Monday 26 October 2015

What it means to be truly advanced

(A reflection following a local tribal community in Nagaland banning the opinions of newspaper editor Monalisa Changkija)

It was in 2008. That small conversation is still vivid. I recall turning to my former colleague Longrangty Longchar and declaring to him, “Believe me, Longti, the first district in Nagaland to implement the 33% reservation of seat for women will be Mokokchung.”

I still chew my words and have yet to complete eating them.
Now, the Ao Senden – of all the organizations to ever represent a Naga plethora – would find itself yet again in our familiar bamboo groves. The groves from whence we naked savages emerged to find an air-plane. Monalisa Changkija was merely a piece of conscience.
Maybe – just maybe – we may have to forgive the little human foibles of our bucolic community leaderships for issuing diktats to cull pet dogs (and imposing exorbitant fines on owners who protest!).
And such small inhumanities, and go on with our lives.
Maybe – just maybe – all that we can do is simply to pull at the hem of our suits, and offer a piece of pretend mien that drips with uptown complacence. That political gesture just might diffuse any awkward askance at us, on our histories, and into our little pathological flaws. And insecurities.
Maybe – just maybe – a pinch of salt to accommodate our rusted minds; that our pompous interpretation of old history just might find new inspiration in this new age.
Maybe – just maybe –turning the cheek just might thwart any awkward assessment from superior minds about our society and how we face life and educated sensibilities.
Unfortunately, history does not decide the future. It is the present that feeds history. What feeds the present is how we use history. My father and his family were pioneers too – some of the Naga peoples’ first generation of high-ranking state officials, and educationists. And many other Naga families and communities were so too.
Unfortunately, that does not make me a pioneer.
Censuring intellectual freedom, free speech and freedom of conscience fits the taxonomy of inhumanity which only socialist blood-mongers such as China and North Korea are capable of. They bite just because they discovered they had teeth to bite with.
Education is only a tool, not the fruit. Our grandfathers were pioneers, not us. I tell you, to be truly civilized you must refuse to be slave to prejudice. 

You must honor humane intellectual traditions before you can be called advanced.

That, my friend, is what it means to be truly civilized.

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