Rev Dr Timothy Kaping
When I was a young man in Ukhrul Town (my hometown), one day I found a booklet on Naga freedom movement written by RH. Raising. I became a patriot after reading it. It was a joy seeing the writer in person in 1995 deep inside a primeval forest while I was a frontline “freedom fighter” (the Nagas ought to stop using the meaningless phrase “national worker/s”). I still remember his humbleness and the soft words of wisdom that came out from his mouth while we were having a one-to-one conversation, surrounded by primordial trees.
Of the many things we did together, I found the following memorable that God gave Mr. Raising and me to do for the Nagas while we were based in Thailand, assisting late President Isak Swu and Prime Minister Th. Muivah during the early stage of the ongoing Indo-Naga peace talks:
1. Two of us attended a global peace conference at Peace Palace, the Hague, the Netherlands. In his speech, Mr. Raising informed the world leaders about the Nagas’ right to freedom. That day we could eat together with great people like late Michail Gorbachev, the last leader of Soviet Union.
2. Two of us went to South Korea to spread the modern history of Nagalim. As Koreans suffered from Japanese occupation of their country, many of them understood and supported the Nagas’ fight for freedom. That visit helped lay down the foundation of friendship network of Nagas and Koreans.
The UK Naga Support Group was founded in 2005when I was working at Exeter University in England as a University Fellow and Visiting Professor and also studying at Cambridge University. Because of God’s grace to the Nagas, we could establish good relationship with individuals and groups of the British Parliament and other nations around the world. Soon the news of the subjugation of Nagalim by foreign powers became known to many. Mr. Raising (with Minister Angnaikham Makunga, former NSF President Phushika Aomi, Frans Welman of the Naga International Support Center, and Professor N Venuh of Nagaland University) brought a Naga dance troupe to London and performed inside the British Parliament. One of the persons who listened to Mr. Raising’s speech and watched the Naga traditional dance told me after the show: “I am an Indian, but now I have become convinced that Nagas are NOT Indians.”
After the function inside the British Parliament was over, Mr. Raising and I met some leaders in London. (These were British Labor Party colleagues of one top leader who invited Th Muivah and me inside the European Parliament in Brussels some years before.) They were ready to help the Nagas. They don’t forget the help given by the Nagas to the Allied Forces during the World War II both in Nagalim and Europe.
As we celebrate Mr. Raising’s 50 years of service as a freedom fighter for Nagalim, we express our gratitude to him and in Jesus’ name we wish him a happy life.
Many blessings,
(The author is the first Naga to get a PhD degree in Archeology from Pune University. In Korea, he studied at Seoul National University, Chungnam National University, and two seminaries in Seoul. While in Korea, he worked as a professor in Seoul, Ansan City, and Hwaseong City. He received a doctorate degree in theology from a university in Atlanta, and currently he is in Maryland where he is simultaneously working as a pastor and getting ready for the final half of his Doctor of Religious Education degree.)
