Naga tribes vow to promote peace and unity in Nagaland (ANI) By Vibou Ganguly
Naga tribes vow to promote peace and unity in Nagaland (ANI) By Vibou Ganguly
Kohima, June 29 (ANI): In a historic meet, Chakhesang and Sumi Naga tribes recently came together and took a vow to work together to promote peace, unity and strengthen the bond between the two tribes in Nagaland.
The occasion was day-long 'Chakhesang-Sumi Brotherhood Meet' held at Chetheba Town of Phek district in Nagaland during which the two tribes agreed to promote brotherhood between both of them. The meet expressed deep concern over the fractured Naga society, violence, exploitation and extortion by militant groups.
"Our focus is to do away with this anti social elements that is disturbing us and that's has been a factor of the fight and misunderstanding among the different tribes. So, our main focus is on how to give a consolidated effort to do away with all this anti social elements," said Nuzota Swuro, former MLA.
"The coming together of Sumis and Chakhesangs is historic. Our children, and educated people are longing for peace and friendship and are here at Chetheba. So I pray that they will be blessed and God will help them in their efforts to build peace in the near future," said Neikhoyi, a Naga elder. The meeting also made an urgent and fervent call to the underground groups in Nagaland to come forward for a solution.
Naga ancestral sites dated to 7th cent. AD morungexpress
Dimapur, July 1 (MExN): For the very first time, five ancestral settlement sites within Nagaland have been scientifically investigated and the first results of the chronological age of the sites have been obtained, informed Dr.I.Anungla Aier Project Coordinator Anthropological Society of Nagaland, Kohima.
It was informed that the research program launched in April 2007 was carried out under the aegis of the research project Cultural History, Ethnography and the Physical Characteristics of Nagas of Nagaland by the Anthropological Society of Nagaland, sponsored by the Department of Art & Culture, Government of Nagaland. “Given the broad objective, an interdisciplinary approach comprising of Folklore and Oral tradition, Archaeological exploration, Rituals and Festivals, and Physical/Morphological features of the Naga tribes were adopted”, stated the press note.
The first phase of the project covered the tribes of Kohima, Phek, and Mokokchung Districts. The Folklore and Oral tradition, Symbolism of Rituals and Festivals, and the Physical features of the various tribes were documented. Based on the study of oral tradition and folklore of the tribes, five prominent ancient settlement sites considered as important centres of population dispersal were identified. An archaeological investigation was also carried out at the ancestral site at Chungliyimti, it informed.
Archaeological excavations were conducted at four of the ancestral settlement sites in the second phase of the project. The archaeological investigation has revealed the dates of the sites extending back to as early as 7th cent. AD, the press note informed. The radiocarbon dates obtained from the Beta Analytic Inc., Miami, Florida and Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, Lucknow from all the sites under excavation is a major breakthrough in the Archaeology of Northeast India.
The Anthropological Society of Nagaland has also termed as significant the discovery of an early Neolithic cave site in the vicinity of Mimi village from the Naga Ophiolite Belt area in Kiphire District bordering Myanmar. Few Neolithic tools, ash deposits, cord marked potteries, animal bones, and a human burial were excavated from the limestone cave, it disclosed. An AMS (Accelerator Mass Spectrometry) date on the ash deposit obtained from the Beta Analytic Inc., Miami, Florida place the site within Circa Cal. BC 4460 − 4340. The team led by Dr. Tiatoshi Jamir and two other archaeologists Dr. David Tetso and Dr. Zokho Venuh who carried out the excavation has been conducting extensive exploration on the limestone caves since the early part of January this year.
According to the archaeologists, the date is significant as far as the Neolithic sites of Eastern and Northeastern region are concerned as it further pushes back the beginning of the Neolithic in the region. Thus far, no Neolithic site of this antiquity has been reported from the Eastern and Northeastern region of India. Study on the ash deposits for identification of botanical remains, animal and human remains are currently underway and it is hoped that more scientific data on the cave evidence will come to light.
The society was of the view that the Indo-Myanmar border is considered as an important corridor as far as human migrations are concerned. Further exploration and excavation will be concentrated in this current year of research to map out the distribution of inhabited cave sites. The results of scientific dates of the Naga ancestral sites so far dated are given herewith (in box). However, it is also to be noted that the results of few other samples from the sites of New Phor, Chungliyimti, Khusomi and Movolomi are still awaited.
Scientific Dates of Naga ancestral sites
Sl. No. Site Name Technique Material Calibrated Age
1. Laruri Radiometric Charcoal Circa Cal. AD 690 to 1000
2. Chungliyimti Radiometric Charcoal Circa Cal. AD 920 to 1116
3. Khezhakeno Radiometric Charcoal Circa Cal. AD 1320 to 1350
4. Khusomi Radiometric Charcoal Circa Cal. AD 1450 to 1670
5. Phor Radiometric Charcoal Circa Cal. AD. 1500 to 1600
The Stainless Naga Joshua Sheqi
There is no one righteous, not even one: Romans 3:10
As I attempt to share my thought, I would persuade your positive analysis to go beyond what can be written. I would rather be honest in my observation than to act wise, of which I am not. If you would agree with me, your Barack Obama is different from mine, because we all see the same thing with a different understanding. A simple villager would rate you the way he see you to the extent of frustrating your intellect, so would you and I do the same thing to the one 10 times wiser! In other words, you and I are no better in a pig’s eyes!
Why do we say; “I know it’s wrong but I am doing it”?! ‘A person who knows what is right and wrong, but still continues to do wrong, definitely is a person of knowledge, but not of wisdom’. Please take a pause here and think; share my observation and try to critically agree with me! Lord Tennyson said we humans are half a beast; but a beast with reasoning ability!
If I have to point fingers at anyone, I guess I would start with me, as you would, but taking advantage over imperfect human nature and so called adjustments, our Naga people have crossed the limit. We mostly talk about corruption at the top level; today let’s have a look at the other side of the coin; i.e. the villagers, common people and educated or uneducated youths. Let’s make an attempt to find out who is stainless Naga, besides the self professed righteous ones!
