Rays of a new dawn in Nagaland
Ranen
Kumar Goswami
Ursula Graham Bower, a pioneer
anthropologist in the Naga Hills between 1937-1946 and also a guerrilla fighter
against the Japanese in Burma between 1942-45, in her book Naga Path,
first published in 1950, says: “Under British administration the Naga country
and other Assam hill tracts formed 'excluded areas' --- excluded, that is, from
the control of Provincial Legislature and left in the hands of the
Governor............. In the administered areas Mission and Plains influence
have altered the tribes much. Caps, boots and trousers replace the former
simplicities, and a desire for sinecures and soft jobs seduces men from the
old, hard way of the soil.” But in the next lines, she adds: “There are,
though, blessed oases in the drab desert where beads and feathers, red-dyed
goats' hair and rich-hued plaids still gladden the eye; where the ancient
candours and ancient moralities survive uncorrupted, where chipped enamel and
cheap glass have not ousted the hand-carved product; where men go armed with
spear and dao instead of notebook and
fountain pen; where dog-eat-dog-existence of modern economies has not swamped
the primitive decencies, and where life is simple and pagan and brief and
happy.”
In 1918, the Naga Club was formed,
which in its memorandum to the Simon Commission on January 10, 1929 expressed
the desire that Nagas be excluded from the proposed constitutional changes and
kept under the direct administration of the British. The memorandum said:
“Before the British Government conquered our country in 1879-180, we were
living in a state of intermittent warfare with the Assamese of the Assam valley
to the North and West of our country and Manipuris in the South. They never
conquered us nor were we subjected to their rule. On the other hand, we were
always a terror to these people.”
Births of several organisations later,
the Naga National Council was formed in 1946. On August 14, 1947, one day
before India gained her independence, the NNC celebrated the Naga people's own
independence. Other hill peoples of the North-east responded to the
accommodative spirit of the Sixth Schedule, but the Naga Hills did not. In
1949, Angami Zapo Phizo took over as the president of the NNC. Under his
leadership, the NNC
organised a plebiscite in the Naga Hills district on May 16, 1951. In his
speech on that day, Phizo explained why the Nagas want independence and said:
“We want to feel that we are absolutely and unconditionally free as a nation.
Nagas belong to a distinct people and live in a country entirely of their own.
We want to live outside the influence of any other nation, be it white or
brown.” In the plebiscite, the Nagas gave their thumb impressions in favour of
independence. In 1952, the next year, at the call of the NNC, the Nagas
boycotted the first election to the Lok Sabha. In an interview to Tehelka
Magazine (October 30, 2012), “Lieutenant General” Thinoselie M. Keyho, 80,
an NNC veteran claimed: “Everything changed after Mahatma Gandhi's
assassination. He loved and encouraged us. He supported our decision to be
independent. If he hadn't been assassinated, well who knows....” But we must
add here that this contention made by various Naga rebel leaders before and
after Thinoselie has never been confirmed by Gandhiji papers or people close to
him.
Bishnuram Medhi, who took over as
Chief Minister of Assam, of which Naga Hills district was then a part, in 1950
after Gopinath Bordoloi, advocated a tough response to the problem. Jawahar Lal
Nehru, the then Prime Minister, was initially reluctant. In a letter to Medhi
on May 13, 1956, Nehru said: “We recognise of course fully that this revolt of
some of the Nagas has to be dealt with firmly and speedily. It is far better to
restore law and order in these affected areas as quickly as possible than to
allow the situation to drag on............. But there is more to it than merely
the military approach............. We shall of course use our armed forces to
the fullest extent necessary. But we have always to remember that the real
solution will require a political approach and an attempt to make the Nagas
feel that we are friendly to them and that they can be at home in India.”
In 1953, police action against the NNC
was intensified. This was followed by imposition of different Acts, including
the Assam Disturbed Areas Act, 1955 in
the following years. On March 22, 1956, the NNC set up its government called
the Federal Government of Nagaland (FGN). Tatar Hoho, an underground Parliament
was also formed. In 1956 itself, Indian Army units were deployed in Naga Hills.
