The Search for Naga-India Political Peace and Justice|Naga Peoples Movement for Human Rights|NPMHR
September 4th, 2021, New Delhi
Background
Nagas were Independent
peoples and democratically self-governed like the ancient Greek city-states
living in small village republics. Nagas are indigenous peoples numbering about
4.5 million living in their native land between Longitude 92.5E and 97.5E and
23.5degree N latitude and 28.5 degrees N latitude along the sub-Himalayan
region of the Patkai Range. Thriving on a self-reliant economy, little is known
about their contact with the outside world till the first quarter of the 13th
century.
The
Naga-Ahom relation
The Naga people came in
contact with the “outside world” only as late as 1228 AD when the Tai invaded
Assam. The superior force of Sukaphaa, a Shan prince of Mong Mao occupied the
valley along the Brahmaputra river and established the Ahom dynasty (1228–1826).
The Tai people also came to be called Ahoms. A peaceful relation was also
established between the Ahoms and the Nagas that still exist today.
The
Naga-British relation
By 1839 the Shan Ahom
kingdom was weakened and disorganized by the continuous fighting and killings
that took place between 1812-19 when the Burmese kings of Mandalay tried to
conquer and subdue the Shan Ahom kingdom. This provided an opportunity for the
British company which was expanding its empire to easily and completely annex
the Ahom kingdom.
This expansionist
policy of British East India Company led them to intrude into the Naga
territory and from various directions, they began their foray into the hitherto
unconquered Naga homeland. For a number of years, the British Government was
content to leave the Nagas and their country alone except for an “occasional
expeditions to punish a particular tribe”. The British also were unsure whether
these “terra incognito” hill areas could “have enough economic worth or surplus
revenue-yielding potentiality”.
Adopting the policy of
controlling the Nagas, from 1832 till 1851, as many as ten military
“expeditions” to the Naga homeland were made resulting in skirmishes where both
sides suffered losses. The Nagas, in this case, the Angami Nagas, bravely
defended their homeland. Between the period 1851 to 1865, a “defensive policy
based on non-interference” was followed.
Having failed in this
policy, a more forward policy for subjugation was made and by 1866, Samaguting,
the present Chumukedima, was occupied. Even so, resistance continued without
any respite however less in effect might have been against the might of the
British force.
The Lotha Naga region
was conquered and annexed in 1875 where an administrative centre was
established which was later shifted to Kohima in 1879. In this manner, by 1912,
the territories of the Ao Nagas, the Sema Nagas and the Konyak Nagas were
annexed and by the Government of British-India Act 1919, the Naga Hills
District was declared as “Backward Tract” and was treated as “an entity”, separate
from the British Empire.
Constant resistance
continued against the British occupation. In 1929, a Memorandum was submitted
to the Simon Commission wherein the Naga leaders stated that becoming part of
the British India would gravely endanger the Naga people and their future. This
led to the declaration of the Naga areas including the hill areas of present
Manipur state as an "Excluded Area" by the Government of
British-India Act, 1935.
Upholding their right
to live as an independent nation and prior to India’s attainment of
independence from the British Government, the Naga Delegation met Mahatma
Gandhi at Delhi to place the Nagas’ assertion to live as an independent nation
and not to be part of the Indian nation. Significantly, the Nagas declared
their independence on the 14th of August 1947, a declaration which is still
defended to this day.
The
Naga-India political Impasse
The Nagas refrained
from joining the Indian Union. In assertion to remain independent, a Plebiscite
was organized and conducted in 1951. The outcome was 99.9% in favour of Naga
independence. In March 1953 when Nehru, the then Prime Minister of India and U
Nu, the then Premier of Burma converged at Kohima, the Naga Leaders sought to
meet Nehru. The arrogant and insensitive Nehru refused to meet them thus
signaling the start of India’s reign of terror in the Naga Nation.
By 1954, the Naga areas
were militarized and the Indian armed forces unleashed their gruesome crimes of
physical occupation, suppression and oppression, concentration and torture and
killing, rape, sodomy, and massacre, desecration of holy places and such other
acts that combined to totally dehumanize the Naga people thus shredding human
dignity to utter bits.
Armed with the Assam
Maintenance of Public Order Act, 1947(as amended in 1953), the Armed Forces
Special Powers Act, 1958, and later the "Unlawful Activities Prevention
Act 1967 (as amended in 1972)", the Indian the military unleashed terror
on a scale unprecedented in the region where any Naga on mere suspicion was
arrested and tortured or shot.
Continuing its
full-scale war upon the Nagas, and having totally militarized the Naga areas,
the Government of India forced some leaders of the Federal Government of
Nagaland (FGN) to sign the so-called Shillong Accord, 1975, in the name of
Underground organization. This was forthrightly rejected by the Nagas.
In the following years
till the late nineties, the Nagas witnessed the worst of armed conflicts and
rampant violations of human rights in the process of military persecution. This
was a period when animals were safer than the Nagas in the hands of the Indian
armed forces. The magnitude of human rights violations against the Nagas
reached the corridors of the United Nations.
In 1995 the United
Nations Commission on Human Rights (ECOSOC E/CN,4/Sub.2/1995/NGO/35 – 10 August
1995) through the Secretary-General circulated ‘the human rights situation in
Nagaland’ in consonance with ECOSOC resolution 1296 (XLIV) (3 August 1995)
wherein it stated:
“It profoundly
regretted that four-decade-long genocidal campaigns of the Indian and Burmese
armed forces against the Naga people have been called into question by the
Commission on Human Rights. We urge that the danger inherent in the suppression
of the people’s right be looked into before it is too late, if peace and
justice are to prevail,”
Despite all odds, the
resolute Nagas continued to defend their rights. All the powers vested to the
Indian military could not subdue the spirit of the Nagas. It is also, an open
secret that several Army Generals of India, like General Shankar Roy Chowdhury,
former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General John Ranjan (Johnny) Mukherjee, former
Chief of Eastern Command, Kolkata, and Commander of 15 Corps of Jammu &
Kashmir, Lt. Gen. Krishna Mohan Seth, former Adjutant General and Commander of
III Corps of Nagaland and others had impressed upon the Government of India to
seek a political solution as it could not be militarily resolved.