The so called yesteryears Village Heritage:
a. The Naga villages boasts about the good practices of yesterday as though it was a utopian era, where honesty, integrity, respect, simplicity, justice, loyalty, hospitality, truth, etc, etc prevailed. An overt embellishment of the past, putting to shame the Christian values of today, as though Christianity has brought all the unwanted selfish practices of today! That who profess on the top of the roof, fools the public and make maximum benefit for themselves in the confusion of the poor public.
b. In my association with YouthNet, as part of the team have traveled a considerable number of Naga villages spreading the importance of RTI and crosschecking the information received for authentication. Unsurprisingly, 90% of the information we received about development works are either non-existent or much below the expected standard. Schools doesn’t receive half of what they are due to get from Midday Meal Scheme, the DIS office enjoy at the cost of the children, but also from the meager amount/quota received doesn’t reach the children properly, thus punishing the innocent children further for no fault of theirs!! Except few, most of the Health Centers are either non-functional or like a cowshed!
The village council, which is the custodian of development and law and order in the village, is worst than the daily condemned and cursed politicians; thank God they are not our MLAs/Ministers! After much deduction of the so called non-existent VIPs quota what little is left for the poor villagers vanishes at the village leaders level. At present the most beautiful scheme for the villagers is NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme). The custodians of the villagers seems to be doing a fine job, because we are hearing a lot of silent grumbles and whining below the surface level, all over Nagaland.
Having so much faith in the overtly glorified village administration system in Nagaland, communitization was introduced to improve the education system, health standard, PHE and Electricity. Apart from an exceptional village like Sapotimi village, under Sürühuto sub-division, Zünheboto district and places we have not visited, most of the poor villagers in Nagaland are now reeling under the pressure of communitisation. The so called simple villagers (including village leaders) who are said to be honest and trustworthy are blinded by few thousand rupees.
Common people:
The common people in the villages have lost faith both in the village leaders and politicians who are supposed to work for their welfare. There is a saying a child crab walks exactly the way the parent crabs walk, so also the Naga villagers have become money mongers. There is a common belief of the simple villagers that they will get nothing after the elections, so they look for an opportunity to sell their vote to the highest bidder or sell to both or as many parties contesting! Getting money without doing work is being harvested. Hallelujah!
Youths:
a. Educated youths: There is a little shift of mental attitude of the Naga youths as we observe the recent development. However, still majority of the educated youths are waiting for government jobs, not with the intention to serve the public but to be served! A human (man or woman) is born to serve humanity, not to be served. It is the educated Naga youths who are the stumbling blocks to developing Nagaland to the greater level, at par with the advanced or advancing world. Youth Employment Summit, a global youth campaign which is spearheaded by youths from the developing nations believes that youths are not the leaders of tomorrow, but of today. If you and I are waiting to be leaders tomorrow and doing nothing today, tomorrow stands to be worse! My apologies to good ones, however no mercy to those who still think class ten pass or any degree you and I have cleared has made you and me a royal! It is not the educational qualification you and I have acquired. If I may quote Mr. Theja Meru, a highly enterprising Naga youth, after his visit to South Korea sponsored by the government of Nagaland, I asked him what striking lesson he learnt from the visit, he said; “In South Korea the highest to the lowest job is done by the Koreans themselves; people have more respect for each others job (big or small) and the South Koreans thanks God for the two hands”. No wonder most of us can speak and write better English than most Koreans, but keeps our hands jobless!
b. Uneducated youths and drop outs: In my personal opinion I attribute the maximum problem by drop outs and uneducated youths in our society to leaders, whose craving for big money without much work has blinded our innocent youths. The educated youths are not far behind, because we also have the same craving as that of our predecessors, who are also our present leaders.
Who is to blame? Corruption has become a culture, and now even cultural and traditional values of yesteryears are hell-bent to protect it! Why do we talk much about yesterday’s good culture and tradition when the one who is shouting from the top of the roof like the Pharisee is not following, but bending it to his own convenience and interpretation?
We talk about change, but still expect someone to do it! Real change is spontaneous; it has to come out from within one-self and not through others. Eg- Jesus himself couldn’t change His own people because they didn’t believe! Remember ‘free-will’ has been given unto man from the day of creation. When Jesus did miracle works He said; “Your faith has healed you”.
Man is a social being; this means we don’t exist for ourselves but for others. If you live thinking only about your own privilege and want to live luxuriously at the expense of the suffering of others, you better go and live in a place where human beings don’t exist! Social disharmony, killings, corruption, separatism, all sorts of isms, etc are all the result of selfishness to protect ones pride and ego. Dwight D. Eisenhower said; “A people that values privileges above its principles soon loses both”. Now, should we still be pointing fingers at others, throwing stones at others, blaming others, etc or should we realize now that the society/human race doesn’t exist for an individual, but you and I exist to serve the society? No one is stainless, because it is also wrong to keep silent when you know the truth!
Today, a good number of Naga youths; confident, educated, exposed, hardworking, determined and ambitious are coming up to work tirelessly in their discipline to change Nagaland. Let me quote; “If you want to go a step higher lift the people around you each step you gain”.
Who is a social worker/developer:
A man or woman who is sincerely doing his/her works wherever he/she is assigned and is bearing fruit is a real social worker, not the one who shouts and does nothing. You and I doesn’t have to stand on a public platform to become a society developer or social worker, because it is not occasional rain that fills the ocean, but the constant little drops of water that makes the mighty ocean; if you are good at household chores and kitchen-works, at best you are also a social worker/developer. It is for all of us to note that work is worship, which is only next to God, because the book of Genesis has written, we have to sweat from our head to toe for a living.
I asked a highly respected and established Naga professional, why we have so much corruption? He said; “We have many leaders, but less statesman”! Only the leaders of today (youths) can challenge the corrupted system which is averse to all round development. If the youths of today cannot, nobody can. Are you in? I’m in!
