Kaka D. Iralu
Though it has been stated so many times, before we consider what I think is the main roadblock to a settlement of the Indo Naga Conflict, it is necessary to once again re-state the original and unchangeable stand of the Naga nation. The national stand of the Nagas as stated clearly by the Naga National Council (NNC) right from its formation in 1946 was to be “A Nation among the Nations.”
1. This stand was founded on the fact that the Nagas had never been conquered by any other nations and had never been subjects of any other nations in their history.
2. This stand was never for statehood under the then, newly formed Unions of India, Pakistan or Burma. The Naga stand was never for a change of citizenship or financial dependence on another country for its economic development. On the contrary, it was a stand for responsible stewardship of its own resources to build its own Nation State according to its own genius.
3. This national stand was also never a stand for sharing Nagaland’s sovereign status with that of any other country. Through out their history Nagas had never been conquered by any of her neighboring Kingdoms like the Burmese (Ava kingdom), the Meiteis, the Kacharis, the Tripuris or the Ahoms. As for the people called Indians, 99% of the Naga villagers would not have even known the existence of India in the 1940’s. This is because throughout their recorded history of over 2000 years, they had never fought even a single battle with any Indian Maharaja or Maharani. As such even in their ancient folktales and folklore, there is not a single mention of a country called India. They knew the British because they had fought so many battles with them from 1832 to 1947, but with the exception of a few educated Nagas, in the rural villages of Nagaland, most Nagas did not even know the existence of a country called India. This was more so because in 1946, India was yet to become a nation.
It was only when Indian troops moved into Nagaland in the mid 1950’s that most rural Nagas came to know the Indian face for the first time. Their experience with these new faces has left many bitter memories and scars till today. But these Naga villagers, though faced with overwhelming odds, never surrendered their ancient lands to modern India. The reader must have by now, grasped that point 1-3 summarizes the Indo-Naga story from its inception to the present.
Coming back to point 2, despite all these facts of Naga history and the Naga stand, in 1960, 19 Nagas of the Naga People’s Convention (NPC), went to Delhi on July 24, 1960 and asked for an Indian state. This state was granted to Nagaland on Dec.1, 1963. But because the Naga stand was not for a state under India, fierce fighting continued until a bilateral ceasefire was finally achieved on Sept. 6, 1964.
During the 1964 Ceasefire and peace talks, it was obviously clear to every Naga and Indians (as well as the whole world) that the Nagaland State Government (NSG) was set up with only 0.1 % of the Nagas, whereas the Federal Government of Nagaland (FGN) was set up with the mandate of 99.9 % of the Naga public. Also, the NSG played no role in bringing about the Indo-Naga Ceasefire of 1964. This Ceasefire was achieved through the mediation of the Nagaland Baptist Church Council. Finally, the Ceasefire was not with the Nagaland State Government but a ceasefire with the Federal Government of Nagaland.
But when the talks started, the Government of India (GOI) insisted that the NSG also must be included in that peace talks. Now, almost every Naga of that time knew that this Indian Nagaland State was set up through a collaboration of the GOI’s Intelligence Bureau and the NPC members (For details see The Naga Saga pp. 16-20 or Uncovering the Political lies...pp.1-107). However, the Government of India refused to have direct talks with the Federal Government of Nagaland without the inclusion of the Nagaland State Government.
The Government of India of course feted their illegitimate offspring and insisted that the Chief Minister of Nagaland must be included in the peace talks. The peace talks were thus reduced to a tri- lateral talk instead of being a bilateral talk between the two contending parties. It was in fact, a trilateral talk of two parties against one.
Here again, let the reader remember that even in the signing of the 16 Point Agreement, the Naga People’s Convention (NPC) who were projecting themselves as mediators between the GOI and the FGN, suddenly promoted themselves to the role of a negotiator and negotiated the pseudo settlement called the 16 Point Agreement of 1960. In this deal too, they completely bypassed the NNC and FGN which were the other party to the Indo-Naga conflict. In the 1964 peace talks, if the Naga Ministers of the (NSG) were indeed very keen for a settlement, as always stated in their party Manifestos, the 1964 ceasefire and peace talks was the golden opportunity to translate that keenness into practical action by resigning en-mass. Such an action would have cornered the GOI into an inescapable situation of having to talk with the Federal Government of Nagaland which was the true representative government of the Naga people. Here, if the talks failed, the Indian party would then have no other option but to just pack up and go back to Delhi and face the might of the Naga Army. The Naga army, at that time, as stated to me by the former FGN President Scato Swu was a well armed and united army of 27,000 troops with many trained from Pakistan. (Our Naga army has always been a small army but it was still, this small army that compelled the Indian government to have a ceasefire and peace talks with the civil government of the FGN in 1964).
Reminiscing on the 1964 cease fire, one can further quite validly speculate, that in the scenario of a resigned State government and a resumed war, the Indian government would have no platform to stand on Naga soil, and face international condemnation of a giant invading country fighting a helpless small nation. This could have attracted world attention and could quite well, have led to a solution of the conflict through an intervention of the United Nations.
But it must be sadly recollected that with the exception of the 11 opposition MLA’s of the United Democratic Front (UDF), the ruling Naga National Organization (NNO) refused to vacate their seats and allowed the Indian Government to exploit them to fullest in nullifying the Naga national stand. This Naga collaboration with India led to a deadlock of the peace talks and finally a total failure to find a solution to the conflict.
As for the present peace talks between the GOI and the NSCN IM, not to talk of the involvement (at least openly) of the State Government, even the Central Home Ministry had been completely by passed! By all appearances, only two individuals seems to be secretly having a peace talk whereas, on both sides of the conflict, thousands upon thousands of fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters lie dead and buried over a span of 69 years. In such a situation, can two man, or at best, a few individuals from both sides, really bring a miraculous solution to a conflict that has defied a solution for over sixty years?
In these present talks, if the GOI is going to talk only with the NSCN IM, then what Indo-Naga political conflict talks are they going to have with the NSCN IM? After all, the NSCN IM was born only on April 30, 1988 from Eastern Nagaland which is a foreign country to India. Also, in April 1988, there was no political conflict between Indians and Nagas in Burmese soil. The 1988 conflict was only an internal Naga conflict where the NSCN IM started a new political organization after killing all the top leaders of the NNC and FGN in Eastern Nagaland. Therefore, my question is: What Indo Naga political talk is the GOI having with the NSCN IM who had come into existence only in 1988? Also, after the talks, what is the GOI going to do with the rest of the Indo-Naga history preceding April 30, 1988? Will they be written of as dead and buried? Can’t Indian leaders understand that the roots of the Indo-Naga conflict lies in the wrong transfer of power in 1947 and not with the NSCN IM which was born only in 1980? Whatever the case may be, if the Indian Government is going to have only an exclusive talk and settlement with the NSCN IM, let them go ahead. However, in doing so, India must admit before the world that in trying to find a solution to the Indo Naga conflict, they had once gain completely by passed the main party to the conflict which is the NNC and FGN.
In my personal opinion, any such settlement of the GOI with the NSCN IM would be a mere repetition of the pseudo settlement between the Government of India and the Naga People’s Convention in 1960.
