.
The exception and the only ray of hope left is in the villages where one can still experience healthy discussions. To some extent the single tribe organisations may also still have such healthy deliberations and discussions, but recent decisions of many of the tribe organisations indicates that slowly it might also be getting affected.
It has become like a disease and is slowly affecting almost all the Naga forums. Psychologist may say it is unintentional, but it is an inherent human nature to use emotions to convince another person. Therefore, painting the picture of the common enemy is the easiest way to form a consensus in a group; also the end of rationality. It has created a vicious cycle because unless a decision is forced on all of one's own group starting from the clan to the tribe and the various other groups that one is a member of, it has either become impossible to make good decisions in Nagaland. At the same time it has become easy to make bad decisions by manipulating the emotions of the people. In such a scenario, will there be anyone left to be the watchdog?