Viva La Nagaland—Don’t mess with us Atsei Neikha
It is a universal truth that “light travels faster than sound” but you convert it to the Naga version and bingo! You have “The hand shoots up faster than sound”.
Just this morning I gaped in horror as one young boy was trounced by a much older sturdy local man. The motive behind the fracas- apparently the older man had asked for a newspaper from the young duty bound boy whose job was to distribute newspapers to the residents of that colony. When the young boy said that he didn’t have a spare paper, the older man went into a wild frenzy and started to verbally abuse and smacked him repetitively. This is just the tip of the iceberg because there are many such occurrences which have become a banality in Nagaland.
Non –locals have to cower in fear and be submissive because they want to be on the safer side. We literally treat them as outcasts with aliases like ‘Mia’, Bihari etc. We walk around with an air of pomposity like there is a sash on us that reads “Don’t mess with me, I’m a Naga”.
I have observed especially in market places how intractably someone would stand to her grounds to get a product at the price that he/she has bargained for even if it meant threatening the vendor and getting into a scuffle.
We profess that Nagaland is a Christian State and that Nagas are for Christ but if our conduct is anything to go by then sorry fellas we are on the wrong track.
With extensive extortions and killings prominent in the state we are definitely heading for a bleak kismet.Take the case of auto drivers in Nagaland; I avoid hiring autos driven by locals because charging money far above the normal fare has become their dictum. They are always on the lookout to make easy money which riles me.
While on the road they drive like maniacs on a grand prix race trying to outdo the other drivers and defiantly breaking traffic rules while the passengers sit frozen chanting prayers under their breath. The auto drivers would holler at richshaw-wallas for being a nuisance and standing in their way while the poor fellows had to retrace their steps in a haste so as to steer clear from a volley of blows. A noted journalist working with “The Hindu” remarked in a seminar I attended some months back that “We Indians should stop treating people from the North-East as outsiders because they are also very much Indians as you and I are”. We need to stop jeering at them with names like ‘Chinese’ or ‘Chinkies’. Of course I agree full on that we aren’t treated any better outside but if we want to redeem ourselves as Christians and Nagaland a Christian State then maybe we can make a difference right here, right now in our own soil.
Viva La Nagaland.
“Nurturing Sustainable Relations” Neingulo Krome, Member, Forum for Naga Reconciliation
In the words of Forum for Naga Reconciliation; “Nagas are no more in the crossroad”. So having gone beyond the crossroad where are we now? The answer is as simple and as accurate as the theme of your Conference suggests – Nurturing Sustainable Relations.
Nagas have struggled and fought with the Government of India for over half a century for its political independence having asserted for itself “a nation of our own” even as early as 1929 when India too was under the colonial rule of the then British empire. Nagas were then loyal subjects of the colonial rulers presuming that “Nagas would be left to themselves” when Britishers leaves the Indian sub-continent, and even helped them win the second World War against the Japanese forces. However, towards the eve of India’s Independence, Britishers made their departure from our land without making any kind of recognition to acknowledge the rights of the Nagas, which was in all fairness expected from them, and instead left Nagaland and the Nagas badly divided between the Nation States of India and Burma (Myanmar) and even within state territories.
This left the Nagas with no choice but to assert their own rights to self-determination by declaring their own Independence on the 14th of August 1947, one day ahead of India’s Independence. This historic political statement was re-enforced and mandated with 99.9% of the Naga people voting for an Independent Nagaland through a Plebiscite that was conducted on the 16th of May 1951. And for which, Nagas completely boycotted the first Indian Elections which was held in 1952 to say that Nagaland was not a part of the Indian Union and that it will not be even in the foreseeable future. This led to the invasion of Nagaland by Indian military forces in 1953 which compelled the Nagas to take up arms to defend themselves and to protect their land and people. Since then, Nagaland was soaked in blood with tears in every home. This scenario resulted in complete break-down of human relations between the Nagas and the Government of India which further escalated over the years and which have now percolated to breaking down of fraternal relations between the Naga people themselves in the recent years to which we are all witnesses and victims as well.
Therefore, today’s theme for discussion comes as most timely and relevant even in terms of facilitating an understanding of our historical and political rights as very briefly summarized and for which we also must thank our leaders and elders and dutifully honour them. We also must thank our leaders of the political movement for jealously guarding our rights till date and keeping control over it which is and will be the foundation of our future. But how we translate these rights into action will depend on the collective wisdom of all our leaders and how we as the people for whom these rights were fought can support through consensual understanding. Nagas are now talking about reconciliation and peace much more earnestly like they never did before. Some are skeptical, some are critical and some are even scared ….but the vast majority is hopeful and looking forward towards the whole process. Besides, some of the over-bearing barriers have also been crossed in the recent months. The message is clear….the leaders are now more or less ready to “talk it out” and their people even more in earnest.
When Nagas fought together heroically against a common enemy, even in death and in pain it brought out the best in everyone. It was then an honour to sacrifice for a cause everyone believed in. But when we started fighting amongst ourselves, it brought out the worst in everyone and honour turned into shame and sacrifices became wastages. The cause also became the victim. In the midst of prevailing confusions many people warned of a possible out-break of “civil war” if Nagas do not unite. What we have seen with our own eyes and heard with our own ears over even the things that has been taking place just in Dimapur area alone in the recent days, they are nothing less or short of civil wars. The war of words in itself could not have been more violent. The anger and hatred that were hurled at each other could not have been more devastating. Yes, Nagas have taken out the worst in us against one another. But as a song goes to say; “it’s always darkest before the dawn”, I think we can see rays of the dawning of new days. And it is in the context of this development we are now talking about “nurturing sustainable relations”.
The theme also sounds in a manner which somehow says that there have been relations in one form or the other. But perhaps they were not very sustainable and keep breaking down more often than one wished for. And in the back-drop of a political conflict with other nations, Nagas too have been deeply involved in internal conflict as a consequence of war and its side-effects. So on one hand we are talking of nurturing relations amongst Nagas that will be sustainable. While on the other hand we are also thinking of nurturing a new relation with India that may be meaningful and sustainable.
