Dimapur, June 13 (MExN): The Rengma Selo Zi (RSZ) has said that the governments of India and Assam, before signing the final accord with the Karbis or entering into any agreement, should first look into the legitimate rights of the Rengmas based on historical facts.
“..The sensitive ongoing political dialogue between the GOI and the Naga people should not be jeopardized by any misadventures, such as the present negotiations with certain Karbi groups, which, besides being a travesty of justice, may lead to undesirable consequences,” the RSZ, the apex youth organisation of the Rengma community, stated in a press statement on Sunday.
The RSZ is deeply concerned and anguished by the current developments today wherein the land of the Nagas everywhere is slowly but strategically being disintegrated for the benefit of undeserving and manipulative aliens at the expense of the Nagas which is a wakeup call for all the Nagas to stand united to protect and preserve whatever is inalienably ours for posterity.
In the statement, the RSZ underscored that the Rengmas are “one of the autochthonous tribes of North East India inhabiting the vast tract of land in the Rengma Hills since time immemorial,” and have lived in peaceful coexistence with the Ahoms who occupied Upper Assam since 1228 AD. After the British occupied India, they expanded their interests further northeast, entering into Assam, and first people among the Nagas whom they encountered were the Rengmas, the indigenous inhabitants of the Rengma Hills, it said.
“The then British-India government surveyed the region and declared the vast tract of the Rengma homeland as the ‘Rengma Hills’ on April 18, 1841, vide Political Proceedings under Section Nos. 79 and 80,” the statement read. The Rengma Hills extended from Bora Dikharu, Ban Inkuparbat and Tarapung Nallah in the North to the Jamuna and Diphu rivers in the South, the Bora Dikharu and Horu Dikharu in the West to Dimapur in the East. The Rengma Hills then consisted of 52 Rengma villages, out of which 32 villages paid house tax of Rs 1 to the British Government under West Rengma Mouza and East Rengma Mouza, it added.
The Karbis and the Rengmas, according to the RSZ, were two totally separate entities with “no connection whatsoever with the Rengmas and their homeland.” It said that the Karbis presently living in the erstwhile Rengma Hills are migrants from the North Cachar Hills, Khasi & Jaintia Hills, Bangladesh, Tezpur, Hamren, Naogaon,Sibsagar districts of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
Further, it said that the Rengma Hills was “dubiously renamed as ‘Mikir Hills’ and further renamed into ‘Karbi Anglong’, vide Govt. Notification No. TAD(R31/50/204) dated Diphu, the November 17, 1951, which was carved out of East and West Rengma Mouza of the Rengma Hills; Sarupathar, Barpathar and Morongi Mouzas from Sibsagar district; Ghiladar, Lanka, Cuba, Lumding, Nomati and Duar Chalara from Naogaon district; and Block I & Block II from Jowai-Ribhoi districts of United Khasi & Jaintia Hills. “Also, it may be recollected that the Rengma Hills of the erstwhile Naga Hills, was transferred into the adjoining Naogaon and Sibsagar districts of Assam vide Notification No. 5646, dated Shillong, December 9, 1898,” the RSZ stated.
As such, the RSZ was of the opinion that “the sensitive ongoing political dialogue between the GOI and the Naga people should not be jeopardized by any misadventures, such as the present negotiations with certain Karbi groups, which, besides being a travesty of justice, may lead to undesirable consequences.” It also stated its support to the Rengma Naga Peoples’ Council (RNPC) in their decades-long struggle for the creation of Rengma Hills Autonomous District with headquarters at Phentecho by upgrading the Bokajan Sub-division, the erstwhile East Rengma Mouza. One assembly seat should also be created and reserved for the Rengmas, it added.
It meanwhile expressed concern over the current developments “wherein the land of the Nagas everywhere is slowly but strategically being disintegrated” stating that it is a wakeup call for all the Nagas to “stand united to protect and preserve whatever is inalienably ours for posterity.”
