Kuknalim
denotes the aspiration and the struggle of the Naga people to live under one
territorial homeland that is the greater lim
(land). It also means victory and glory to our land. Kuknalim emerged in the usage of the early Naga nationalist movement
when the people said goodbye before leaving the Naga in-habitat area to China
and East Pakistan for training and for arms and ammunition to fight against the
Indian army. As a remembrance for those who died in the jungles of Burma and on
the way back from China and East Pakistan and whose grave still lies only in
the unmarked grave in the jungles the word Kuknalim
was coined to honour and to say to them that we have not yet forgotten your
sacrifices.
Having experienced the
aspiration of the Naga people to live under one territorial land and the struggle
that we encounter to be accepted within the mainstream and spirit of the Pan-India-ness, I invite you to voyage towards a relationship of love, honour and
acceptance without hypocrisy. The text Romans 12:9-13 and 16-18 calls for
accepting one another based on the love of a neighbour and love as a norm for
social relationship.
Let Love be without Hypocrisy
The
word agape in this text transcends
beyond the accepted notion of the Divine love of God towards the new
understanding of establishing human relationship and love. Paul’s message to
the Romans posited the call for extending the love of family to the members of
the society. The organic imagery of the inter-relatedness of the body requires
to be supplemented by the emotional bond of family affection, the feelings of
deep affection for another and others. Showing respect to one another in love
underlines the sense of honour and respect not in terms of status and intrinsic
quality but in terms of membership of the same body.
Paul’s
message for love without hypocrisy reinforces the notion that love should
provide structure for the Christians to relate with fellow human beings in the
community on the path to build trust in the day today life and endeavour a
lifestyle of accepting human relationship in each other’s lives. The absolute
primacy of genuine love is that love must not be disguised for ulterior motives
rather true love should be free from all pretense and hypocrisy. To love
genuinely is to accept and regard others with honour. Anything that is not love
and resembles evil is the enemy in the human relationship as it prevents the
establishment of genuine relationship and hampers individuals to accept fellow
human beings. To honour the other fellow person is one way of holding in check
the innate human tendency to honour oneself unduly. Affectionate relationship
would outdo one another in showing honour to each other.
Guts to Be In Comradeship
In
the passage, Paul called out the Romans to live in agreement and harmony, in
accordance with acceptance and honour. The attempt to live in a whole-hearted
relationship is a lifestyle rather than a grudging or calculating act. The
caution of not being wise in one’s own self-estimate prevents the possibility
of a corporate act of superiority complex over other person’s culture and
identity. The courage to live in a comradeship relationship calls for the need
to be sensitive to the view and ways of life of the other people.
The
task of the individuals as the community of human race is to embody love and
grace to the other people, where the treatment and care for the other and
enemies is intended to turn them from enmity to friendship. This calls for an endeavour
to live in a society with different values and goals without any corruption of
thoughts and action. If there arises corruption and evil in the society it does
not mean that everything within it -its values and actions- are totally evil
and without good. Rather the problem lies with the people’s inability to
discern the ideals of grace, love and evil. Pride sows the seed of discord. The
tendency to regard oneself as worthy of preferential treatment is universal in
scope. The entire range of personal conflict, which reaches all the way from
the minor squabbles to international wars, is based on the misguided notion
that we are better than they are or that they have done something against our
interest.
The
effort to arrive at mutual understanding of living in harmony admits oneself to
a humble situation of life not aspiring to be imminent but open towards humble
situations. Humility detests the ambition to be autocrats and a high
superiority complex rather it calls for an association with the humble and
nameless section of people in the society. The natural impulse is to return
injury for an injury. Paul’s message for the Romans was that for those who
declare acceptance to the grace and love of God it becomes imperative for them
to repay good for evil and right what is wrong. Instead of allowing evil to get
the better of the situation, it was imperative to hold onto something that is
good and humble, as friendship becomes a better antidote for hatred and enmity.
