Dimapur, Feb 26 (MExN): Angami Public Organization makes a plea to the Local Commission on the Nagaland-Assam border asserting claim over a stretch contiguous to Dimapur. The APO, in a representation to the Chairman of the Local Commission, urges that immediate steps for redress be taken over what the APO said is the legitimate claim of the Angamis.
According to the representation appended by executives of the APO, Angami settlers arrived in the plains around Dimapur “many centuries” before the British’s advent, in 1832. At that time Angami lands covered all lands in Hotizha (present Niuland). Dimapur, also called Kuda, was once occupied by Dima Raja, a Kachari pretender to the throne. On one of its attempts to drive away the Angamis, the Kachari forces were destroyed while attempting to invade Chiepama village in the 1530s, the APO stated. Further, under constant threat from the Ahom king, the Kacharis left Dimapur in 1536 and settled in Maibong. The Ahoms never settled in the area and thus, the Nagas slowly established its dominance over the entire stretch from the foothills to areas bordering the Khasi and Jantia Hills, Nowgong and Sibsagar districts. “In this area the Nagas roamed freely, hunted freely, traded freely with the neighboring people even up to Shilhet. This fact was clearly acknowledged by the British Government of India when they first came to this part of the country in 1832 and subsequent notification of creation of the Naga Hills district in 1867” stated the representation appended by APO Vice President TL Angami, APO Press Secretary Kekhriengulie Linyu and CPO President T Shiiya.
However, “after many centuries” the British Government began to extend its administration to the Naga country and thereby establishing police outposts followed by creation of a Naga Hills sub-division and finally a separate Naga Hills district, the APO explained. Initially all Naga-dominated areas were included in the district of 1866.
However, side by side with the British conquest of Naga territories, the Naga areas were systematically “sliced” and added to the better administered district of Assam for administrative convenience, the APO pointed out. This detached large tracts of Naga lands under various agreements with the Government of India. But these agreements were never implemented by the Government for which conflicts arose in the border areas. “In fact the Assam government’s allegation of Nagas encroaching upon its land can be viewed the other way around” the PAO asserted. The western line of the Angami boundary in the south-west starts with the Zeliang Nagas’ and extends to Karbi Anglong (Mikhir Hills) border and then from the Mohung Dijoon agreement made with the British India government during 1840-41, towards the north along Jamuna River-Kalapahar range to join Doyang River bank at north point border with the Lothas near Golagath, the APO asserted. Therefore, since there was no other community living between the border of Angami people and Assamese, no settlement in these areas can be taken without the consent of the Angamis” the APO stated.
