Kaka D Iralu
The political slogan with which the NNC launched the resistance movement for the defence of our motherland was URRA UVIE. Urra Uvie is an Angami word, meaning “Our land is ours” or “Our country is ours.” The whole Indo-Naga-Myanmar conflict is because of these two words “Urra Uvie.” Urra Uvie is a simple political statement with profound significance and also serious ramifications and implications. Therefore every Naga citizen must understand why “Urra” must be “Uvie.”
1. Urra is Uvie because land ownership rights to our land is an alienable right bestowed on us by God himself who is the creator of the whole universe. Acts 17:26 spells out this right very clearly when it says: “And He (God) made from one (Adam) every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation” As such our right to our lands is not subject to India and Myanmar’s sanction or approval. In fact it is not even subject to the UN’s sanction or approval. Here Nagas are not asking sovereignty and independence from India or Myanmar or even the UN. All that we are asking from the UN is that this world body recognise Naga sovereign rights to their lands. As to India and Myanmar, all that we are asking them is that they withdraw from their illegal occupation of our lands.
2. Biologically speaking, we came naked from our mother’s wombs into this world. In that journey and descend, we did not come to earth with even a handful of soil or the tiniest bottle of oxygen. Naked we came and occupied the foreordained demarcated geographical boundaries that were allotted for our habitation. It is therefore a sacred religious duty to defend our God apportioned lands from foreign aggression and occupation of our lands. The Jews understood this profound truth and the duty to that truth when from their Babylonian captivity they wrote these words:
“By the rivers of Babylon, there we set down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion…If I forget thee, oh Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning, If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy” (Ps 137:1-6)
Now what the Jews were saying amounts to this:
1. It is with the right hand (For most people) that we earn our living. Hence the Jews were saying: If I forget thee oh Jerusalem, then let my right hand forget its ability to work and let me starve to death.
2. It is with the tongue that one expresses one’s deepest thoughts of patriotic feelings or expressions of love for one’s country. Here the Jews were saying: If I forget thee oh Jerusalem, then let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth and let me be forever silenced from ever expressing any patriotic feelings for my land and country.
I have never come across any greater patriotic expression than these words expressed by these Jews in connection with their love for Jerusalem their capital city.
In the context of Nagaland, the Indo-Myanmar-Naga conflict is not over the Nagas trying to grab somebody else’s lands. It is also not over Nagas building their houses in somebody else’s land and having a land ownership dispute with others. The issue is over the profound and rightful claim that Nagaland belongs to the Nagas- URRA UVIE.
Now if we are to surrender our lands to others we will become refugees in our own lands. With the passage of time, our children will have no national identity or national country to call their own. The surrendering of “Urra Uvie” is as serious as that.
Therefore, if any Naga father surrenders Urra Uvie, he will be guilty of existential treason against both God and his own country. Such a father is unworthy of fatherhood.
Many a times, Indian leaders have told me that peace, development and co-operation are the hallmark of any modern nation. They have often told me “You got to think about your children’s futures.” My reply is: “It is precisely for our children’s future that we are refusing to surrender Urra Uvie.” This is because if “Urra” is no longer “Uvie” then there can be no true peace or true development when we become refugees in somebody else’s lands. In this context, I would also like to add that we do not need one paisa from India or Myanmar for our economic development. The moment they leave our country, we will dig up our own mineral wealth and build our own economy with the assistance and co-operation of other countries. In fact we are even ready to export our oil and other mineral wealth to India as payment for all their small economic developments that they have build in our lands.
In conclusion allow me to reproduce some of A.Z .Phizo’s writings under the captions; “Our objectives” and “Our responsibility”:
1. Our international objectives are to be a man among men and to be a nation among nations.
2. We shall not allow fear or emotional feelings to sway us from our purposes. That which we must do we shall do it. We shall not allow even helplessness to deter us from shouldering our responsibilities however helpless at time it may appear… we shall do what we must do: and nothing can stop us…. We have a mission and that mission is to maintain sanity in all the situations if that is humanly possible. But when the situation is war as at present, and if there is no other alternative, then we shall have to become insane to break the evil barriers.” (From the original text by A.Z. Phizo, England, 1984).
As for those so-called Naga leaders who are now trying to sell our history and heritage for their own personal short term economic benefits, they will bring curses upon themselves and their children.
