MP Meya
President, Eastern Naga National Organisation (ENNO)
Dear Eastern Naga people, I extend my warmest greetings to all the Eastern Naga people on this, the auspicious historic day of our nation. As we are observing this historic day, I thank God for His unfailing love for the Naga people and delivered our nation from the brink of doom in 1975, so that today we can celebrate the 80th Nagaland Independence Day. I also give my humble salute to all the pioneer leaders who sagaciously founded the Naga nation in their time, and pay my homage to those who sacrificed their precious lives for the nation within the past seventy nine years, and thus today we might live as a nation.
Today, we are commemorating the Declaration of Independence in 1947, which informs the whole world that the Nagas are a nation which never surrendered or bowed down to the enemy in the past 79 years. The resilient Nagas have a strong spirit as a nation, which thwarted the attempt to invade Nagaland by India and Burma in 1955, eight years after they were set free from the yoke of the British Colony in 1947 and 1948.
The Nagas had never fallen into any foreign domination in history. The Nagas had no treaty or agreement, even with the British Colonial Regime, to surrender our sovereignty. Though the British Colonial Regime ruled over one-fourth of the Naga territory, which would be considered an occupation, not as a subject people. The rest 75% territory of Nagaland was left as an unministered area or as Free Nagas.
The Nagas have never been part and parcel of India and Burma, and neither a neighbour with those nations. The Nagas have no boundary within our country from time immemorial. But the British drew a cursory boundary line, known as the McMahon lines, in 1914 without the consent and knowledge of the Naga people. As a result of it, the Nagas have a problem with India and Burma.
The Nagas are, therefore, under the occupation of two nations, the Eastern part by Burma and the western part by India. To deal with the two occupational forces, the Eastern Nagas were compelled to form the Eastern Naga National Organization (ENNO) and the Eastern Naga Defence Army (ENDA) in 2021.
The stand of ENNO and ENDA is that the Nagas are one nation, there would be no boundary within Nagaland i.e. East and West, and the Nagas are a sovereign nation from time immemorial. The ENNO and ENDA regards the NNC as a parent body, and the nation founded by the Declaration of Independence in 1947, and the Plebiscite in 1951, is fully accepted as a national foundation. And the governing of the people, according to the Naga traditional democracy, is regarded as essential and indispensable for the Naga people. The ENNO and ENDA want all the Naga factions to stop fighting against each other and strive to unite among us. We all must regard the NNC as a common platform and institution of the Nagas. The practice of telling lies and false accusations against innocent people must stop henceforth, as we believe in Jesus Christ as our Saviour; such sins have been committed knowingly for more than 46 years in the past, and should not continue forth with.
In conclusion, I urge the young people to come forward and stand to defend our national rights and a sovereign nation that has been handed down to us by our forefathers. This is the inheritance of our forefathers, which should not be forfeited in our time. Let us march ahead and shout from the top of our voices that “the Nagas are a sovereign and independent nation”. If the Ukrainian people, young and old alike, are vigorously defending their nation from the invading forces of Russia, why not the Nagas?
Kuknalim.