As for the Nagas, we have started talking to each other even with the differences that may still exist at different levels and at varying degrees. And this has reduced the violence so much that the guns have now more or less fallen silent. The anger have subsided to a great extend and people are beginning to reason things out. When I heard leaders say to each other after many years of not even speaking to each other, things like….”we have destroyed (meaning made them fight) our people under our leadership, and so we have the responsibility to straighten things out during our times”….one cannot help but feel sorry and also admire their courage for being able to say so. Statements such as…“Our enemies have taken too much advantage of our differences, so we must stop this…. I on my part have forgiven all those who have done wrong in the past”…. still reverberate in my ears and touches my heart. Nevertheless, we also need to understand that for proper healing and reconciliation to take place, we must go beyond forgiving but also ask for forgiveness, which again reminds me of a courageous leader saying; “all of us has done wrong and committed mistakes, so let us not blame each other but reconcile with one another in the name of God” and goes on to recite Romans 3: 23, “For all have sinned and come short to the Glory of God”.
This initiatives and developments are not history, they are on-going things and meant for us, the people and more so for the present Naga generation to build on when we are talking of nurturing a sustainable relationship amongst our people and ourselves.
In our struggle for Political Independence, Nagas saw India as the most evil element on earth while India also saw Nagas as the most rebellious creatures on earth, with both sides wishing and wanting to wipe each other out from the face of the earth. For almost 50 years, war raged on barring a few years of Ceasefire and political negotiations in the latter half of the 1960s, which broke down only to re-engage in a more vigorous military options and psychological war-fares. Today we are again witnessing another round of Ceasefire and political negotiation which is almost completing its 12th year. But the difference between then and now is this…this time it is not only the Government(s) that are talking. But people from various walks of life both within the Indian communities and the Naga people themselves are also engaged in various forms of conversation to find some kind of solution that can be sustainable for a new kind of relationship which will seek to address the needs and fears of all concerned.
Towards these efforts, Nagas have walked extra miles to reach out to the people of India as well as to the different international communities. The Journey of Conscience, Nagas Call for Peace, People-to-People dialogues, the quite diplomacies, the common journey of hope etc…etc… are some of the few initiatives which Nagas have taken while also responding to Indian civil society initiatives side by side. Not only these, but conversation are also being held with our neighbours too about the kind of relations that we can envision together while collectively searching for common answers to the many immediate problems confronting us.
What will be the shape of things in the making of a political settlement with the Government of India is best left to the collective wisdom of leaders of the political movement. But at the end of the day, we certainly may also not be seen as mere spectators, but may have to participate in more than one way where our roles and responsibilities may be defined according to the need and challenges of what may emerge from the confines of the negotiations. All these thinking processes, all the reconciliation works, the political struggle and peace negotiations, the conversations that we are having even now are all part and parcel of people’s collective nurturing of a relation that will be sustainable. And I thank the leaders of the Dimapur Naga students’ Union, organizers and committee members for very ably introducing this thought through the theme that you have chosen for bringing Nagas together in our search for durable peace which can happen only when human relations are established with respect, dignity and honour.
“One day, the people of the world will want peace so much that the governments are going to have to get out of their way and let them have it.” -Dwight ‘D. Eisenhower
A brief paper presentation on “Nurturing Sustainable Relations”, in the 17th General Conference of the Dimapur Naga Students’ Union (DNSU) on the 2nd of June 2009, at Town Hall, Dimapur.
Indian Fault Lines: Perception and Reality Opinion and Editorials
We live in an uncertain world, more so, in an uncertain country. Whatever is left of India after 1947 is supposed to be a ‘One India’ united imperishably by all the parameters of nationhood. This philosophical assertion and wishful thinking and perception of oneness have not stood the test of time, since 1947. The emotional oneness that was generated by the by the stalwarts of renaissance, nationalism and independence struggle started developing ideological fissure broadly between the Hindus and the Muslims and at micro level in intra-Hindu approaches to multifarious problems confronting the country. These legacies of widening gulf between perceptions and reality checks have continued to haunt the country since our leaders started experimentation of piloting the affairs of the country in 1937.
It is, therefore, necessary to share with the readers the wide gulf between perceptions of various problems in the country and the real ground situation. It is more necessary because our political course have undergone several dramatic changes and more changes are likely to add stresses and strains on the country’s socio-political-cultural and security environs. Resurfacing of linguistic and ethnic exclusivity discords like slogans of Maharashtra for Marathis alone and outsiders are not welcome there, earlier agitations in Assam, Orissa and Bihar against the Bengali speaking people remind us that for narrow political gains unscrupulous political leaders do not hesitate to divide us and wrest power.
The uncertain conditions have impelled the political and media advisories often sing lullaby that we should learn to live with terrorism; that is the present world order. Such clichés are not tough enough not to ricochet the bullets, to neutralize the IEDs and to persuade the Shahidee dastas sponsored by ideological or religious fanatics. Other insurgents and terrorists stand in the same pedestal. India is perhaps the only country that has simultaneous presence of ethnic insurgency, ideological terrorism and religious jihad sponsored by foreign based tanzeems and sponsor by foreign intelligence agencies and great social divide.
Popular perception in ‘Mainland India’ about terrorism loiter about Muslim militancy coupled with Pakistani and Bangladeshi input and to some extent Maoist terrorism in the Red Belt. In ‘Outer India’ i.e. the Northeast and tribal belts the perception is entirely different. So also is the situation in ‘Also India’ i.e. Kashmir.
