The Premise:
As a young ‘Naga’ adult, flicking through the scrambled chronicle and genesis of the Naga political struggle, one can decisively isolate the Original Sin of the Naga’s. The traditional Naga life before the advent of the British, centered around gaining prestige, social advancement and public esteem behind the materialistic culture viz., feast of merit, head-hunting, and warfare to name a few. It is an established fact that most of the then Naga adults were bilingual or multilingual, speaking assorted Naga dialects despite the environment of head-hunting culture with the common perception of a disruptive social order. Each permanently established Naga village-states much like the Greek city-states governed itself independently without interfering into each other’s affair save for the internecine warfare and feuds amongst individual villages and groups of villages. The customary character of Naga’s original autonomous democratic village republics is the hallmark of the Original Sin of the Naga’s.The Arguments:
The study of savage life (lower races of man) by anthropologists was part of the mission of the expansionists British Empire with colonies in every part of the world. The general feature of the mind of a savage is held like that of a child which is easily fatigued if questions are asked that requires effort of thought or memory then he gives random answers to spare himself the trouble of thought. As it happens, savages do not react without reason but their reason would often be unusually absurd. Savages are held to be passionately fond of ornaments, all savage races who leave much of their skin uncovered delight in painting themselves black, white, red and yellow which are the commonest colour. They studied the Aryans, semi-Aryan and non-Aryan tribes in India and each and every subject race, their history, habits, food, dress, weapons, requirements, weaknesses and prejudices and the mental condition of the savage, understand the motives by which he is influenced to furnish the basis of political inductions and administrative foresight. Nagas were reckoned by the European anthropologists as the ‘Noble Savage’ for having the culture of a purest democracy. The British desired the Nagas to remain in backwardness, to lead the life of a noble savage by indirect rule and keep away the Nagas to form any national identity.
As a matter of fact, the independent Naga village self-government failed to resist the British push into the Naga territory beginning from 1824. The British East India Company’s colonial rule tried to keep the Nagas isolated and underdeveloped with the policy of “non-interference” ordered by Lord Dalhousie. However, to prevent the Nagas from raiding the British subjects in Assam, Cachar and Manipur, the East India Company’s military campaign and expedition into the Naga territory was inevitable. With the economic considerations of the tea plantations, British subjects began expanding their tea plantations seizing the entire Naga forest lands around the foothills of Assam. The Nagas reacted with fierce resistance but the disunited village-states fell one by one into the hands of the British conquerors. The very weaknesses of the Nagas were exploited by the British administrative foresight and divided segments of Naga territory into Assam, Manipur, NEFA (Arunachal Pradesh) and Burma (Myanmar).
In the very recent incident of 18th Dec, 2016 where Nagas were attacked by Meitei miscreants in Manipur, there were scores of disturbing comments in the social media making the victims (Nagas) the trouble maker against every neighbouring society Meitei’s, Kuki’s, Assamese and Arunachalee. The abject perception of the contemporary general public who do not understand the past historical factsby virtue of which the Nagas are making its rightful claim against the wrong done by the then British rulers. But we cannot blame any of them viz., Meitei’s, Kuki’s, Assamese, Arunachalee or any outsiders since it was the handiwork of the British political shrewdness vis-à-vis the Original Sin of the Nagas. Kuki’s were outsiders brought by the British power to crush the Nagas but the Kuki’s cannot be blamed as they were only dogs of war. They are now part of Naga community and Naga history and history cannot be changed. Kuki’s are the living witness against the forceful occupation of Naga country by the British colonial power and the territories occupied by the neighbours.
The encounter of the Nagas (noble savage) with the British government, the dawn of Christianity and the exposure in the First World War, as labour corps in 1916-17to France had awakened the Naga’s existence into modern civilization. The formation of Naga Club in 1918 gave birth to the Naga Nationalism who submitted a memorandum to the Simon Commission in 1929. When the British Parliament questioned; how could “Savages” who were head-hunters possibly have any form of self-determination? After the Second World War in 1946, on the anvil of unity, tribal councils joined forces to form the Naga National Council (NNC) which was further strengthened by Zapu Phizo, a veteran of Indian National Army led by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. From 1918 till 1950 when Zapu Phizo was elected the President of the NNC, the Naga Plebiscite of 1951, the boycott of the first general elections in 1952-53, the formation of the Naga Federal Government on 22nd March, 1956 and the subsequent recruitment and training of Naga Army in China and East Pakistan was the period when the Original Sin of the Nagas was conquered for about 4(four) decades.
The British manipulative occupation of Naga Hills by indirect rule on the basis of Gaon buras (authority on customary law) and Dobashis (paid interpreters) left its detrimental effect of corruption by colonial rule in the Naga social order. The absence of codified Naga customary law into formal system for the people to study and establish civil order remains maliciously biased. The Gaonburas and Dobashis were repressive instruments of British administrative ingenuity which are illogically still in maintenance. ‘Policy matters’ when motivated by partisan politics leads to destructive consequences and weaken a nation’s determination and strengthen the enemies. Sidestepping the Naga National Council (NNC) and formation of the Naga People’s Convention(NPC) set in motion the breeding ground for the Naga elitist club (NNO/UFN/UDF), who wanted the best of both the worlds? Proverbs 29:18 says “Where there is no vision (revelation), people perish (society heads in the direction of anarchy)”. Perhaps, the full-fledged statehood of Nagaland on 1st Dec, 1963was founded on the wrong premise by the Naga elitist club and the Govt. of India. The rule of law in the State of Nagaland is yet to see the light of day.
Despite the Inner Line Regulation of 1873 (BEFRA), it is a surprising fact to note that the Live Birth and Death by Religion in Nagaland for 2011 recorded by Directorate of Economics and Statistics is higher for Muslims @3589/477 than the Hindus @2906/400 as against the Christians @38819/6004. Probably, the concessions to illegal Muslim immigrants are the pound of flesh for sheltering, arming and training the Naga Army in the then east Pakistan! Is there a real threat of illegal Muslim immigrants especially the so called Naga-Miasakin to the crisis of the Rohingya people in the Rakhine State of Myanmar? Nevertheless, any movement that fools itself by crafting a policy based on bad evidence will sooner or later face the backlash.
Perhaps, the practical reality is the debates across the board where people don’t want to find the right answer but they only want to win the argument. Their ultimate reason is purposefully other than standing behind the truth but centered on gaining personal prestige, individual tribe’s socio-economic advancement and public esteem - the standing in their community. Back to the basics of materialistic Naga culture or the sinful human nature. The proof of the hypothesis when a smarter, better educated citizenry will not put an end to the materialistic character but be better equipped to argue for their own clan. However, people across the world had persisted to broaden their vision with devotion and sacrifice to gain nationhood including India, which had the herculean task of uniting 562 Indian princely states.
The fact of the matter is that our primitive village-states and Naga culture could not withstand the test of time and the very concept of our disunited independent village self-government was the original sin of the Nagas. Nagas had already sacrificed thousands of precious lives on the altar of sovereignty, there is no need for any more bloodshed. It is high time for the Naga society to gain historical insights into rationality, yet Nagas still wheel around to its original sin in the role of factions(NSCN/IM/K/U/R), (NNC/NA/A), Naga Hoho/ENPO/NTC etc. The choice and fate forself-determination is within the Naga society, whether to seek outside help from China, US, Russia etc.,or follow the course of M. K. Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. The point of politics for Naga nationalism is sound policy fostering more unity and fraternity transcending tribal, regional and village-independence with the civil society wielding clout over the underground factions.
