Naga Diaspora in Shillong urged to help change NE’s violent image

Dimapur, August 27 : The Naga community in Shillong has been urged to work for community building that would change the unpleasant perception of the Indian Diaspora about the northeast region and its peoples—a violent land and people given to conflict and violence. The means to achieving said objective is by projecting their selves “in the positive right way in our behaviours and conducts,” local legislator Levi Rengma told a gathering of Naga persons in Shillong, in Meghalaya, recently. Parliamentary Secretary for PWD (Housing) Levi Rengma was addressing a cultural event in Shillong on August 25. The event, simply dubbed the ‘cultural meet’, was organized by the Naga Elders’ Forum and the Naga Students’ Union of Shillong, updates on Saturday stated. ‘Why are our north-eastern states still lacking in development? The problem is that the rest of the Indian people have to recognize that north-east is a part of India and not treat people from the region as part and parcel of India and not treat them as outsiders,' Rengma explained during his address. “At the same time we north-east people should also project ourselves in the positive, right way in our behaviors and conducts. When the rest of India hears about our north-east, the first thing that comes to their mind is that it is a land of insurgents and there is killing everyday and everywhere. So, it is our duty to change this concept of negativity (about) our land and people to (the) outside world.” A copy of his speech was received here on Saturday. The politician explained that India was an 'ethnically and religiously' diverse country “so is northeast India”, which comprises eight states and more than 200 different communities and dialects. “We Naga society is again one of the most diverse (societies) in the country or may be even in the world. Indian culture is a very complex and complicated because Indian citizens are divided into various ethnic, religious, cast, linguistic and regional groups, it makes the realities of ‘Indianness’ extremely complicated,” he said. Also, the parliamentary secretary encouraged the gathering with a word that “you have enormous capabilities beyond what’s thought to be possible.” The ‘power to tap into your tremendous potential’, he said, ‘Comes from your identity, how you define yourselves and what believe you can achieve.’ “In order to understand your identity you have to know about your past history, culture and traditions because knowing your own history, or the history of your culture is important for development because it helps you to know who you are while moulding the future.” He explained that understanding one’s cultural heritage offers a person a ‘sense of personal identity.’ Cities and towns today are a ‘huge melting pot of different cultures’ where one might easily feel lost and confused. “In such a situation, self-reflection (is) crucial to the cross-cultural learning process, and that knowledge of one’s own culture is crucial. In order to build communities that are powerful enough to attain significant change, we need large numbers of people working together. If cultural groups joint forces, they will be more effective in reaching common goals, than each group operating in isolation,” he said. Further, he said that understanding cultures will help individuals overcome and prevent racial and ethnic divisions. On industry and economy, Levi Rengma lamented that in spite of “efforts at policy formulation” to cater to the developmental needs of the states, “Nothing significant has yet come out during the last several years.” The politician asserted that “it is as such unwise to approach the problem in the northeast as merely a law and order problem neither can it be handled as purely political one.” The root of it, he said “Lie deep in the fundamental economic dynamics of insurgency movements. The problems of political violence, insurgency, ethnic conflict, migration pressure, inter-state disputes and underdevelopment have become integral to the understanding of political process and economic development of the region.” He held opinion that the root of the matter was “in the failure of several of north-eastern states to develop their internal financial resources, and their continuing reliance on central government for contribution towards meeting their internal non-plan expenditures etc.”