Perception varies also on the grounds of political colour of the peoples who represent the People of the Country. Their real or presumed ideological bases recognize acts of terrorism in different lights. Vote bank compulsions prompt parties to sing paean of the entire Muslim community from which most of the religious terrorists and separatists were produced between 1990 and 2009. Even the vast majority in the Muslim community do not tend to recognize that certain segments in their community have been infected by jihadist ideology and they are collaborating with foreign intelligence agencies and foreign based jihadi tanzeems. Evan a daylight incident as was in the Batla House in New Delhi was questioned by eminent Muslim leaders and the ulama community of Azamgarh even organised a mass demonstration in the capital for branding the Azamgariahs as terrorists. Muslim intellectuals and organisations have protested against branding all Muslims as terrorists. The concerns expressed by the later are genuine; all Muslims are not terrorists but some are. This fact of life cannot be ignored. We will come to that in later paragraphs.
Some political outfits described as Hindutwa organisations perceive signals of danger from the alleged accretion in Muslim demography, illegal Bangladeshi infiltration and Muslim separatism as serious threats to national integrity. They, as well as the Muslims, still suffer from the hangover of Muslim separatism and Hindu unity effort as it were before the partition. This fault line, though not classified as terrorism, has the potential of aggravating the national divide; reeling the country between Muslim action and Hindu reaction or vice versa.
It is therefore, necessary to understand, define the fault lines and differentiate between the reality and the perceptions. To start with it should be understood that Perception is a combination of reality, fiction, historical smoke, idiosyncrasy and Group Psychology. Reality, on the other hand is undiluted fact that is visible and that can be analyzed with hard reasoning. This differentiation is necessary to analyze the entire spectrum without hangover of false patriotism.
Starting with the ‘Outer India’ it must be admitted that nearly 90% of the Hindi heartland and the Southern Peninsula are not abreast with the situations prevailing in those remote geographical areas, causations and expected outcome of the chaotic situation, where some kind of electoral democracy coexist with armed insurgency and terrorism. The façade of constitutional unity is maintained more in form than in faith. Delhi relinquishes its duties by pouring money, administrative assistance and by deploying paramilitary and military forces.
The entire ‘Outer India’ is a study in contrast. While the Naga Territory was the first to unfurl the banner of separatism, Assam and Tripura and Kamtapur movement in West Bengal arrived rather late. In between the Lushai Hills (Mizoram) and Manipur had joined the bandwagon early on. The story of Mizoram uprising is juxtaposed with inputs from Pakistan and China and obviously scandalous mishandling of general and developmental administration of the area by Assam and Delhi governments. The violent insurgency ended in a happy note with Rajiv-Laldenga Accord and creation of the Mizoram state. Details of the insurgency movement and peace negations are too varied and cannot be incorporated here.
The Naga Territory was granted statehood in 1963 and from 1964 there has been elected governments in the state. The period between 1964 and 1974 had been the wildest peak of insurgency actively supported and assisted by Pakistan and China. The Shillong Accord between the Government of India and the Naga National Council and the Naga Federal Government ushered in a new phase, though two renegade followers of A. Z. Phizo, Th. Muivah, a Tangkhul Naga and Isac Chisi Swu, a Sema Naga revolted and joined hands with China. They floated the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN). It had an offshoot head by S. S. Khaplang, a Burmese Konyak Naga, has now spread its tentacles all over Nagaland and parts of Manipur Naga areas and NC Hills areas of Assam.
NSCN (I-M) continues to the main insurgent body having off and on peace talks with the government and maintaining nearly a parallel government and army in Nagaland and parts of Manipur. The merits and demerits of the peace talks cannot be discussed in this space. However, several other civil society organisations like the Naga Hoho have come into existence as interlocutors and apparent peace and trouble makers. Peace as such, as the meaning of the word goes, is holding in Kaccha Dhaga, a fragile thread. There are two, if not three distinct governments in today’s Nagaland and both the Indian Army and the Naga Armies are dominating their respective positions. The reality show in Nagaland is does not exude nectar of peace, though perceptions in Delhi and barely in certain quarters in rest of India may paint a very rosy picture. Nagaland is parts of India and, in a sense, perceptions in majority of Naga minds prompt them to claim that Nagaland in the present form is not acceptable, they require a Greater Nagaland and very much special status is a feudatory unit of the Union.
The story about another part of ‘Outer India’-Manipur is rather different. Seen as a pristine land of Manipuri dance the state is in grave crisis. Merged with India in 1949, the princely state was relegated to a part ‘C’ and put under a Chief Commissioner, and after much strife and bitter political struggle was granted statehood only in 1971. Culturally most advanced in the Northeast and with a sizeable Vaishnavite Hindu population the state took to separatist movements in 1968 for bagsful of reasons including political and economic mishandling by Delhi, colonial attitude of the administrators and inferior treatment to the Meitei peoples compared to pampering of the Nagas. Since 1975 Manipur has turned to a virtual minefield with several terrorist and separatist outfits flourishing in the sprawling valley with sanctuaries in Myanmar, and even receiving assistance from Mayanmarese insurgent groups and obviously the DGFI and ISI operators located in Bangladesh. They also obtain support from Mayanmarese rebel groups. The Manipuri youth and gentry in general have opted for Meiteilon script in place of Bengali, Sanamahi religion in addition to Vaishnavism and they want revival of the old glories of the kingdom of Kangla. The Manipuri valley terrorists dominate vast areas, exact taxes from the people and from all government servants and their writ run in the entire valley.
The Naga Hills in Manipur are basically controlled by the NSCN (I-M) and NSCN (K) and the Kuki etc tribal areas are dominated by assorted Kuki, Hmar, Zomi etc armed tribal groups. This is the reality show. The perception show is: there is an elected government, elaborate presence of police, paramilitary and regular army. Why and what went wrong in Manipur have been commented widely by various thinkers and authors, including my two books. These light and shadow regions of Manipur are real and the perception that we have access to the minds of the general Meitei people is a hallucination. Most probably Indians beyond Assam are not aware of this reality show.