“… the other Side of
our Silence”
There
arises no notion of love lost between the ‘India’ and the Naga people even
though it has been almost 67 years that no solution has been concluded even
though Nagaland was added to the statehood of Indian Union on 1st
December 1961. By the year 1929, the Nagas through a memorandum to the Simeon
Commission expressed their desire of continual path of self-determination to
the British Crown as separate identity and nation state, distinct from India. As such, the Naga National Council declared
independence on 14th August 1947 and this was reaffirmed again by
the Naga national voluntary Plebiscite in May 1951, where 99.9% of Naga people voted to
remain a sovereign independent country as in ancient time.
Rejection by the Naga national leaders to accept and assimilate into the free
independent India
was considered as revolt and dissent by the newly formed Indian union. Military
intervention was sanctioned to ‘neutralise’ the Nagas’ aspiration for self-determination.
Violence and bloodshed emerged from the Indo-Naga imbroglio as armed conflict
was considered the resort by both the sides to achieve its ends. Casualties
were inflicted on both sides where hundreds and thousands of lives were lost
and shattered.
Today Nagas and people from the North Eastern region are often
ascribed as part of Chinese people or other Mongolian nations in South East
Asia. An ascription that clearly declares ‘you are not an Indian and you are
not welcome here’. The very existence of the AFSPA (passed in the Indian
Parliament to be implemented in Naga Hills) in the Naga inhabit at areas (parts
of the North Eastern States and Kashmir) betrays the very notion of the
fundamental right to life and freedom that is sanctioned in the Indian
constitution. The
government at Delhi follows the path of planting discord within the Naga
families and tribes as a strategic tool and weapon to sever the spirit and
aspiration of the Nagas to live under one territorial homeland.
The
government at Delhi quotes the presence of infighting among the Nagas as hurdle
for bringing out a solution to the Indo-Naga imbroglio. However, without
negating the presence of schism within the Naga family the question that is
being raised today is can the government at Delhi have the sincerity to solve
the issue of the Indo-Naga imbroglio. For instance the stand of Nehru, the then
Prime Minister of India, to the President of NNC A. Z. Phizo on 11th
March 1952 “that whether heaven falls, or India goes to pieces and blood runs
red all over the country” there would be no discussion on the Naga issue does
not help the cause for a dialogue of sorting things for a solution. Rather the
declaration of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the then prime minister of India, in 1997
that “Naga history is unique” and in whose government the ceasefire agreement was
signed with the Naga nationalist forces, that cease the firing till dawn, could
provide impetus for finding an honourable and acceptable solution.
Paul’s message to the Romans was to let love exist without
hypocrisy so that one could achieve esteem from the concord of the community as
a warning against false esteem. When love and acceptance is sincere, genuine
relationship would be established without any hypocrisy, biased feelings, and
attitude. The epitaph on the World War II cemetery in Kohima, Nagaland reads
“when you go home tell them of us and say that for your tomorrow we gave our
today”. However, today I affirm to tell the message of the words that are found
on the epitaph of a woman, a victim of the AFSPA, that reads, “go and tell the
world what you have heard from the other side of silence”. Somewhere down the
line in various parts of India and the world, you might come across the issue
of conflict and violence happening in the valleys and hills of Nagalim, at such
time re-member us to tell the world of our struggles and the aspiration to live
as Nagas. Not a blind supporter to our struggles of everyday life that we
encounter under the peril of an automatic rifle but as citizens of the free
world, fellow human beings and for the love of freedom tell for us to the world
that freedom is not free until everyone is endowed with the right to life and
liberty to reside freely.
The Naga call for acceptance into the ‘mainstream’ Indian union
maintains the stand that acceptance should be based on genuine respect and
honour to an extent that there exists no place for hierarchy and no place of
one being the source of provision for the other. Nagas want to be accepted
just the way we are and who we are: nothing more and nothing less than a mere
member of the human community. Acceptance to the mainstream Indian union should
not be based on the notion that it is the Nagas who benefit from such
conglomeration. Rather it should be based on the stand that accepting each other
is beneficial for both the Indian union and for the Nagas as they could gain
more in harmony rather than being antagonistic to each other.
KUKNALIM!
BD IV
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