By: Pakinrichapbo
“Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking about.” –Gilbert K. Chesterton
Weak Government
In the context of the formation of the government to govern the Naga tribal population, we should say we are very lucky as the Constitution of India and its statute like the Representation of The People’s Act 1950 laid down the mechanism for the election and formation of government every five years. Imagine, by the virtue of the past political struggle, the Nagas could establish a fully independent Nagaland State outside Indian Union, I can confidently say Nagaland would be no different from nation states of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Myanmar, or of African Nations like Sudan, where political or military coups dominate the countries just mentioned. Nagaland history would be full of coups orchestrated by different political parties or by a military; even the term of the first government of the newly created Nagaland State could not complete its term due to political instability not to mention other episodes where the government had to dissolve as politicians and parties struggle for power.
Here I shall briefly discuss why we have a weak Government:
History and Civilizations: If we look at our history, the Tribal Nagas unlike the Ahoms or the Meiteis never had a uniform central authority governing over the entire population. While the Ahoms and Meeiteis had their Kings and ministers passing out orders and decrees to govern the general populations thereby establishing a sort of rule of law, Nagas were living freely in their way at their villages with their own set of conduct or in other words how to behave in a society. Even in the period from the establishment of the Naga Hills District by the colonial British in 1866 at Samaguting (Chümoukedima) to Nagaland Statehood in 1963, the administrative authority has not done the part of educating the general population to accede to centralized authority without protest for the customs and our habits made us a highly decentralized society. Even in a village no men bow down to other men except for clan elders to adjudicate and settle disputes, we never had a uniform central authority. And at present, though we have all the paraphernalia of a state, we still live in a highly decentralized manner with our rigid tribal setup, and with this attitude, whatever new or alien practice or development is introduced, the majority are bound to oppose it. In such a reality, the elected representatives who themselves are members of a highly decentralized society and elected to run government often hesitate to deal with the iron hand in implementing new laws and practices in the face of strong opposition. Where the situation at last leads to a weak government after the government running the state for decades.
Politics and politicians without ideology: naturally politicians in India and around the world have and follow their own set of political ideologies. Politicians are known worldwide for their political beliefs and their struggles to achieve their political goals for example Vladimir Lenin, Fidel Castro, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, and Abraham Lincoln to name a few. In the Nagaland context, we have politicians without any political ideologies and this can be seen whenever tribal pressure groups or church organizations start to oppose the government on any issues, our elected representatives consciously or unconsciously would turn into an anarchist. The ruling government will stop ruling, bowing to pressures, and starts to initiate consultations with CSOs often with no positive results. Once elected, our legislators need to push forward any development or new reformative laws without succumbing to pressure groups’ demands and tantrums. With the habit of being overruled by tribal organizations, our state will never have a strong government even in the days to come. And all this happens in the first place because we have politicians without a political ideology for a natural politician with an ideology would do everything in his power to implement his ideologies and policies for the growth of the state. Whereas in Nagaland, a politician is a man of his family, clan village, and tribe, there is no room for any political ideology in his mind, and even if there is, he or she won’t do anything about it. As such Nagaland politicians are recognized by their village, tribe identity, and wealth, not by their political ideology, and a government run by politicians without a political ideology will always be a weak government.
Tribe and its Tribal Organizations
For the sake of a constructive discussion, it is high time, that people start to critically study and review the roles played by our tribal organizations. In the Naga context, the apex tribe body is sine qua non for the existence of a tribe, like the majority of Hindus cannot do away with the caste system, Nagas cannot do away with their tribes and apex tribal organization. Like caste, our tribal organizations get involved in everything be it political or social issues as the situation demands, which in many ways acts as an official agent of tribalism. As long as tribal organizations remain powerful, tribalism will stay, tribe and its tribal organization are like two sides of the same coin, and as long the Scheduled Tribe Order 1950 is repealed or replaced by another Order, we Nagas will remain a scheduled tribe, but still, we shall strive to reshape our tribal organizations to be more of a cultural organization engrossed in preserving our cultural heritage than to poke its nose in every burning issue.
Chief Minister of Nagaland Neiphiu Rio has time and again spoken on Tribalism on different platforms, the most notable was on 18.03.2018 at the Nagaland Legislative Assembly during the conclusion of the discussion on the Budget Speech where he states that “we all talk about Naga political issue but we harbor our isms from individualism to claim, village, and tribalism and not coming up to the level of Nagaism”. Having said it, no formal program was initiated so far to eradicate or reduce tribalism by the Chief Minister who is the most powerful person in the state and is still the head of the state.
Here the CM has not pointed out the root cause of tribalism and ways to eradicate tribalism, for which I shall briefly discuss how to reduce tribalism in a Naga society:
New curriculum in school: A special course needs to be introduced in all our schools whether government-run or private establishment, where a selected teacher with no tribal leaning should be given the task of educating the students on the evils of tribalism and how to be a good tribal.
Doing away with tribe students union in colleges and universities: in colleges and universities, tribe students union exists to look after the welfare of their respective members and organizes activities. However, the presence of such respective tribal student unions in colleges and universities takes tribalism to a higher level; tribalism is now institutionalized and deeply rooted in the psyche of the students and once they become somebody, they are bound to be tribe centric. Even student union elections are contested on tribal lines and tribal grouping. Therefore, colleges and universities should provide a common platform where inclusiveness is given priority.
Government role: as far as possible, the government as a model employer should be fair in recruiting government employees which is another vital step to reduce tribalism.
Women Reservations and Article 371A: For those who oppose women’s reservation, no amount of argument will convince them to change their minds, and will oppose with all their might. The current showdown between the Tribal Organizations, Nagaland Government, and the Supreme Court, resembles the showdown of the extremist Naga nationalists, moderate Naga Nationalists, and the Government of India just before the Nagaland state was created after the Nagas learned their lesson in a hard way. The topic of women’s reservation is unavoidable and as long as Nagaland remained under the Indian Union, we cannot escape from the long arm of the laws the present situation tells that women’s reservation will be implemented at a heavy price. Nagas never had written laws but now the time has changed and even for the custom to be valid, the customary practice has to be reasonable for argument’s sake, opposing women’s reservation which is a part of women’s rights and empowerment seems to be unreasonable at today’s standard.
Regarding the interpretation of the women’s reservation infringing Article 371A, it is to be noted that opponents of women’s reservation seem to be fighting a lost battle and that no law is permanent therefore even women’s reservation will one day be done away with as our country continues to develop at all front. Therefore, the Naga tribal leaders of today ought to show to the world that Nagas are generous even in power-sharing with our women folks and let us be a symbol of hope for all the tribal and indigenous communities in the world by being liberal and accommodating in our political outlook. I believe our Naga ancestors won’t be turning in their graves after seeing our present status of women getting involved in political decision-making bodies. (The author is an Advocate & can be reached at pakinchawang@gmail.com)