The other shadow area of India, Assam presents a story in contrast that betrays Delhi’s attitude towards the peripheral states and peoples of India. Timeless Assam (Pragjyotishpura) witnessed dingdong battle between the Ahom-Bengali speaking people on the one and the Congress and Muslim League on the other. Right from 1916 planned infiltration of Bengali speaking Muslims started in the Barak and Brahmaputra valley. The allegations of collusion between the British rulers and the Muslim League were clearly discernible. However, fear of Bengali speaking Hindu superiority continued to haunt the Assam leaders even to the days of referendum for Sylhet district. The Assam Congress leaders did not want Sylhet’s merger with India; so also the Muslim League. Jinnah was keen for merger of entre Assam with Bengal forming a part of Pakistan. Nehru was not averse to the idea and said that Assam could hang in balance and to decide later if it wanted to be in India or Pakistan. Fortunately some Assam leaders, some leaders of Bengal and Mahatma Gandhi finally settled for Assam’s inclusion in India. According to authorities Pakistan and Bangladesh still nurture the scheme of greater Bangistan as envisaged by Chaudhry Rahmat Ali (1936). This latent dream of Muslims now disturbs the non-Muslim peoples of Assam.
Considered as “Outer India” Assam was not in the radar of Congress’s national developmental policies. Developmental imbalance, perception of treatment of Assam as a raw material extraction zone by rest of India, absence of higher educational facilities, employment generation avenues and treatment of Assamese or East Pakistan Muslim as vote banks by the Congress created cesspool of disaffection in the minds of ethnic Assamese people. It took nearly 30 years for the youth forces of Assam to concretise their anger. The surrounding ambience of tribal insurgency in Nagaland, Lushai Hills (Mizoram), Manipur and brewing separatism in Khasi-Garo Hills (Meghalaya) had infused the bitter juices of defiance of the state and challenging its policies.
This took shape as anti-outsider agitation (Bahiragoto Virodh) mainly directed against Pakistani/Bangladeshi illegal immigrants and other demands for fair deal to Assam. The agitations launched by All Assam Students’ Association (AASU), Assam Gano Parishad (AGP) were not separatist agitations. Near total mass mobilization often leads to state repression and people’s violence. At that critical point of mass agitation violence, individual, group and state level violence cannot be avoided. That is the intrinsic analysis of all mass agitation. Even Mahatma Gandhi’s peaceful stayagrahas mostly ended in violence. Violence in mind cannot be nipped even by a saint.
Whatever official coloration is given to the mass agitation in Assam was not secessionist. Being closely associated with events in Assam at that period I gathered impression that India was bleeding in Assam because the rulers in Guwahati and Delhi treated Assam as a primitive territory not worth investing and improving the conditions there and bring the areas to the level of other developed states.
Amidst these dins and dusts of agitations and countermeasures two important developments took place. Some Mottuk (Thai-Ahom) youths of Upper Assam formed what they claimed as United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) allegedly at Rang Ghar near Jorhat on April 7, 1979. The initial top leaders were Paresh Baruah (Commander-in-Chief), Arabinda Rajkhowa (Chairman),Anup Chetia (General Secretary) (in Government of Bangladesh custody) and Pradip Gogoi (Vice-Chairman) (in Government of Assam custody). Most of these youths were related to Congress and Left parties. The allegations that a former chief minister of Assam encouraged the Muttock youth (himself a Muttock) to form the ULFA with a view to belittle and disarray the AASU and AGP cannot be denied as rumors. The history of ULFA’s alleged struggle for liberation of Assam between 1982 and present day has been a unique subject of study by sociologist, economists, political scientists and strategic thinkers.
The ULFA immediately drew attention of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Chinese intelligence agencies and the stories of ULFA’s connectivity with them and the course it traversed cannot be put in few sentences. What was born as a diversionary political move had later assumed the color of the separatist soul of Assam that verged with the revivalist glories of the Muttock kings of Thai-Mongol-Ahom origin. The problem is still festering with active assistance of Inter Services Intelligence of Pakistan and Directorate General of Forces Intelligence and the National Security Intelligence of Bangladesh.
The other development in Assam around 1984-85 was the surfacing of BODO agitations that also took violent shape. The allegations that a former Prime Minister had encouraged the BODOs to start agitation with a view to divide the AASU, AGP and ULFA movements in Assam can also not be ignored. Several shades of BODO agitation have rocked Assam that was also helped by the ISI, DGFI and the NSI. Though the problem has been partially solved certain factions (NDFB) still continues to operate from Bangladesh and carry out violent activities.
Two other reality checks would show that Assam still sits on a volcano. North Cachar Hills is on fire. The dominantly tribal areas is inhabited by kaleidoscopic people belonging to Cachari, Dimasa, Hmar, Zemi, Zeliang etc aboriginal Assamese, Kuki and Naga tribal people.
The Karbi Longri North Cachar Hills Liberation Front (KLNLF), a breakaway group of United People’s Democratic Solidarity (UPDS), was formed in 2004 and its declared objective was to achieve Hemprek Kangthem (self-determination). It was supported by DGFI and often resource support from ISI operatives based in Bangladesh. There are splinter groups like Karbi National Volunteers, Karbi People’s Front. These are basically extortionist groups.
Other important groups are Hmar People’s Convention, Democracy (HPC-D) a faction of Chin origin people, Dima Halam Daoga (DHD) and NSCN (I-M) and NSCN (K). The NSCN factions support the Naga tribes like Zemi and Zeliang etc. They use these areas as a safe corridor to Bangladesh for arms collection and liaison with DGFI and the ISI.
In addition to the above the United Liberation Front of Barak Valley (ULFBV), formed in 2002 wants self determination for the tribal people of Silchar, Karimganj and Hailakandi districts of Assam. It support of NSCN (I-M).
The list is not exhaustive. Assamese and Bengali speaking Hindu people’s relationship have not been historically very smooth. Several “Bangal Kheda” (expel the Bengalis) drives by the Assamese speaking people had generated enough violence. In the Barak Valley there are impressions that the Bengali majority area is given step motherly treatment by the Assamese leaders. Movements like Bengal Tiger Force and Barak Valley Youth Liberation Force are in the forefront of projecting Bengali demands. Though not armed and violent these groups have the capability of destabilizing the region. In addition to the Bengali Hindus, the Muslim underground outfits like the Muslim United Liberation Tigers of Assam (MULTA), Muslim United Front of Assam (MULFA), and Islamic Liberation Army of Assam (ILAA) etc have known connectivity with HuJI, Jamait ul Mujahideen, Bangladesh and the intelligence outfits of Bangladesh.
