It’s a total misconception among the general Naga youth today that if one is not tattooed, or if one does not eat MTV, drink Hollywood and sleep Bollywood or use derogatory language, or if one does not booze, smoke and party, or if one does not make some bellicose hip hop gestures, then one is old fashioned and not “sophisticated”.
What’s hip hop got to offer us anyway? It is for us to face this challenge and avoid blindly imitating the West. If only some of us could avoid blindly imitating the West! In this way, we can somehow influence someone somewhere and we will be able to steadily reform our society. Give me one reason why we should imitate the West, reader, and I shall give you ten reasons why we shouldn’t.
We should actively participate in Naga cultural activities, customary or modern, and encourage our friends to do the same. The annual event of “Down the Ages” being organized by the Ethnic Network, Dimapur, is one such modern Naga cultural acme event. (The writer is not a party to this event/group in any manner whatsoever). If we let positive Naga jingoism take control of our mind, and if we let the Naga head-hunter instinct regulate our thought process positively, and if we propagate Naga ethnocentrism, and if we would let ourselves gently loose in the serene, calm Naga aura, we will soon experience a soothing effect. We will gradually realize that we had missed something so special and beautiful, which we had foolishly sought to find by blindly imitating the braggart Western hip hop culture a.k.a. Hollywood a.k.a. MTV.
I call upon Naga parents to be more responsible as well. Irresponsible parents breed irresponsible kids. The family is the microcosm of the society and each individual parent is held morally responsible for his/her child’s inability to uphold Naga identity. When we do not have ourselves deeply rooted in our culture, our civilization will not survive the test of time. For, how could a tree survive after its being uprooted? Our social organizations and true sons and daughters of the soil should patriotically protest against alien and unethical practices and values that threaten the very foundation of Naga society.
If I may be allowed to make one clarion call, then my word would run thus: “Friends, Nagas, countrymen, lend me your ears. Let us promise not to surrender ourselves to the Western craze”. We don’t have to mimic everything about the West. What these braggart attention mongers portray about themselves in the media is totally fallacious. Moreover, we are different. We are Nagas. We ought to stand out in the crowd head and shoulders above the rest.
If this seed of Naganess is sowed into the minds of the Naga youth and nourished with the light and water of Naga cultural heritage, the tree that would grow will never be uprooted even by the strongest Western wind. Kuknalim.
Limalenden Longkumer, Mokokchung
(li_longkumer@yahoo.co.in)
