The hallmark of our Naga society is our immense pride in maintenance of the age old traditions and customs. Our customs define us and give us our identity. Without our identity, we are nothing but simple statistics. Our traditions give us perpetuity. But we need to be cautious lest our traditions and customs weigh us down and prevent us from adapting to modernity, which is the essence of natural evolution. As human beings gifted with intelligence, we need to merge our past with the future and prepare ourselves to take on the new challenges of life, unforeseen by our ancestors.
To some, merger with modernity may appear to be in conflict with the traditional values systems. Arguments could be made that if we ignore our traditions, we lose our identity and become unknown unrecognized entities. But there is no such conflict. The traditions do blend into modernity, if we choose to do so. We may, without ignoring our traditions, just follow them through to destinations ahead. Traditions give us our structures and strengths. They ground us to our roots which gives us our values and convictions. But it is the adaptability to the modernity, which gives us our survivability and progress. If we shy away from it, we risk extinction at the hands of the fiercely forces of evolution. We all know what happened to the mighty dinosaurs who could not adapt to the changes. It is for us, therefore, in the Naga society, to do the fusion act between traditions and the modernity. We have to embrace modernity while maintaining our traditional values.
What is this modernity which we Nagas must adapt to? More than embracing the fashion of attire and cell phones, we need to adapt to modern thinking. We need to match our day to day conduct with our present and future needs – to grow into a robust and progressive society.
We need to bring into our conscious the benefits of thinking futuristic and thinking for the long term. Naga youth are generally not inclined to planning for the long term. It is a thought process arising from the past where the warrior Naga would only plan to live for the day, in the most valiant way possible, due to numerous threats to his life such as the clashes between tribes and the practice of head hunting. However, in spite of those threats having vanished, short term vision still persists in the Naga society of today. Dismal enrolment for the higher education and low savings by the households are a result of those traditions. Low savings finally manifest in the form of native Nagas owning very few shops or businesses since they require sizeable investments. Short term thinking also induces many from the younger generation into taking shortcuts by joining various semi political or social student groups for getting a share of illegal extortions and collections, rather than planning and working on long arduous but rewarding professional career paths.
It is a common sight in Nagaland to see women moving on the roads with a baby tied to their bosoms, also carrying loads of firewood on their backs, while their men moving along, only carrying a ‘dah’ (mallet). This practice originates from the traditions of olden days where the men folk needed to remain light while moving to be able to react faster to meet any sudden threats. But in spite of no such threat existing today, the practice continues. Similarly, only women managing the household, is borne out from the need that men had to be free and remain on the fringes of the villages to look out for the enemies. Does this require to continue anymore? Men are required to participate in the affairs of the household not only to lend a helping hand but also to afford an opportunity to the women to take up jobs so that more prosperity can be brought in the family and to meet the modern needs of providing guidance to the children in their education.
We also need to adopt modern practices in our education system, social order, legal systems, employment, entrepreneurship and most importantly, political system. The true democratic empowerment of the last person in the social chain will only come from the practice of grass root level politics where in the voter exercises his or her franchise not based on traditional diktat of the clan or tribe but on the worthiness of the candidates and as per the voter’s actual needs. The modern social order of respecting other tribes is another need of the modern day. It is time that we start seeing the people of other tribes as equal human beings, leading to zero tribal clashes Adoption of modern legal systems is required to resolve interpersonal or intertribal issues and to avert any flashpoints. Similarly, giving equal legal and political rights to women is needed to ensure that 50% of the population is not left deprived. We need to rest assured that giving rights to women does not take away the rights of the men. It rather makes the society more robust, stable and progressive.
While maintaining the traditions of our society and following the foot prints of our ancestors, parents, teachers, scriptures, religious commandments, social obligations, we also need to bring in modernity in our lives and be guided by our duties, morals and values, in order to progress in tune with the rest of the modern world.
