The North-East

The Naga leader, Angami Zau Sapu Phizo,[7] had started fighting for independence before India became free. The Assamese State Government could not agree to a special status for the Nagas because if this option was conceded, other tribes, such as the Mizos, diverging much more from the mainstream, would raise similar demands. The Naga conference at Kohima passed a unanimous decision in favour of a plebiscite, on the basis of which Phizo, elected NNC’s President in 1950 moved from village to village “holding” a plebiscite.. He declared that over 99% of his people demanded an “independent Naga State”.[8] Under this leadership, the NNC and groups of Naga people boycotted the first general elections in the same year, ostensibly because their land was not a part of the Indian Union. In late 1952, Phizo went underground, left for Burma, was intercepted there, returned to Nagaland, and went underground, left for Burma, was intercepted there, returned to Nagaland, and went underground again. In early 1953, the Prime Ministers of India and Burma decided to visit their Naga territories together. A few minutes before Nehru, accompanied by U No ascended the rostrum, three to four thousand Nagas left the place of meeting protesting that their delegation was not allowed to read a statement to the public there. Phizo started preaching the unity of the Nagas of Tuensang near the Burmese border with those of the Naga Hills District and the independence of Tuensang. It may be asserted that the war with the Ngas started in late 1955 when Indian troops moved into that border area before the trouble extended to other parts. It was about the same time that Phizo set up an independent “Naga government” (Khunak Kautang Ngeukhum, People’s Sovereign Republic of Free Nagaland) under some fictitious “Hongkin” issuing oders and collecting taxes. By early 1956, Phizo extended his violent operations to the Naga Federal Army (NFA). That the initial infantry brigade had to be supplemended later by about a force 20 times bigger than itself speaks of the extraordinary conditions that developed.[9]

The hope that peace would return to Nagaland after 1975 did not fully materialize. While the majority of the hard-core terrorists, that is, the old generation of Naga insurgents returned to settled life and reconciled to integration with the country, a fresh group of insurgents arose, denouncing the Shillong Accord as a “sell out” and describing their movement as the “mother of all insurgency” in the North-East.[13] They have been a series of agreements in the past, and every time an adjustment is made, a breakaway faction announces that it does not accept the accord. The security forces have to be prepared for any sudden resort to large-scale violence by the insurgents.

Some Nagas continued to blame New Delhi for Political bickering after elections, fall of governments and even corruption. The number of terrorist acts soon increased. Although insurgency in Nagaland has experienced a number of ups and downs, it may be said that terrorism there showed some upswing even after the Shillong Agreement. Does this mean that efforts of reconciliation have gone in vain? First of all, no more sudden deaths in the hands of silent enemies! The wheel may not have come full circle, but, not only opposition party candidates came out victorious in free and fair elections, but the face of Nagaland has also changed.[14] While the Naga people showed that they can make and unmake governments, some schools and factories appeared in various corners of the country. The belief that the strength of the terrorists radically declined following a split (1988) among the Nagas of Indian and Myanmarese origin hardly was borne out, however, by the further insurgence of violence. With the support that it gets from Pakistan’s ISI and even from the Bangladesh Government, those who indulge in terrorism still collect “taxes”, acquire an arsenal of sophisticated weapons, and state their objective to be a “greater Naga state” comprising all the Naga inhabited areas in the region. Like the terrorists in J&K and in Punjab, those who put in operation a parallel government under the name of “the government of the people’s Republic of Nagaland” banned some “immoral” practices to gain more public backing. However, the democratic conscience of contemporary Indian elite does not look at the Naga issue only as a problem of law and order. For the Indians, the Nagas are not mere “headhunters”,[15]as they appeared to the British. They are awakened to the anguish of the Naga people and understand the complexity behind resentment and hurt.[16]

Home Page