So? Against this reality check the perspective that Assam is still a ‘Lahe Lahe’ (slow moving) state is not correct. Assam is on the ferment. The ULFA has lost some of its fangs but the ideology of Ahom separatism lit by them is burning slowly. India can only dissipate the situation by fast track actions to remove economic and developmental imbalances, building up employment generating infrastructures and by adopting a nationalist and pragmatic and not vote-bank secularist attitude towards illegal Bangladeshi Muslim infiltration. Assam’s fears about losing territory to Greater Nagalim, as demanded by NSCN factions should also be allayed by unequivocally telling the Naga outfits that no further change in political boundary of Nagaland is possible at the cost of Assam, Manipur and Arunachal.
Delhi is pussyfooting the Naga dialogue that has created several vested interests and the country cannot afford to keep alive a cancerous growth indefinitely. Assam’s woes are also related to welfare of the Plain’s Tribals and Tribals in NC Hills. These problems need immediate firm and wise handling. The basic requirement is removal or neutralization of NSCN incursions in Assam, particularly in the NC Hills. Obviously, pussyfooting the Muslim issue can only aggravate the Bangladesh and Pakistan connected nascent Muslim separatism and desire to form a political block with Bangladesh. See map below.
The story of India’s suicidal goals in Punjab has been told by several writers and in my two books. Fortunately, Pakistan could not exploit the Sikh sentiment beyond a point because of inherent ties of the Hindu and Sikh communities and vivid memory of brutal killings of the Sikh and Hindu Punjabis during partition. However, the perception that heroic police officers and intelligence operatives had succeeded in dousing the fire is only partially correct. Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal were equally responsible for putting fire of fundamentalism in Sikh psyche between 1775 and 1980. Both sides used religion to gain political upper hand which was exploited by the Dam Dami Taksal, Akahand Kirtani Jatha, and other religious outfits. With them joined the highly aggrieved and impoverished cultivators, unemployed youths and remnants of the Naxals. Some Sikh Diaspora, egged on by the ISI and western intelligence agencies, supported the movement. The separatists still rune several web portals demanding secession, Pakistan still harbours over 20 top leaders of the so called Khalistan movement. The ground situation of agrarian impoverishment, unemployment, stinking corruption, lack of avenues to migrate abroad and influx of outside labours and demographic growth of Muslims have generated the conditions again those helped rise of Bhindranwale Frankenstein. Punjab is again on the brink. That is the reality check; political perception is different-all is hunky-dory.
Average literate Indians are generally aware about the Naxal or Maoist movements raging in a well visible Red-Corridor right from West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. A map based on data of 2007 is reproduced below. Between last two years more areas in Maharashtra, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu and Kerala have come under Maoist action. We may remember that the districts of Bangladesh bordering India like Rangpur, Jessore, Bogra, Faridpur, Khulna, Kushtia, Dinajpur etc are active operations theatres of Purba Banglar Biplabi Communist Party and Janajuddha (both Maoist). Indian Maoists often procure weapons through them with help of ISI and DGFI operatives.
Courtesy ‘One hundred flowers’ posting in Revolution in South Asia
Some Indians perceive the movement as isolated, some think in terms of Pashupati (Nepal) to Tirupati (AP) being converted as a solid Red Empire under various groups of CPI (Maoist), Janajuddha, PWG etc and later forming an apex body to administer the tract worth lakhs of crores in wealth. This is a Red Dagger thirst in the heartland of India.
It is not necessary to highlight that the Maoists are opposed to parliamentary democracy and they do not believe in change through the ballot box. They believe in arms struggle and physical elimination of the Class Enemy. During last 10 years the Maoists have reached better coordination and ideological cohesion. They have accrued strength, more and better firepower and expanded their supply sources-internal sources, sources in Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The LTTE also acted as a source of weapons supply to the Maoist groups. The Maoists are now capable of manufacturing rapid firing rifles, grenades and rockets. Their training facilities have been perfected and they have improved communication devices.
It is not that Delhi and the state governments are not having correct appreciation and perceptions. While other state governments have banned the Naxal outfits West Bengal, suffering from ideological hiccup are yet to ban these organizations. The Naxals have reoccupied vast territories in Midnapore, Bankura, Purulia and Birbhum. The nearest Red Fort in West Midnapore is only 90 miles from the heart of Kolkata. The Central and state governments are also adopting police measures and are not implementing economic, social and political measures that are required to bring these ‘peripheral and neglected areas of Indi’ a at par with the developed and fast developing areas of the country. Neglect by the British and the independent country’s governments these areas have become bastions of the Maoist revolutionaries, just like the impoverished areas were exploited by the Nepal Maoists. Neglect and exploitation are now being returned with bullets.
Let anyone not remain under misperception that the Maoists would be defeated by police forces alone. The State is required to pump in more resources in these areas for infrastructure building and reconnecting the neglected proletariats with the mainstream. There cannot be ‘Different Indias’ inside India. Viewing India as different Indias according to the region’s and people’s maximum usability by the ruling classes, exploiters and bureaucrats cannot give us back a ‘United India.’ If the present trends continue we would soon have bigger problems before us to deal with ‘Different Indias’ with different yardsticks. Readers interested in details may peruse my two dissertations in the same portal.
Since our problems are too many, our realities are more complex and our appreciations and perceptions so shallow we need discussing these fault lines in details. However, this portal is not the correct canvas. The other cancerous reality check pertains to unbiased appreciation of the growth of Islamic fundamentalism, contamination of Indian Muslim minds with the poison of jihad and revival of the isolationist separatist tendencies. Let us be clear at the outset that all Muslims are not separatists and jihadists. Most of them are not even fundamentalists. In case a comparative study is made between the 80+ crore Hindus and 15+ crore Muslims it would appear that about 5% Hindus strongly believe in Hindutwa and Hindu fundamentalism. Only a fraction, may be 0.01% think of taking up weapons against the Muslims.
