Not a very long time back, Nagaland cabinet minister and President of Nagaland BJP, Temjen Imna Along, gave a lecture to an august gathering where he said that India is a Sanatan country. For the uninitiated, Sanatan is nothing but Sanatan Dharma, which means extreme Hinduism, and is essentially used to denote the absolute set of duties and ordained practices of the Hindu religion. Imna Along went on to say that Sanatan is eternal which has no beginning or end and that people of every other faiths need to accept, remain, and understand the Sanatan. He said that had India not been Sanatan, we would not have existed as we are today.
What Temjen Imna Along said is a no holds barred complete antithesis to our Christian faith and equally a total contradiction to historical facts and perspectives. In the first place, the term ‘Sanatan’ or ‘Sanatan Dharma’ was revived in the late 19th century during the Hindu revivalism movement as a name for Hinduism as a relegion in order to avoid having to use the term ‘Hindu’ which is not a native name but of Persian origin.
Yours faithfully is never against the Hindu religion but is totally against the theory propounded by Imna Along that since India is a Sanatan country, people of all other faiths needs to subscribe to the absolute set of duties and ordained practices of the Sanatan. That we need to accept, remain, and understand the Sanatan. Sadly, this theory of Imna Along seems to have found favor and takers from many of our fellow Christian Nagas who are members of the BJP. Even more tragic is the apparent reality that there is an undeclared competition amongst the members of the Nagaland BJP, even falling over themselves in a rush to find favor in the eyes and good book of Imna Along, who, supposedly, has the ears of the central BJP, by actively participating along with him in performing even the nitty-gritty of the absolute set of duties and ordained practices of the Hindu religion. If this is not a direct challenge and an abomination to the Lord, then, what is?
This writer believes that nobody has any problem or problems with the ideals and ideology of Imna Along as a Sanatan. The problem only arises in his missionary zeal to propogate and advance the Sanatan idealism in the Naga society through the garb or clothing of a political party. That so many of us, proclaimed believers, have indulged, knowingly or unknowingly, in the designs of the Sanatan advocator only betrays the shallowness of our true faith not just to ourselves but to the entire world. Yes, the shallowness of our proclaimed Christian faith which we all, more often than not, proudly exhibits in one way or the other.
Talking about the Sanatan idealism or about the Naga Sanatan ideologue, here is some food for thought for the ideologue himself. Idealism never really counted in the Hindu epics. Karna, the noble, the idealist, the truthful always gets let down by his mother, brothers and finally by Hindu Lord Krishna who asks Arjuna to take aim and kill the mighty warrior Karna, who gets down unarmed from the chariot, trying to be civil and help his charioteer. Bhishma, the patriarch, can’t stop the disrobing of his grand daughter-in-law in the midst of a full court. If the Hindu epics are to be our collective consciousness, we are all terribly practical people seeking what we want, however ephemeral or short-lasting they may be and whatever the cost be.
In sharp contrast to the Sanatan idealism is the Gandhian idealism. Gandhian idealism was so bright that it shone the path of redemption to the rest of the world. Gandhi and his peaceful protest against naked, brutal, racist power became chosen methods of self-liberation for Rev. Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. Gandhian nationalism was different because his nation did not have enemies and armies. His boundaries were moral and his incessant hostilities were internal. He choose justice over independence and death over bigotry.
Gandhian idealism, which consumes the practitioner, could also cleanse souls. Gandhi was greatly influenced by the Sermon on the mount – the Beatitudes – from the Bible. No wonder, his best followers were those who cleaned toilets to become ideal scavengers. No modern philosopher or social reformer could hold the mirror to the Indian elite castes across the British empire the way Gandhi could, while talking to them in a language they could understand, without completely disowning their way of life. That was the moment of India’s biggest triumph as a people. This Gandhian idealism has served as a mirror to the Naga people since that time of July 19, 1947, when the NNC leaders met Mahatma Gandhi at Bhangi, New Delhi. There has always been a clear seperation and distinction between politics and religion in Nagaland but lately this distinction has become blurred and become almost indistinguishable with Temjen Along’s unapologetic advocating and propounding of the camouflaged version of the extreme Hindu faith called the Sanatan. Nagas certainly cannot remain blind, deaf, and dumb to this assult on the collective conscience of the people. Like the pied-piper of Hamelin in the middle ages, this pied-piper of today has thousands of followers following his tunes completely unaware of where their souls will end up. The once ‘unthinkable’ is today happening in Nagaland. Closing the stable after the horses have bolted will be a vain exercise.
Lastly, but not in the least, Imna Along, during the course of his lecture in the same very distinguished august gathering had said, (quote) “Agar ye desh Sanatan nahi hota, tu, hum log Aaj es sthan mea nahi hota” (unquote). This sentence is nothing short of treasonous. It negates everything Nagas have stood for and is standing for. As a cabinet minister in the Nagaland government, he is reaping the fruits of the blood, sweat, and tears of our founding fathers and yet he had the guts and gumption to utter such a sentence, straightfaced, without even blinking an eye. Can Nagas allow ourselves to be browbeaten, downgraded, and submitted into camatose silence just because a hired pied-piper dressed in multi-colored clothing appears, playing strange pipe tunes which we do not understand but can only hear being applauded by an audience many of whom might not even be able to point out Nagaland in the political map of India??
Benito Z Swu
