Justin Metha
B.A. 4th Semester
Dept. Of English
Tetso College
COVID-19 or SARS CoV-2 or simply the Coronavirus has really put the brakes on a lot of things in recent weeks and just stopped the usual hustle and bustle of life but lately, there’s been this increase in a lot of bad things and unacceptable behaviors and words being used against one another. While we may be on the receiving end of things, we’re also no better than the people we criticize. Yes, Racism in any form is a bad thing and no one would condone it in any way. This isn’t something new to us however as there has been a multitude of reports of racist comments being made at our people and others from the Northeastern region. Generally, this stems from the differences in the way we look or just the educational standpoint of the people in question.
The thing here is that our own people also are guilty of being racist towards a mainlander or two. Not every one of us is a racist and I’m sure that there are plenty of people out there who are unexplainably egalitarian and fair but there’s always that section of society that’s going to be racist to somebody or the other and this works for both parties. There is no point however, of playing the ‘victim card’ whenever something like this happens. There were some comments saying that they are less educated than us because they are saying what they were saying but it hurts to see the amount of bullying our people do on social media and other platforms and if that isn’t an indicator of where our mentality is too then I have little hope for where we go in the days to come. If we believe that we are indeed more educated than them, we should be trying to understand their point of view as well and try to be the better people instead of throwing back more racial slurs towards them or just insulting them in general. Yes, it doesn’t feel good being offended by people who know little to nothing about our culture but we gain nothing by taking revenge or showing emotional outbursts when we try to get our point across. Some may argue that we must do what we’re doing because they did it first but no wise man extinguishes a fire with a flamethrower and it is foolish to do so. We make a mockery of the term “Nagaland for Christ” when we do so because it is not Christ-like to exact revenge or harbor ill will towards others. Proverbs 24:29 says, “Do not say, “I will do to him as he has done to me; I will pay the man back for what he has done.””, Ephesians 4:31-32 says, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”. There are many other passages from the Bible that we can follow and apply if we really do believe in being “Nagaland for Christ” otherwise it would be blasphemous on our part and also would set a bad example for others when they think of Christianity.
Now, being ostracized isn’t cool and neither is being racially abused but this isn’t the important fight right now and I hope both parties see through this and understand the reality that’s already in our country. Jordan B Peterson in Rule 6 of his book “12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos” says, “Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world.” And I think that makes a lot of sense for us because we know that as a people, we’re not really what we show ourselves to be. We tend to live in our glasshouses and throw stones at others quite frequently. A friend of mine added to what I shared on Instagram with the concluding lines from Rule 6 of Jordan Peterson’s book. It reads, “Perhaps you will see then that if all people did this, in their own lives, the world might stop being an evil place. After that, with continued effort, perhaps it could even stop being a tragic place.”