Compared to this about 60% of Muslims can be rated fundamentalists, 35% believe in Islamic resurgence, 30% believe in isolationist separatism and nearly 15% believe that armed jihad, as practiced by Pakistani and Bangladeshi tanzeems can alone retrieve the lost glory of Islam in India. This figure is worrisome. The minorityrian isolationism that is leading to Muslim separatism and majoritarianism of the Hindus are gradually coming to conflict situation. Government’s efforts to remove grievances of the Muslims on the basis of a pro-minority report by Sachar Committee are creating opposite reactions among the majority community. The trend is disturbing and require immediate attention of Central and State governments. If the trend is allowed to drift indefinitely and minorityism is pampered and the seeming cost of the majority community a serious cleavage at perception level might overcome rational thinking.
The visibility factors of spread of jihad philosophy and practice is sporadic and not well researched and never openly discussed. Studies made by the intelligence community present a disturbing picture: innumerable pockets of Muslim population in India, all over the country, have been contaminated by the developments in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The ideology of Taliban and al Qaeda like action in Dar-ul-Harb Hindoostan is growing. In the recent past India has had brush with SIMI, Indian Mujahideen etc organisations connected intricately with Lashkar-e-Taiba, HuJI etc terrorist tanzeems promoted by Pakistan to wage Islamist terrorist actions in India.
Hindu reaction to these developments, especially after Pakistan’s open involvement in Punjab uprising and continued proxy-war in Kashmir, have been pronounced. I call it a resurfacing of the communal divide in the country that existed before partition and as reaction explained by Newton’s Third Law of Motion. Majority disaffection to government’ minority policies also explain such reaction considerably. History of communal riots from 1714 to date would clarify the reality story that there has never been an assimilated India. It is a living together separately situation. Since the subject is too big to be discussed in a short essay I prefer to travel to other hotter fault lines that appear to be cool on the surface but which contain gunpowder of near future explosion.
The division of the country on caste lines is not yet complete. The disease of constitutional reservationism that started with 1906 British reforms has continued to dissect the country. Instead of offering constitutional protection to the weaker sections of the society irrespective of caste, ethnicity and religions the government has mindlessly followed the British formula to keep the peoples divided. Such division may give an apparent façade of unity through distribution of equity, but in deeper analysis it is found that in this arena also we live in ‘Many Indias’-India of the Dalit Hindus and Buddhists, India of the Hindu Backward and Other Backward Classes, Upper Caste Hindus, Scheduled Caste Hindus, ethnic tribals, linguistic diversities and of course fresh demands from the Muslims to give general reservation to them or at least to the SC, Dalit and BC, OBC Muslims.
Despite the façade of constitutional unity, the country is divided at the economic and societal levels. The glaring disparity between Urban and rural economies are so acute that these cannot be bridged by marginal non-productive employment guarantee, some housing complexes here, some water supply schemes there, some never-implemented education and health-care schemes cannot connect rural India with urban India that is getting connected with global economy. The distribution of doles is creating large community of non-productive beggars who add up to the miseries of the country.
This divide is as dangerous as the divide between the ethnic tribal dominated areas, now affected by ethnic insurgency and Maoist terrorism and the urban and semi-urban areas. The difference is that the ethnic peoples have unfurled the flag of revolt and the plains people still maintain somewhat faith in constitutional democracy and they are yet to be organised to revolutionary path. This fault line is as difficult to bridge as the other great fault lines we have mentioned in this dissertation. In India, the ruling classes take notice of problems when it is on fire and deploy fire brigades like police and army. Such attitude cannot ensure unified growth of India and birth of ‘One India’ out of ‘Many Indias.’
So, in the final reality count India appears to be compartmentalized seriously as we were well before independence. Perhaps creations of linguistic states and ethnic states have divided us more, besides our failure to reconcile the cultural and religious differences. How we discover the soul of India from the dust bin of fragmented India? Are we in the process of having ‘Many Indias’ and permanently losing ‘One India’ for which the Indians fought against the British? Are we reverting back to an India that was divided into different polities with fragile geographic and cultural bonds in 9th and 10th century? How long the present fragile constitutional bonds would hold together? The perception of ‘Asamudra Himachal’ Bharat appears to be folklore.
These questions should disturb young minds and minds of those who pretend to run the System. maloykrishnadhar.com
Militants' levy keeps truckers away from Nagaland ANI
Kohima, July 3 (ANI): Illegal taxes demanded by militants' have dissuaded truckers carrying essential commodities from entering Nagaland. As a result, the availability and rates of essential commodities have risen in the state. As the rates demanded by the militants were exorbitant, the truckers loaded off their goods at Lahorijan or Bokajan on the Assam-Nagaland border, refusing to go beyond. The truckers complain that militants are extorting large sums of money from them and also beating them up.
"The problem is that we go with our vehicles, they trouble us, they also beat us up and ask for money. Where will we pay them from?, "said Laxman, a truck driver.
The authorities have now decided to provide escort to all vehicles, security and safety to the truckers during loading and unloading of goods besides looking into the cases of extortion and abduction of truck drivers. Nagaland Home Minister Imkong L. Imchen said that they are conducting flush out operations and thus they have controlled extortion to a reasonable extent, but admitted that it continued.
Imchen confirmed the presence of ten insurgent groups from outside the state, operating in or around the commercial hub of Dimapur. "We are conducting search and flush out operations. With that exercise, we have arrested the criminals of this situation to a reasonable extent, but I too admit that this extortion, the spectre of this extortion, is still very high," he said. The state authorities have ordered a ban on collection of any kind of taxes or donations from the trucks and commercial vehicles.
Though there are still some truckers moving into the state, but most of them want their security to be assured before moving into the state again. By Vibhou Ganguly (ANI)
Frans on 07.03.09 @ 12:04 PM CST [link]