In August 1962, Nehru moved in Parliament the Bills for the 13th Amendment of
the Constitution and for the creation of the State of Nagaland.
And on December 1, 1963, the State of Nagaland was born. Meanwhile, succumbing
to military pressure, representatives of underground Nagas signed the Shillong
Accord on November 11, 1975. The Accord was one-sided and had nothing for the
Nagas. It extracted a promise from the underground organisations that the
solution to their problem must be found within the framework of Indian
Constitution. Those who signed the Accord had not consulted Phizo and other
senior leaders Isak Chishi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah, who at that time were
reportedly camping in upper Myanmar. The result was the birth of another
organisation, the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN), on January 31,
1980. It soon turned out to be the new vanguard of Naga insurgency and the most
powerful underground outfit in the North-east. Its political slogan was
socialism and the spiritual outlook was “Nagaland for Christ”.
Muivah is a Tangkhul Naga from
Manipur's Ukhrul district. On April 30, 1988, there was an attack on NSCN
headquarters in which many “Christian Socialist revolutionaries” were killed.
Swu and Muivah accused NSCN vice president S. S. Khaplang, a Myanmar Naga of
collaborating with Burmese forces in organising the attack. The result was a
vertical split in the outfit; NSCN (Khaplang) came into being. On June 7, 2011,
the Khaplang faction suffered a split when its commander-in-chief “General”
Khole Konayak “expelled” Khaplang from
the outfit accusing him of being against the Naga reconciliation process
initiated by the Forum for Naga Reconciliation (FNR).
The growth of middle class, as was
inevitable, is a significant for the State. Former Union Home Secretary Balmiki
Prasad Singh, in an article in Mainstream on April 23, 2005, says: “Even here
the middle class is the dominant group.
It comprises the politicians, bureaucracy, businessmen from contractors to
shopkeepers, and those belonging to independent professions, such as law and
medicine. The migrant middle class is a product of the massive expenditure on
development schemes dating back to 1960s and comprises contractors,
shopkeepers, foodgrain dealers, etc., from North India..…..... The middle class
phenomenon in Nagaland has four distinctive features: 1) the absence of a
traditional bourgeoise or capitalist class; 2) the contradictions and conflicts
between two easily identifiable groups, the indigenous middle class and migrant
middle class; 3) the control of the indigenous middle class over the apparatus
of the State, including the bureaucracy and agriculture, and that of the
migrant middle class over industry and trade; and 4) the economic leverage
commanded by outside business houses.
There have been two parallel
developments that have influenced Naga politics. One, the growth of the middle,
which has a stake in being part of India; and two, increasing Army and security
operations against insurgency. With its
strength on the wane, NSCN-IM had to sign a ceasefire treaty with the
Government of India on July 25, 1997, followed by such treaties with other
militant groups. Fifteen years of negotiations with New Delhi are a clear
signal that the NSCN-IM has already dropped its sovereignty demand. Unrealised
threats of discontinuing the talks are also a clear indication of its delayed
understanding that it cannot compel the Government of India even to accept its
demand for a greater Nagaland, with inclusion Naga-inhabited areas of Manipur,
Arunachal and Assam. Now there are authentic media reports that the Union Home
Ministry has started discussions with all regional stakeholders on the broad
contours
of a political settlement.
Renowned social scientist B. K. Roy
Burman, in a 2001 article in Mainstream, expressed this opinion: “So far
as the Indian State is concerned, the positive outcome of Naga militancy at the
first instance and militancy of other peoples and ethnoses at later stages is
that these have contributed to the prevention of the almost unnoticed glide of
the Indian quasi-federal polity to a unilateral State. At the same time,
negatively the civilian control of the armed forces has been slackened to a
considerable extent.”
In the conclusion, we would like to
say as The Hindu in its editorial on October 20, 2012 said: “A prudent
balance needs to be struck between what the Centre can give and what the
insurgents can accept. This has to be done on the basis of a clear
understanding of the changing social and political dynamics of the region as a
whole.” (The Assam Tribune, November 24, 2012, Saturday)
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