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Dimapur: The Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR) said that peace is much more than the absence of war and threats. “Peace among the Nagas should be blessing, healing, and well-being, togetherness and righteousness. Christ’s advent brings into our world His joy and His fortune of peace. This kind of peace is a new life and new human-hood, not only the absence of death and division,” said the FNR in a statement today.
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It is also said that Christ’s Advent is also the fulfillment of the hope of human longings and aspirations. “Yet, we cannot force divine hope on ourselves; we must first broaden our narrow, human-made walls of security and hope. In order to partake of the hope that God offers us during the Advent Season through Jesus Christ, we need to be loved.”
The FNR then said Nagas cannot force themselves that practicing exclusion will lead to the bright light of political harmony. “This ritualization of politics breeds more political and social boundaries among us. Consequently, we end up living in a world of exclusion, a world we keep creating because it is a lived reality, so deeply entrenched in our hearts by our hurts, fears, and hate—we are made to believe that exclusion is the solution; that hope lies in excluding others. Perhaps many people are not even aware that what they are practicing is exclusion,” it also said. “Advent is a reminder that we need to practice the act of embracing. Reconciliation is not simply an event between an individual and God; it has political and social bearings. One without the other would turn out to be ineffective.”
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To be sure, the FNR said reconciliation is not a monopoly of the Forum for Naga Reconciliation. In the reality of the harsh contradictions that Naga people confront, reconciliation is a piece of the jigsaw puzzle that “each one of us” holds to put together the Naga home, it added. “We humbly appeal to all conscientious people and the Naga political groups to be honestly objective, rather than limiting our views with our colored lenses. We need sincere criticism coupled with critical love. Sarcasm fuelled by ill-will is narcissistic and serves as another form of violence. So also, dogmatism and political rigidity not only isolate others, but fossilize the self,” the FNR further added.
According to the FNR, today, the average Nagas are reinterpreting the past imagination for the sake of the future, and with renewed optimism, moving forward. “As our founding fathers and mothers have said that sovereignty ‘lies with the people’, then it is up to us to exercise our sovereign rights”, the FNR also said. As all groups of people relatively are,Nagas are unique in our historical and political rights. This is primordial—the soul of the Nagas, the FNR said. “We must urgently advocate and apprehend realism and bury the idealism that continues to weaken and divide us,” it further stated.
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In the future of the Nagas, as all are stakeholders, “together we need to wisely prepare” for the end of the beginning of a new Nagahood, whose identity is distinct and unique, said the FNR. To have an identity implies a boundary, but in a world of multiple unique identities and boundaries, the Naga boundary must be reflexive and permeable, it stated. “It is absolutely essential for us to craft an identity and sense of belonging that is distinct but multiple, and discursive and integrative at the same time. Our self-understanding of churches, villages, and tribes must go beyond cultural and geographical categories. This is the unique political paradigm of the post-modern world to which we must adapt if we are to survive and contribute as a people,” the FNR added.
Together, side by side, with other ethnic identities and the 21st century boundaries of the world “we must exist and co-exist”, said the FNR. “If we refuse this paradigm, we are simply excluding ourselves from the future and remain slaves ofthe past. To rise to the occasion, we must pursue a realistic dream, yet also envision big, locally and globally. Nagas are beautiful and are capable of being on par with others who are coming of age in people building and identity building. We must not let the past suffocate us or dictate our future; we need to creatively reinterpret the past narratives for the sake of a shared Naga future,” the FNR further said.
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The FNR then challenged Naga people to think positively that “we have not lost anything as long as we remain united and determined to build our peoplehood”. Rather, the FNR said Nagas are more realistic and full of hope; “our historical and political rights are here to be cherished, and to be proudly safeguarded, by moving ahead with time”. This is the politics of a people whose identity is historically realistic and relevant. “After all, what good is it to passionately guard an identity that is divisive and absolute and thereby not relevant?” it asked.
The FNR then “earnestly” appealed to all to be generous and to stretch our imaginations to the future. “Our world is a world in the making and hence, every achievement is only the end of a beginning. Let us lift the present to a higher plane of transformation in every sense,” it said.
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