In my last article, I had shared on how the invisible God has created the visible material world and put man in it. In this present article, I want to focus on the responsibilities that the invisible God has put on visible man to run the affairs of the material world. And in discussing the implications of these earthly responsibilities, I want to focus it on the 71 years Indo-Na-Burmese conflict. But before we proceed any further, let us first be clear that the creation of this material world was neither an accident nor an afterthought on the part of the creator. This becomes very clear when we read Isaiah 45:18 where the word of God says: “For this is what the Lord says- he, who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty; but formed it to be inhabited.” As for the specific social responsibilities at the individual, family and national levels, we cannot go into details in an article like this. But suffice is to say that the running of the whole planet earth (including ecology) has been given to mankind. That responsibility is summed up in the Bible in the following words: “And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion... over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth...and subdue it...” (KJV Gen.1:26-28). In short, Dominion ship and ruler ship of the planet earth is the responsibility God has given to man. This however does not mean that man can rule the earth autonomously without any reference to God who in the first place created the material world and man to run it. This is made clear in Denial 4:17 & 35 where it says: “ so that the living may know that the most high is sovereign over all the kingdoms of man and gives them to anyone he wishes...He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: What have you done?” (NIV).
In this heaven and earth political connection, national and international political issues very much come under the scope of our responsibility on earth. This is more so because long before anyone of us were born into the world, the sovereign God had already predetermined both our national as well as geographical identities (See Acts 17:26 or Duet. 32:8). In these verses and many others, we find that each nation on earth is bequeathed their own national sovereignty and their own geographical territories. It is also very clear, that no bigger nations have been given custody or ownership of any other smaller nations under heaven. Rather than any such authorization, God condemned and pronounced judgement against the King of Assyria for saying thus: “By the strength of my hand I have done this, and by my wisdom because I have understanding. I removed the boundaries of nations, I plundered their treasures, like a mighty one, I subdued their kings (Is.10:13). In subsequent events of history, the utter destruction of the Assyrian empire by the Persian and Babylonian kings is recorded in both Biblical and secular historical records. These historical events shows that the kingdom of God indeed rules in the kingdoms of man (See Dan. 4:32).
Coming to the Indo-Naga-Burmese context, every Naga citizen has a duty and obligation to defend their God given national and geographical identities. In our case, we are only defending our already sanctioned sovereignty over our lands and our affairs. This sanction and authority has come from the very throne of God. And as such, we are not demanding our independence from either India or Burma or for that matter, any other nations in the whole face of the earth. We are simply demanding our Piece of Peace in our Piece of land. However, in the same context, both India and Burma have lost a lot of their soldiers in the past 71 years of conflict with Nagaland and other neighbouring states. After achieving their independence, instead of letting their soldiers rest from war and enjoy the fruits of peace, the Indian government and the Burmese governments sent their soldiers to war claiming territories that never belonged to India or Burma in human history. How these soldiers have died in our lands fighting in a totally foreign terrain and culture is a tragic story altogether. So tragic has been this story, that it appears as if these soldiers lost their independence the day their countries gained their respective independence.
As for the Naga side of the story, no nation in the world can ever accuse the Nagas of not having done enough in defending their independence and sovereignty. But having done all that we could, every Naga also knows that we are all still living under the shadows of two foreign countries and their flags. But despite these obvious facts, most Nagas seems to have resigned from their national responsibilities. In the present circumstances, what would baffle the world would be the indifference and desperate attempts at evasion of the issue by most of the educated Nagas. Here we all must realize that indifference or evasion of responsibility never produces a solution to the problem. On the contrary indifference and evasion of a problem only leads to further complication and multiplication of the problem.
