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12/21/2007: "The Nagas and their Nation By: Dr. Neivetso Venuh,Secretary General, Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights,"

The Nagas and their Nation

By: Dr. Neivetso Venuh,

Secretary General, Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights,

Dated London: 10th December 2007.



The Nagas are indigenous peoples, belonging to the Tibeto-Burman stock with an approximate 4 million in population and live along the tri-junction of Burma (Myanmar), China, and India. From time immemorial, they inhabit the land lying approximately between 92.5 E and 97.5 E longitudes and 23.5 N and 28.5 N latitudes, measuring about 1,20,000 sq. kilometers.

In 1832, Captains Francis Jenkins and R.B. Pemberton entered the Naga country and led numerous “punitive” expeditions against the Nagas for their resistance which led to open confrontation till 1879 when a large area of the then Naga country was occupied and controlled by the then British-India. When the British left India in 1947, the tendered case of the Nagas to be left to them as an independent nation as hitherto enjoyed, was unattended, despite the fact that as early as 1929, the Naga Club submitted a Memorandum to the Simon Commission stating and requesting that they be excluded from the proposed ‘political reforms’ of British India, which arbitrarily generalized the Nagas as under India. The Naga representation clearly stated that “we should not be thrust to the mercy of the people who could not subjugate us. Leave us alone to determine for ourselves as in ancient times when Britishers first found us” was the expressed will of the Nagas.

By 1946, the Naga Resistance movement evolved into the “Naga National Council,” which, therein, federalized all the various Naga tribes. Under this “Council,” the Nagas declared their independence on 14th August, 1947, and a “Plebiscite” was conducted on May 16, 1951, reaffirming our inherent rights as a people in which 99.9 percent voted for an independent Nagalim. The nascent Indian nation responded by proclaiming the Assam Maintenance of Public Order (Autonomous Districts) Act, of 1953 upon the Naga country. This was followed by the imposition of the Disturbed Areas Act in 1955. In 1956, India dispatched two Brigades of her military and the Naga country is ever since then under their martial clutch. Later in 1958, the Government of India imposed The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, under which any Non-Commissioned Officer and above are empowered with full legal immunity to “shoot and kill” any Naga on mere suspicion. In the wake of the imposition of these “draconian laws” and murderous homicidal mechanisms, the Nagas have been since then experiencing a “black and senseless period,” to echo the then Prime Minister of India Nehru’s own confession or per se. Under such circumstances, “Nagas were left with no other option but to defend themselves with arms.”

Similarly, the arbitrary geo-political division of Naga homeland into India and Burma draws attention to an instance wherein even the house of the ‘Angh” (Chief) of the Konyak Naga community was divided between India and Burma into two halves. Using colonial policies of divide and rule, the Naga country was further divided into the present states of Nagaland, Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh. In 1964, the Government of India was compelled to enter into a ceasefire agreement with the leaders of the Naga National Council only for India to unilaterally abrogate it in 1972. Later in 1975, the Government of India orchestrated an accord with a few handpicked pro-Indian Nagas and made them sign the infamous Shillong Accord that envisaged enforced mass surrender and acceptance of Indian suzerainty over the Nagas. The post 1975 saw a more resolute and resurgent spirit in the assertion for resistance and defence of the Naga Nation.

Given the nature and the intermittent continuance of the conflict between India and the Nagas for so many years and the various appeasement politics or policies that were rejected by the Nagas, a pragmatic initiative with the view of re-negotiating the fragile and political contentions was mooted as early as the late 1980’s through diplomatic innovations. In 1995 the then Prime Minister of India, Mr. P. V. Narasimha Rao, met leaders of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim, Mr. Isaac Chishi Swu and Mr. Th. Muivah in Paris, which, consequently, led to the announcement of a formal political negotiation and facilitation of peace process between the two nations by the succeeding Prime Minister of India, which was informed to the Indian Parliament on 4th March 1995. On 25th July 1997, the Government of India and the National Socialist Council of Nagalim jointly announced a three months’ cease-fire which come into effect from 1st August 1997 under the following agreed principles:

1. That the talks would be unconditional;

2.. That the talks would be at the highest level, i.e. at the Prime Ministerial level;

3. That the talks would be held in a third neutral country.

Here it may be worth mentioning, that although there has been no definite arrangement from the Indo-Naga political negotiation so far, yet a remarkable departure since the 1997-second Indo-Naga cease-fire is the writ of hope and anticipation amongst the Naga peoples after decades of war. The Nagas have taken the initiative of reaching out to the larger Indian public through a peoples’-to-peoples’ dialogue, wherein in the year 2000, a group of Nagas led by Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR), visited New Delhi to share their stories of the struggles with the Indian civil society under the theme “Journey of conscience.” This journey continues both within India and the surrounding neighbours and also within the Naga country in reflection and retrospection. In response to this initiative, a group of Indian civil society consisting of former Parliamentarians, Jurists, Academicians, Writers and Journalists and mass-based social workers visited the Nagas and their land for the first time in the 55 years old Indo-Naga conflict, wherein they themselves admitted that Nagas are not Indians.

In the same spirit, during one of the Indo-Naga Peace talks which was held in Amsterdam at the Netherlands on 11th July 2002, the Government of India in writing – “acknowledged and recognized the unique history and situation of the Nagas.”

Encouraged by this changed attitude and perception of India, the Collective Leadership of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim accepted the invitation of the Government of India to visit New Delhi.. Wide-ranging talks were held, not only with the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and the Defence Minister, but also with the leaders of all political parties during their visit from 9th January to 24th January 2003.

However till now, after more than 10 years of Ceasefire and political negotiations, and the resoluteness of the Naga leaders to work out a peaceful solution to the more than 60 years of political conflict, the Government of India continues to drag its feet for obvious reasons. It is in this context, that we are appealing the international community and more importantly, today the British Government through distinguished personalities like you present here, to positively live up to the expectations of the Naga people in general, who, even after all these years of sufferings, still look up to Great Britain to have its say to the problem – which; “India apparently claim only to have inherited from the Britishers”.



KUKNALIM