‘When our minds are caged and hearts are closed, we forget we are a shared humanity’

Morung Express News
Kohima | January 16

After the Ceasefire Agreement signed by NSCN (IM) and NSCN (K) in 1987 with the Indian Government, Aküm Longchari, Publisher of The Morung Express said that there has been a shift in the Naga political landscape even while highlighting about his idea of “define and rule” wherein he remarked that in the context of a political analysis, “define” is much more ingrained in the mind of the Nagas.

During a conversation on his book titled “Pushing Boundaries” published by PenThrill in August last year, he stated that “the shift has primarily got to do with movement from divide and rule to more defining.” The conversation held at the Heritage Conference Hall on January 15 was moderated by Yirmiyan Arthur, Asia-Pacific Deputy News Director for Photograph & Storytelling, Associated Press.

Dwelling more on the aspect of ‘defining’, Aküm Longchari said that, “we’re building fences in our minds. We are deciding who’s in and who’s out. We’re deciding who’s with us and who’s without. We are defining one another. So we seem to be building cages in our minds. And now our land is full of cages.”

Foundationally, he said that “it has to do with a long history of colonisation.” However, in the context of defining the world, he noted that, “we ourselves become makers of defining who is who and it becomes a bit more difficult and more challenging for us to really get all of that.”

“So when our minds are caged, our hearts are also closed. And we forget that we are a shared humanity, a shared people, so to speak,” he expressed.

Terming this “defining” as one of the vehicles of assimilation especially in the context of indigenous peoples around the world, he maintained that, “we have somehow resisted a time when there was a lot of divided laws but we are finding it difficult to understand the defining law.”

He further reasoned that this is “because we ourselves, our own people, are in that process of co-creation of the defining law. But the rule remains the same thing.” He also pointed out that the interplay of history, geography and politics have always changed the Naga life while citing H.C. Chandola’s book, “The Naga Story” that talks about the long history of the Naga Freedom Movement.

‘Nagas are stuck in the 3rd and 4th generation that speculates & dissipates’
Observing that the first generation of Nagas generates while the second generation motivates, the third generation speculates, the fourth generation dissipates, and the whole cycle begins again, Aküm Longchari stated that, “in the Naga context, we are stuck between the third and the fourth, and we’re not able to create again.”

“We’ve had the first two generations that generated and also motivated, but we are between speculation and dissipation. In fact, we’re more on dissipation, dissipating over the cycle, and we’re not able to create again. So my question is, why aren’t we able to bring the new, create the new?” he posed.

‘The old is dying’, he added while illustrating that “by old, I don’t mean people” but “the old ways of communicating, the old ways of decision-making, the old ways of doing things.” The struggle to create the new, he asserted is a challenge that we are facing in this first quarter of the 21st Century wherein “we are still stuck in that sphere of dissipation, and we see our society dissipating in so many different forms.

On the other hand, he underlined that Nagas are struggling generally on two aspects of representation—of and for representation even while pointing out that, “we are very comfortable with representation of the people but we’re struggling with the idea of representation for the people.

Highlighting that these two aspects of representation of the people and for the people is tied up with the question of legitimacy and credibility, he underlined that this is also something that we are struggling with when it comes to young people and women.

In situations of conflict, he maintained that, “it is conflict that drives us and creates and reinforces patriarchal societies and power structures.” He went on to state that representation is not and should not be a question of numbers but of what one is getting from it. “It is a question of power over the people,” he affirmed.

He further spoke about power structures by also demonstrating it with the help of a few volunteers. Observing that we are so used to the culture of complacency, he commented that, “we are caught in a crisis of familiarity. We’re so familiar with each other that we refuse to question each other and the question of right and wrong gets submerged with familiarity.”

Not being able to adequately address the crisis of familiarity, which also means “questioning yourself,” he asserted is one of the reasons why the new is not born. Besides questioning oneself, he stated that “it also means questioning your family members, your goals, your feelings, your plans, your own people.”

In the context of social change, Longchari further advocated that, “we have to look at power, more in terms of power with the people.” “We also need to look at our own individual interests within the positive interests as well because our survival depends so much on how we are dealing with one another, not in isolation, but together as a people,” he put across.