With the next assembly elections scheduled for early 2023, we are already beginning to hear reports of village Senso Mungdang declaring consensus candidates. Here, we are practicing a philosophy that political theorists call Communitarianism, a term we may not be familiar with but a philosophy we practice nonetheless. Communitarianism is a philosophy that emphasizes the connection between the individual and the community. Its overriding philosophy is based upon the belief that a person’s social identity and personality are largely molded by community relationships. In communitarianism, there is very little or no scope for individualism. Communitarianism usually is understood as a collection of interactions among a community of people in a given geographical location or among a community who share an interest or who share a history. It is a ‘politics of community’.
Communitarianism may seem to harm individualism and pose a stumbling block to the establishment of a ‘modern’ democratic polity. However, individualistic societies also suffer from undesirable social consequences and they look to Communitarianism for solutions to their problems. In other words, both Communitarianism and individualism are not perfect systems. Communitarianism may seem to have lost salience as a political ideal in modern democratic polity, especially in the West, but the excesses of individualism are giving rise to communitarian-inspired political forces. Rise of populism, for example, is a response to the excesses of individualism.
Humans by nature are social beings. The conclusion, therefore, is that community is valuable for human societies. Communitarianism is the idea that human identities are largely shaped by social relations. It is this conception of human nature that shapes our moral and political judgments as well as policies and institutions. We exist in a community and the community shapes our moral and political judgments. Naga people generally have a strong obligation to support and nourish the particular communities that they belong to, that which provide meaning for their lives and define their very existence, without which they’d be devoid of purpose and identity.
Any human society needs communitarianism in one form or the other. It is just that we need to distinguish between bad forms of communitarianism that benefit the powerful and oppress the weak, and good forms of communitarianism that express morally defensible values.
Communitarianism can be reinterpreted and modernized so it is compatible with progressive values. There is a dire need for a social and political movement that can restore and reinterpret Naga Communitarianism that is appropriate for the modern world. We need to redefine our Communitarianism and elections offer us the perfect opportunity to do so. We should allow for the possibility that individual rights and communitarian goals can co-exist and complement each other. If we fail to do that, the day is not far when chaos will overwhelm our communities and belonging to a community would become a punishment in itself.