Naga Idol: Revisiting 'mistaken modernity.'

The tagline reads, ‘The ‘winner’ walks away with a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh and a brand new car.’ The curtains have raised again for the 3rd edition of the much hyped Naga Idol competition. The organizers - Mokokchung District Art and Culture Council (MDACC) firmly believes that the previous two shows have proved helpful in the pursuit of its motto, ‘Nurturing Talent’ and have helped many Naga youngsters in realising their individual potentials in various ways, musical talent being the primary objective. They also claim that their decision to conduct the show was also preceded by ‘enormous public demand and pressure’ and with the understanding to provide healthy family entertainment to the people. The competition will engulf the whole of Nagaland for at least three months. Everyone one will be kept actively involved through their constant persuasion to unabashedly indulge in voting which is just another propaganda model to generate money as well as to create a factory of manufacturing consent. Perhaps, this competition will shift the focus of the town, from ‘guns and killings’ to serious engagement in manipulative voting which will ultimately decide the winner based on who gets the maximum number of votes and not the best singer.
This year too, each contestant will be singing from a genre of their liking. So their main stress is on how a contestant can sing someone else’s song and not how one can sing his own song. This is ‘nurturing talent’ in the eyes of the organizers. It creates a temporary platform but beyond that I doubt whether such a platform can nurture talent as the organizers claim to be. It showcases ones singing ability but nurturing talent is of serious matter. Just possessing the ability to sing won’t help a person in achieving greater heights. Music is an art and a proper knowledge about music is very crucial. A good music institute will be an ideal step in the tryst for nurturing talent towards professionalism. If we can also have some quality seminars on music, it will do a world of good for the budding musicians and singers. Again, we lack good songwriters. Naga Idol competition can play a very big role here. Instead of making the contestants sing different genres of song, it will be a plus point if they are asked to sing their own composed songs.
I still can’t see the ‘logic’ behind the judge’s presence when the whole of the competition is defined by votes. To make mechanised comments, I guess, like…“You packaged well...That was a great delivery... you delivered well...wow, wow, wow, you always deliver…I give you standing ovation...this is why you are here…you have done a great job…I give you terrific marks...” Jokes apart, they have the biggest role to play in making the contestants learn as well as unlearn. Biased comments from the judges will land them in deep confusion. Say, A judge giving a standing ovation for a song whereas another gives all the negative comments for the same song. Constructive comments (rather than ‘blatant lies’ triggered by favoritism) can be more effective to make one learn their weaknesses and at the same time instill confidence in the minds of the contestants.
These leftist credentials of mine might come as indigestion pills for all the hardcore fanatics of the so called manufactured NAGA IDOL competition. Personally, I am totally against the concept, ‘IDOL.’ An idol can be defined as a material effigy that is worshipped or someone who is adored blindly and excessively. Put it holistically, an idol is someone whom you can idolise or look at with great awe and admiration. So it narrows down to the question of whether we can brand someone as Naga Idol who wins by virtue of getting the highest number of votes. ‘NAGA IDIOT’ can be the most fitting title for such a competition which is pure copycat and does not find even a trace of originality. This is the third edition and the only change I have noticed so far is the dramatic increase in prize money. Sad but true, it’s just a money game where the contestants are used as mere ‘commodified objects’ (with due respects to the contestants) for generating money and also to provide unhealthy ‘X-Tratainment Unlimited’, a term used by the organisers. In this regard, I would also like to question the contestants as to why they are participating. This is not to discourage them, rather to create awareness. I feel that each one of them should question themselves and also have a clear reason for participating in the competition. Ones participation should be seen from ones own perspective, rather than from others perspective about the competition and reason out whether it is a worthy platform or a platform where they are to be used as a means to money and entertainment, whether it will really nurture ones talent towards professionalism or just a temporary platform of popularity ending in despair and disappointment.
The organisers has said that the whole Idol concept would be managed by a group of youngsters, experienced in various fields known as X-Tratainment Unlimited (XU). I would like to question what the organizers mean by X-Tratainment Unlimited? Why not the organizers (Mokokchung District Art and Culture Council) proudly call themselves - Mokokchung District X-Tratainment Unlimited council. The organizers should know that such hyper, out of nowhere concepts only enhances erosion of our rich cultural legacy. I really don’t understand people trying to legitimise popular culture when it has already hijacked our unique culture. We are currently faced with a kind of identity crisis where we are trapped by westernisation. Trapped because we can’t even copy others properly and our own unique culture is discarded into the ash heap of history. Sadly our people are cajoled up in the whirlpool of popular culture. The onset of popular culture has resulted in cultural violence. We don’t know who we are and where we belong; we don’t have a firm cultural footing of our own. This has happened because of a faulty transition into the so called modern – a mistaken modernity marked by Identity crisis and moral erosion.
Sadly, we tend to stray away from what we are and live out of our identity by trying to be ‘someone’ else. It’s high time we return to our roots and redefine who we really are. Let us culturally contest instead of imitating others and show that we have a unique culture, (my idea of culture is a lot more than folk songs and dances), that we have a unique identity – Love, Truth and Peace personified. Let us return to our cultural roots and develop a sense of belonging and be proud of who we are and shed the attitudinal trend of ‘riding’ off into the sunset wearing ten-gallon hats towards an urgent resurgence of our sensibility.

Asangba Tzudir
JNU, New Delhi