Political
Dialogue
The mid-nineties
witnessed the beginning of Dialogue between the Government of India and the
Nagas at the initiative of the Government of India. Prominent Prime Ministers
of India, beginning with Mr. P. V. Narashimha Rao, met the Naga Leaders on 15th
of June 1995 at Paris, followed by Mr. H. D. Deve Gowda, in February 1996 at
Zurich, including other leaders had engaged in peace talks with the NSCN (IM)
leaders in various third world countries like Paris in France, New York in the
USA, Bangkok in Thailand, Zurich, and Geneva in Switzerland etc.
As a result of these
meetings, the Ceasefire Agreement was signed and declared between the
Government of India and the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (IM), on
the 25th of July 1997, for a three-month period with effect from 1st August
1997. This Agreement was announced by the then Prime Minister of India, I K
Gujral, in the Indian Parliament on 25th July 1997. Chairman Isaac Chishi Swu
of the NSCN (IM) made the announcement on behalf of the NSCN (IM) on the 25th
of July 1997.
The Political Talks
between the two entities started, based on the following mutually agreed three
principles:
i. That the talks would be unconditional;
ii. That it would be held at the highest level
(i.e., at the Prime Ministerial level); and,
iii. That the talks will be held in a third
neutral country.
These principles
provided a glimmer of hope for search for a solution for both the Nagas and
India.
On July 9-11, 2002,
representatives of the Government of India and the National Socialist Council
of Nagaland met in Amsterdam. This meeting recognised the “unique history and
situation of the Nagas”. “The Government of India renewed the invitation of the
Prime Minister to the Chairman and General Secretary of the NSCN to come to
India at the earliest to carry forward and expedite the peace dialogue”. The
NSCN leadership expressed willingness to come to India after the procedural
aspects were addressed.
Responding to the
official invitation of the Government of India, the NSCN (IM) leaders came to
India in 2002, and from 2010, they have stayed on with a commitment to search
and arrive at an acceptable and honourable political settlement.
Framework
Agreement
The outcome of numerous
rounds of Talks culminated in the signing of the Framework Agreement on the 3rd
of August 2015. Mr. Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India in whose
residence the Agreement was signed, lauded the agreement as “historic occasion”.
The concluding remark of FA said: “It is a matter of great satisfaction that
dialogue between the Government of India and the NSCN has successfully
concluded and we are confident it will provide for an enduring new relationship
of peaceful co-existence of the two entities. The two sides agreed that within
this Framework Agreement details and execution plan will be worked out and
implemented shortly”
The
present impasse
The peace process has
been nurtured by various Prime Ministers between 1995 and 2019. However,
starting from 2019, the GOI began to deviate from the principles enshrined in
the Cease Fire Agreement, 1997, the Joint Communique, 2002 and the Framework
Agreement 2015. Re-adopting its fascist policy which was pursued in the 1960s
and 1970s, the GOI began to dictate its terms with the least regard or
consideration for the understanding and milestones scripted between the GOI and
the Nagas through the ongoing peace process and political dialogue.
The appointment of the
“Interlocutor” for GOI in the political dialogue as the “Governor” of Nagaland
State is seen as yet another nail in its resolve to bury the political peace
process. Presently, the office of the “Governor” of Nagaland state orchestrates
the enactment of the fascistic policy once again like in the days of old.
The contents of the
Framework Agreement were not brought to the public domain. The argument of Mr.
RN Ravi, the Interlocutor for the Government of India and also the Governor of
Nagaland state is that it could not be released “for security reasons”. The
question arises as to how an agreement to bring peace amongst conflicting
groups could be kept secret unless it is for a motive to serve an agenda to
derail the agreed terms.
What is politically
misleading and immediately criminal, traitorous and hence condemnable, is the
act of Mr. RN Ravi who “craftily” changed the key political terms in the
Agreement and began to circulate it amongst select individuals and groups thus
dividing and misleading the Naga public and also the world. Mr. Ravi also
wrongly briefed the Indian Parliamentary Committee on the same political
matter. He further overstepped when he ordered for profiling the Nagas.
Such an act does not
augment positive progress towards political peace. More so, as we now are
convinced that the text of the agreement that was to be the basis for ushering
in political peace and political justice has been doctored by the very
Interlocutor of the GOI, a damning exhibit of dishonour and insincerity on the
part of the GOI. The agreed intentions as culminated in the Agreement must be
honoured and the political solution must be concluded on its basis.
Beyond
the impasse
Learning lessons from
the past failures, it is imperative that the long political dialogue starting
from 1997 must logically culminate in political peace and justice. We call upon
the Government of India to rise above mere territorial occupation and military
subjugation but to honourably translate its recognition of the Nagas as a
separate entity from India politically. We call upon both the parties to honour
in letter and spirit what has been mutually agreed upon as the only way forward
to establish honourable peaceful co-existence.
It is just and only
logical that political dialogue must conclude in political peace and justice.
Finally, we avail this moment to implore all fellow friends of the Indian
sub-continent and workers of peace and justice the world over to enable the
Government of India to honour its commitment to political peace and justice to
the Nagas.
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