We often hear and talk about unity but seldom do we do that about cohesion. Both unity and cohesion may seem to mean the same thing but they are actually quite different. Unity simply means the state of being united or joined as a whole while cohesion means the action or fact of forming a united whole. Thus, unity can be understood as the outcome of cohesion. While unity is structural or physical, cohesion is action or mental. The former is tangible while the latter is not. Without cohesion, there can be no real unity and even if there is unity, it will be merely temporal or outwardly. Cohesion may even be understood as the unity of purpose. When there is no cohesion, the perceived unity will be without purpose. For the sake of presenting an illustration, let us examine the phrase “Ao Nagas are not united” or “Ao Nagas need unity.” Here, we are actually talking about cohesion without realizing it, because the Ao Nagas are actually already united. Being identified as Ao Naga is structural or physical and, therefore, there is unity. Had there been no unity, there would be no Ao Naga and we all would have been identified by our villages most probably. Here, what we are actually meaning is “Ao Nagas lack cohesion” or that “Ao Nagas need cohesion.”
The lack of cohesion in a community or a people results in weak structural unity. Both unity and cohesion are equally important for society. Cohesion is the strength of relationships and the sense of solidarity among members of a community whereas unity is the association of people or a situation where people are in agreement with one another. Unity is the state of being one, whereas cohesion is the strength of being one. Both unity and cohesion are equally important for a society to thrive. However, they are not the same. Therefore, we need to propagate the ideas of unity and cohesion in equal terms so that we, as a society and a community, can progress and be of mutual benefit to one another. Both unity and cohesion are necessary for the development of a community’s social capital. Here, social capital is what allows a group of people to work together effectively to achieve a common purpose or goal. It allows a society to function together as a whole through trust and shared identity, norms, values, and mutual relationships.
The lack of cohesion, perhaps, is the reason why we do not have an apex sports organization, for instance. There are other communities even among the Nagas whose sports associations are now more than 50 years old with some nearing or even exceeding 75 years of existence. That means these groups were formed during or near after statehood. As a result, athletes from these communities are now performing better and achieving more in the field of games and sports. There was a time when we had inter-village or inter-range sports meets which have now been obviously discontinued and quite understandably. But why? There was no cohesion. Even today, it would be a ‘risky’ affair to initiate or organize an inter-range sports competition – which points to our lack of cohesion. We need to build and develop social cohesion. Then and only then can we give ourselves the social capital that we desperately need.
