Some educated Bloods in Nagaland today including some less educated Blokes often enquire: “WHAT WOULD NAGAS BECOME BETTER THAN THEY ALREADY ARE TODAY, IF NAGALAND BECOMES INDEPENDENT?”
The answer to this lies in the Universal Human Idea: that every People conscious of their Past and their Future, desiring to manage themselves, have every Right to a National life of their own without outside interference.
DO THEY HAVE THE ECONOMY?
The Economy of a People is determined by the People and the Government. If there is Government, there is Economy. There can be no Economy without a Government. Economy will not drop down from heaven the moment a Government is formed, but when a Government is born, Economy germinates.
India had no Economy when it became Independent in 1947; the Government went about with a begging Bawl. But today India, with a Government maturing increasingly, is becoming a World Economic Power. When there is Government: there is Economy.
CAN NAGAS MANAGE THEMSELVES?
At the beginning of Indian National Movement, Churchill is said to have derided: ‘Indians can not Manage even a Post Office’ and when the Naga Plebiscite Result was announced, Assam Chief Minister Medhi said: “Can Monkeys construct a House?” Never mind such persons; they think they descended from some high places, but they were also delivered from below a white maternity sheet like everyone of us!
Going by the indications Chief Ministers, Ministers, MLAs and their attendant ‘bandwagons’ for the past half a century since 1963 and seeing the actions of many of the Naga National Leaders; the future does not sound that attractive.
Yet Man, fallible he may be, can not delete the sense of universal Human Value from Human Nature: And of all the Values and Ideas and every thing Man hold Precious, what can be more precious than the Freedom of managing one’s own affairs without outside interference? There can be no Price Tag for this; it is priceless!
God gave Man ‘Freedom of Choice’. The Responsibilities and the Consequences are serious but No Man in his sound mind would throw it away to the Hogs.
India, for thousands of years, was not a political Nation-State that it is today. INDIA was for many centuries a geographical Area bounded on the whole North by the impassable eternal Snows of the Himalayas and on all others by the limitless Oceans.
Then three hundred twenty six years before the Birth of Christ: 326 BC, the Greek King Alexander, after overrunning the vast Persian Empire stretching up to Greece, conquered 16 Nations of North India.
In the long history that followed Alexander’s departure from India; for nearly 2000 years, India continued to be under many different kinds of Kingdoms, Dynasties, Moghul Empire, under Persian Shah and lastly the 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries, under East India Company misrule and then under British Colonial Power.
Then for the first time in a thousand years, under the fairly democratic British, in 1922, with democratic winds blowing over many parts of the World, Mahatma Gandhi on behalf of Indian National Congress began to state: ‘INDIA’S POLITICAL DESTINY SHOULD BE DETERMINED BY INDIANS THEMSELVES’
7 years after, in 1929, in the remote corner of Civilization, the rustic uneducated Interpreter Dobashis and the simple Government Servants under NAGA CLUB of Naga Hills submitted a Petition to Sir John Simon, Chairman, Statutory Commission the Conservative Government of Mr. Baldwin constituted in 1927 for reformation of British India, saying:
“We never asked for any Reforms and we do not wish for any Reforms, leave us alone to determine ourselves as in ancient times”.
The new Labor Premier of His Majesty’s Government in England, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, when he heard of the Naga Petition, is said to have remarked: ‘THE BARBARIC NAGAS ARE AWARE OF THEIR FUTURE DESTINY BEYOND THE WILDEST IMAGINATIONS OF MR. SIMON HIMSELF.
The Naga Petition affected the placing of ‘Naga Hills’ in the ‘Excluded Area’ of the British India by India Act 1935, outside of the ‘Chief Commissioner State’ of Assam and directly in charge of the Governor as Representative of the Governor-General under the British Crown.
Then 9 years after the Naga Club Petition, Pandit Nehru in 1938 demanded a Constituent Assembly to frame a Constitution of India: “THE NATIONAL CONGRESS STANDS FOR INDEPENDENCE AND A DEMOCRATIC STATE. IT HAS PROPOSED THAT THE CONSTITUTION OF FREE INDIA MUST BE FRAMED WITHOUT OUTSIDE INTERFERENCE, BY A CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY ELECTED ON THE BASIS OF ADULT FRANCHISE”.
Two years later, in 1940, the British Government recognized Indians should frame themselves a Constitution for Autonomous India.
The Muslim League wanted to form Coalition Governments in all the British Indian Provinces but the Congress did not like to share the Government with the League and formed Congress Government in 7 Provinces and wanted to form their own Government in the Centre too.
On rejection of his proposal to form Coalition Government, Mr. Jinnah, the undisputed leader of the Muslim League, who had hitherto been favorably disposed towards the Congress declared:
“The Muslims can expect neither justice nor fair play under the Congress Government” and chartered a completely separate Muslim course.
The Muslim League strongly
demanded:
(a) That India should be divided into two Autonomous States on communal lines, and that some of the Provinces earmarked by Mr. Jinnah, should form an Independent Muslim State to be known as Pakistan (P for Punjab, A for Afghan Provinces, K for Kashmir, S for Sind Province and -tan for Baluchistan).
(b) That, instead of One Constituent Assembly, there should be Two Constituent Assemblies, i.e. a separate Constituent Assembly for Pakistan.
