Zapuvisie Lhousa
Member CEC, NNC
There is no denying the fact that the Indian Union got liberated by and from the Imperial British yoke after one very protracted and tenacious struggle against the adamant regime by pursuing the Indian Grandfather Mahatma Gandhi’s profound weapon of Non-Violence and Non-Cooperation Policy. It is therefore not too great a wonder that the Nation reveres and respects his name and memory most highly up to this very day. But most tragically ironical is the case where the Government of India does not deal with the Nagas in the same humane Gandhian ideology.
Here are a few instances; the proverbial tip of the iceberg, to vindicate and qualify the gospel truth of India’s heinous hypocrisy:-
1. On October 18, 1952 while there had been a silent procession being taken out in Kohima Town protesting the atrocious actions of the Assam Police on innocent Nagas; one Assam Police officer, cursed with an additional thumb on his right hand (supernumerary!) bearing the ignominious name of Mr Dutta fired point-blank from his service pistol, most unprovoked, on Mr Zasibito Nagi and killed him in the coldest of blood.
2. With the coming of Mr Satyanath Barkataki, most appropriately nick-named “the Assam-Tiger” as the Deputy Commissioner of Kohima; hordes upon detestable hordes of Assam Armed Police Battalion men (infamously referred to as A.P Bn) were brought over to terrorise the peaceful Nagas by house-searches, arresting and beating the people without the flimsiest of rhyme or reason.
3. On November 15, 1954 the Indian Armed Forces surrounded the modest Village of Yimpang (47 houses) and opened indiscriminate fire on the trapped populace therein butchering 57 fellow human beings most out of turns; having been masterminded by Mr Kar the Cur and Maj Kathing the Scathing. The oldest to have perished had been Mr Chudangba (97 yrs old) and the youngest one Master Temsümeren ( just 15 days young); their crime – being Nagas, nothing whatsoever else!
4. As a retaliatory action against the shooting down of the IAF Dakota airplane by the Naga Army in combat, at Phor area; the Indian Army unleashed its savagery on the unarmed villagers of Phor, Moka, Yisi and Matikhrü, slaughtering 19 Nagas in total. Special in its notoriety had been the butchery of the 9 victims of Matikhrü Village (25 houses), most dastardly perpetrated in ‘forced’ public view most sadistic and gory!
One wonders most seriously: had the Nagas been four-footed, may be the Indians would pay more respect to them; at least by the estranged BAHU Madam Meneka Gandhi of People For Animal (PFA) fame.
In extremely stark contrast the Nagas had been most ‘Non-Violent’ even to our own amazement:-
1. After the glorious establishment of the Federal Government of Nagaland (March 22, 1956) – even though it had been just; on March 24, 1956 the Naga Home Guards (later Naga Army) could most successfully capture and disarm all of 78 men of the Assam Armed Police Battalion at Satakha. They were later on released en-bloc without the slightest bit of harm coming on their person, except for their pride and honour, if they had any – that is.
2. On the fateful day and date of August 26, 1960, the Naga Army could shoot down one IAF Dakota plane in active combat at Phor Indian Army Outpost, Thuda. The pilot, Flight Lieutenant Anand Singha and 8 of his subordinates were captured. Utmost restraint had been exercised and superb courteous fellow feelings were lavished upon the captives and within no time 5 of the Airmen were released via Imphal and 4 of the Officers were detained for obvious tactical equations. They were then set free when their presence was not fetching any dividends, and they were handed over to the Burmese Government for safe passage before India could kill them (several attempts were desperately made!) and blame the Nagas with the crime most grim. One most interesting facet of this fiasco would be the letter written in captivity by Flight Lieutenant Anand Singha to his sister Mrs Kalpana Kartik (born Mona Singha) who was none other than the dear wife of the legendary Actor Dev Anand, having been published in some Bollywood Film Magazines (ex 1961/62); would surely make much of an interesting reading - that!
Shri P V Narasimha Rao as the Prime Minister of India (21.06.1991 – 16.05.1996) was heard to have spoken most eloquently on Mahatma Gandhi’s virtues, more particularly on the Non-Violence Policy in an exceptionally lengthy speech in Paris. So also all the other politicians of India, both the great as well as the otherwise; would brag about our dear BAPU without end, most rightly! Then the Nation in her wisdom chooses to display his grand picture most prominently on her (inflation-prone) currency notes; nothing ever more correct. However, most unforgivably, his values and virtues are being more and more shunned away from, most sinisterly deliberate; taking sarcasm to the extreme perilous unredeemable levels by the day.
Has not the time arrived when India finally should start walking her profound Talk?!!
The population of Nagaland is frightfully meagre and her land is not only unpardonably narrow but also most apologetically restrictive. But for the most undisputable of facts, this tiny strip of land never forms part of India neither are the measly Nagas Indians most by far. The fact of this statement is by no means, one of any sacrilegious utterance both before God and man. The Nagas stand ever most confident in the never failing loving kindness of the magnificent God for all time and eternity.
The Naga National Council most diligently pursues the age-old path of Sovereignty, irrevocably confirmed by the Plebiscite most majestic.
“Not by the unscrupulous crowd but by the eternal truth”.
“Not by vain might but by the unshakable righteousness”.
