Settlement should be confined within the State of Nagaland
Talk between the Government of India & the NSCN-IM
- Part 1 -

Y Surchandra Singh *

A map of Nagaland State :: Pix - TSE

1. With the formation of the Naga Club by 20 Naga members of the French Labour Corps, who had served in World War-I in Europe the Nagas of the Naga Hill District of Assam started politically organising themselves as a distinct ethnic entity and aroused the feeling of Naga nationalism and the idea of a 'Naga nation'.

The club submitted a memorandum to the Simon Commission in 1929, in which it stated that the people of Naga areas and those of mainland India had nothing in common and the future of the Nagas should be determined by themselves and therefore demanded to exclude the Nagas /Naga Hills from the constitutional framework of so called British India.

2. In the early history of Manipur various tribes/communities in the hills were not known as Nagas. After the British came they incorporated the various tribal communities of Manipur like Tangkhuls, Marings, Anals, Paomei, etc. in the Naga group. The Britishers were never sincere to India.

When India was to be given Independence, the Britishers tried to create a Christian dominated country comprising the Naga Hill District of Assam (The present state of Nagaland), Manipur, Mizoram, part of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam to keep as a buffer zone between India and Burma (now Myanmar). With their guidance and help, the Naga National Council (NNC) a successor to Naga Club under the leadership of A.Z. Phizo was formed in 1946. Phizo declared Naga Independence on August 14, 1947.

3. Several efforts were made to resolve the Naga issue. On June 27-28, 1947, the Akbar Hydari Agreement was signed between the then Governor of Assam, Sir Akbar Hydari and the NNC, in which the Nagas' right to freely develop themselves was respected. However, clause 9 of the Hydari Agreement created divisions as it stated.

"The Governor of Assam as the Agent of the Government of the Indian Union will have a special responsibility for a period of 10 years to ensure the observance of the agreement. At the end of this period the Naga Council will be asked whether they require the above agreement to be extended for a further period or a new agreement regarding the future of the Naga people arrived at". This was interpreted by the NNC as terminating in sovereignty.

4. The NNC was mostly confined to Naga Hill Districts of Assam. In 1951, the NNC conducted a plebiscite for the Naga independence from India. Reportedly 90% voted for independence. The plebiscite was not recognized by the Government of India. In 1953, army started crackdown on Naga Militants of NNC in the then Naga Hill Districts of Assam.

To strengthen the hand of the army in crushing insurgency Parliament passed the Controversial Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in 1958. To appease the Nagas, particularly the Naga insurgents, a State called Nagaland was formed on December 1, 1963 by carving out of the areas of the Naga Hill Districts of Assam and Tuensang area of NEFA (now Arunachal Pradesh).

The NNC continued fighting for independence. Again in 1975, to appease the insurgents, the Centre signed the 16 points Shillong Peace Accord with the representatives of NNC. However, in 1980 some leaders who were not satisfied with the Shillong Peace Accord formed National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN). It was led by Isak Chishi Swu (President), S.S. Khaplang (Vice-President) and Thuingaleng Muivah (General Secretary). Again in 1988, after a factional fight in upper Myanmar, NSCN split into two factions; the NSCN-K led by S.S. Khaplang, and the NSCN-IM led by Isak Chishi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah.

In 1993, because of the support of some western leaders and organizations, the NSCN-IM managed to get itself admitted as a member of the Un-represented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNO) whose Head Quarter is at the Hague. In the same year because of the territorial ambition, the Kuki-Naga clash took place and in which more than 360 Kuki villages located either in the Naga dominated areas or nearby the Naga areas were liquidated /flushed out and more than 900 Kukis were killed.

Various organisations have been demanding the GOI to punish the NSCN-IM leaders for their criminal act. However, the concerned authorities of the GOI, for the reasons best known to them, remained silent without taking any action. In 1997, the ceasefire agreement with the centre and the NSCN-IM was signed and peace talk started. The NSCN-K too signed ceasefire agreement in 2001 but abrogated on March 27, 2015.

5. The Nagas do not have any written history before 1918 nor did they have any Raja or King or any well defined administrative boundary. The term or the phrase "The Unique History of the Nagas" was used for the first time by Mr. Charles Pawsay, the then Deputy Commissioner of Naga Hills of Assam and the phrase refers to only the Nagas inhabited in the Naga Hill District of Assam. The Lingua Franca of the so called the Naga State is Nagamese (broken Assamese). It is confined to the present state of Nagaland which was part of the Assam at one time.

6. On August 3, 2015 the peace accord between the Government of India (GOI) and the NSCN-IM was signed at the residence of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The agreement was signed by RN Ravi on behalf of the GOI and Th. Muivah General Secretary or Ato Kilonser on behalf of the NSCN-IM. This was the handiwork of the interlocutor RN Ravi and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on the GOI's side and Th. Muivah, V.S. Atem and their associates from the NSCN-IM's side.

The officials of the Home Ministry, GOI, the Chief Ministers of Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh were never consulted and were kept in the dark. When the Chief Minister of Manipur contacted Home Minister of India over phone, late night of the same day, the Chief Minister was reportedly informed that it was a framework agreement and would be placed in the parliament which was in session on the next day. Surprisingly, the same was not placed on the table of the House on the next day and was kept secret till date.

The GOI and the NSCN-IM claimed that it was a historic agreement and this had laid a road map for a final solution.

To be continued ...