The two Parties: the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League could not be reconciled in spite of Cripps’s Proposals, Cabinet Mission, Simla and various Round Table Conferences.
The British Parliament then intervened and on 6 December 1946. The Government published the following statement: “SHOULD A CONSTITUTION COME TO BE FRAMED BY THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY IN WHICH A LARGE SECTION OF THE INDIAN POPULATION HAD NOT BEEN REPRESENTED, HIS MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT WOULD NOT CONTEMPLATE FORCING SUCH A CONSTITUTION UPON ANY UNWILLING PART OF THE COUNTRY”.
On 9 December 1946, the first Constituent Assembly, the Muslim League did not and Naga National Council refused to attend, decided: “WHEREIN THE TERRITORIES THAT NOW COMPRISE BRITISH INDIA, THE TERRITORIES THAT NOW FORM THE INDIAN STATES, AND SUCH OTHER PARTS OF INDIA AS ARE OUTSIDE THE BRITISH INDIA AND STATES AS WELL AS SUCH OTHER TERRITORIES AS ARE WILLING TO BE CONSTITUTED INTO THE INDEPENDENT SOVEREIGN INDIA SHALL BE A UNION OF THEM ALL”.
I. The British Government’s declaration of 6 December 1946 that : “HIS MAJESTY’S GOVERNMENT WOULD NOT CONTEMPLATE FORCING SUCH A CONSTITUTION UPON ANY UNWILLING PART OF THE COUNTRY” allows Naga Hills to be outside the Indian Union. The Naga Club by the 1929 Petition, very clearly stated they are Unwilling to join the Country. This was re-iterated in Hyder Ali 9-Point Agreement and again confirmed in NNC Telegram on 14 August 1947.
II. The Constituent Assembly Resolution on 9 December 1946 stated the Indian Union shall consist of “territories as are willing to be constituted into the Union”. Nagas have consistently refused to participate in any Political processes of the formation of the Union of India. By this Resolution Naga Hills had every Right to be ‘unwilling to be constituted into the Union’ and the Indian Army occupation of Nagaland is against this Resolution of the Constituent Assembly. The Naga Hills was unwilling to join the Union and therefore the Resolutions allows them the Right to remain outside the Union.
The Naga Hills was in ‘Excluded Area’ and not in the Provincial Territories and long before the Muslim League brought the Idea of an Independent Pakistan out of British India, the NNC had already a decided separate Identity. Therefore, like the Muslim League and the Indian National Congress, the Naga National Council have the Right to be outside the Union. Before the Idea of Pakistan was born and has a National Flag, the Naga National Council already existed and had a patented National Flag with a Rainbow across a Blue Sky and a Star.
Thus, the Naga National Council’s Unique history is: 7 years after Gandhi demanded a Constituent Assembly for Indians without outside interference; the Nagas have, in no uncertain term, stated to the British Authorities in 1929: “to leave us alone to determine ourselves as in the ancient time”.
A. By the Act of 1935, Naga Hill was in Excluded Area of British India and hence the Constituent Assembly Resolution gives it the Right to remain outside the Union. Only: “territories as are willing to be constituted into the Union” are included in the Union; Naga Hills was not willing and hence it is rightly outside the Union.
B. In 1946, the Hyder Ali 9-Point Agreement with Hyder Ali, confirms the Naga Stand.
C. In 1947 Mahatma Gandhi personally gave Assurance against forcible inclusion of Naga Hills in India.
D. On 14 August 1947 Nagas declared they would stay separate from Indian Union.
E. On 6 December 1946, the British Parliament declared: “WOULD NOT CONTEMPLATE FORCING SUCH A CONSTITUTION UPON ANY UNWILLING PART OF THE COUNTRY”. Nagas were not willing to be part of the Country and therefore India could not have Inherited Naga Hills like other territories of British India.
F. Nagas did not represent in Sub-Committee of the Constituent Assembly and the Naga National Council refused to attend the Constituent Assembly, they have the Right to be outside it.
G. On 9 December 1946, the Constituent Assembly resolved: “STATES AS WELL AS SUCH OTHER TERRITORIES AS ARE WILLING TO BE CONSTITUTED INTO THE INDEPENDENT SOVEREIGN INDIA SHALL BE A UNION OF THEM ALL”.
H. On 16 May 1951, the Naga National Council Conducted a Plebiscite to stay away from India.
I. Nagas completely boycotted Independent India’s 1st and 2nd General Election of 1952 and 1957.
J. 1955 Nagaland (erstwhile Naga Hills) was occupied by Indian Army.
A. Nagas continued Guerrilla Fight.
K. On 6 September 1964 Cease Fire was established between Government of India and the Naga National Federal Government of Nagaland. This Cease fire is still observed by the Federal Government of Nagaland.
These historical events bear witnesses of the Democratic Rights the Nagas have to remain outside the Indian Union except by willing consent.
If Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, Patel and Jinnah had any Right to manage India and Pakistan without outside interference then the Nagas have every right to do the same.
By the Grace of God and with striving Christian Democratic Standard of Ethos, Nagas would more than catch up with India in One Century if not sooner: already in one generation we are the 10th most literate State in India. Education and Brain Power is Economy.
Thepfulhouvi Solo
