A community of shared interest in view of the different possible forms of collectivities and the associated consciousness.

Johnson Keithellakpam *

There can be different forms of collectivities by virtue of the diverse forms of interest borne out of the conscious and non-conscious senses and sensibilities. A form of community emerges from an association and interaction through a shared type of interest.

Further, a type of interest determines the particular character of a community based on that particular interest. But an individual person cannot have a single trait of the wide and broad spectrum of the traits constituting an interest that is; one can, is, will and may be possibly encountering and associated with his/her life all along in that span.

Moreover, these traits are not and will not always be in harmony and may sometime terribly contradictory and sometime tragically counter productive, ironical and oppressive to each other.

These traits of the interest will determine the different forms of communities one can, is, will be and may be associating in the real or concrete or imaginary sense.

An individual person will be possibly working for his/her self-interest consciously or non-consciously which in turn will determine the well-being of the communities with which his/her actions’ trajectory in relation to the particular traits of the interest aligning with the specific communities which are or should be promoted and strived for.

Such is the case that by virtue of the different collections of traits of the interest; one is, will be and may be associating with different forms of collectivities.

A simple cursory glance will lighten and give us the contours and labyrinth of the different forms of communities in an ascending or descending degree of priorities that are attached, although it shall and may be differ from a particular region to region and the associating educational and cultural background and the role of mass media and communication may, to a large extent, calibrate.

And above all this, there is a paramount deciding factor impacting the sense of belongingness to a particular form of community that is the notion of Nation and Nationality in the realm of the possible forms of communities factored by the full spectrum of the possible traits of the interest.

And it still remains the most authoritative and deciding factor in the current era and more so in the particular region where we are residing as well as inhabiting.

Issues and problems props up when it is handled, regulated and mediated through the different sources and layered of different types of authorities designed by the state as well as the mediations through the labyrinth of the educational and cultural spaces and consequently, the formal authority‘s policy formulations, decision makings, actions and its effects and impacts when interacts with the full spectrum of the traits of the interest.

For instance, the contestation of nationhood becomes an overriding factors in the emergence and festering of protracted conflicts which sometimes take the form of extreme chaos and violence.

The most intriguing and wide ranging issue will be, then, the task of properly identifying the contradictory traits of the interest, the causes and the effects and further, the most important task is how one is giving what kind of efforts, how one is accustomed to, how one is influenced and the manner one is prioritizing the overall collections of the traits of the interest as well as the capabilities and the resources to further his/her orientation towards the others and the interactions as well as the responses beyond, will and shall determine the process of conflicts and the forms of re-conciliations and resolutions.

And this will/shall happen only when the formal authorities of the collectivities is actually prepared, acting and ready to give a push towards a reconciliation rather than allegedly calculating or manoeuvring informed by a zero sum game.

This is because the traits of the interest flows through the labyrinth of the individual self and the associated collectivities to and fro and between the two, the far more influence is welded by the formal authorities rather than the others factors which can impact and imprint a set of traits of the interest.