DIMAPUR, JANUARY 7 (MExN): The Naga Hoho today termed the construction of border fencing in the heart of Pangsha along the Indo-Myanmar border as “an attempt by India and Myanmar to rewrite the history of Nagas.”
It is akin to state sponsored race divisions and cultural intrusion by aliens, the Naga Hoho stated in a press note. Nagas, it said “cannot allow any authority to divide our history and remove the feeling of oneness among the Naga family.” It affirmed that the Naga people have the “absolute rights to protect their ancestral land and no man made authority should segregate Nagas into pieces basing on the fact that Nagas are bound to protect their identity and territory.” It said that the Naga people cannot accept the imaginary boundary fencing between India and Myanmar.
It pointed out that “there is no cultural divide or ideological differences among the Nagas to live together and we have the inherent rights since time immemorial to be together.”
“Naga people have been living together in their own land even before India and Myanmar achieved the status of sovereign states of which history cannot deny the facts. People and their land can be divided only when there is lack of history or evidence with different cultures, language and practices occupying different territories,” it maintained.
The Naga Hoho stated that the notion of boundaries with neighbouring states has become “one of our most fertile thinking tools among the Nagas at present and people have become more conscious.”
It pointed out that the McMahon Line is a line agreed to by Britain and Tibet as part of the Simla Accord, a treaty signed in 1914 has become the basis of boundary demarcation between India and Myanmar and “thus the Nagas were forced to divide in the Eastern sector.” It further stated that “we were divided through unilateral decision of Nehru and U-Nu through aerial survey in 1953 of which the Nagas does not accept till today.”
The Naga Hoho appealed to the Home Ministry, Government of India to redraw the policies in consultation with her counterpart Myanmar and listen to the cry of the Naga people by fulfilling the Naga people’s wishes and dreams without further delay.
It also appealed to the Government of Nagaland to bring out tangible solution with the Government of India, not forgetting the 1834 Naga Hills Map, which it stated may be acceptable to the Nagas.
“Simultaneously, Naga people irrespective of tribes or region should put collective efforts to restore our inherent rights,” it encouraged.
