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Khodao Yanthan: From a Warrior to a Nationalist
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Dr. Abraham Lotha
Khodao Yanthan (Courtesy:Abraham Lotha)
On the northwestern part of Lakhuti village in Nagaland, close to where the Village Council Office is situated, stands the mingkitung, the village tree. Planted in every Lotha Naga village when a village is first established, the mingkitung, a type of banyan tree, is the axis mundi symbol of the village. In the past, warriors brought their trophies of enemies’ heads and hung them on the village tree. Such feats, in the traditional Lotha Naga society would have entitled the warrior to wear a warrior’s shawl and add more hornbill feathers to his headgear. One woman might brag to another, “My husband has cut heads but your husband hasn’t got any.” Warriors who had taken heads were called ekhyo-ekhúng or ekhúng in short. Legend has it that one day, centuries ago, the warriors of Lakhuti village brought fifty-one heads to this village-tree sealing the fate of their enemies once and for all. South of the mingkitung at Lakhuti lives a modern-day ekhúng (warrior) - Khodao Yanthan, a descendent of one of those warriors. He is a warrior, however, instead of hunting the heads of his enemies, he is fighting for Naga ekhùng (freedom or independence). As one of the charismatic pioneer leaders of Naga nationalism, Khodao’ personal qualities such as bravery and feats are commendable.
Charismatic leaders emerged in the Naga society in the Indo-Naga conflict who garnered a broad-based support of the people for the nationalist cause by providing new self-definitions, goals, directives and hope for the community. Khodao’s personal qualities are plenty. As traditional Naga culture upheld and celebrated a warrior’s feats, Khodao’s charisma can be understood from the cultural idiom of his status as an ekhúng (warrior) that ensued from his bravery during WWII, to his cunningness as a nationalist to outwit the Indian army and escape to London, his advocacy for the Naga cause in the international arena which kept Nagas’ hopes alive, his continuing resistance and defiance of the Indian state. Khodao’s charisma as a modern-day ekhúng (warrior) also is founded on his role as an educated leader. These elements are founded on the context of nationalism, initially that of different nations during WWII and later transitioning to Naga nationalism. To understand Khodao’s charismatic leadership, I will begin by examining the hallmarks of his personal ‘exceptional powers’ or qualities as a warrior gleaned from interviews by family members, personal interviews and a collection of his papers.
From the Student Warrior to a Nationalist
Khodao was born on August 25, 1923 at Lakhuti, the son of Nthio and Nthîo Yanthan. He studied Primary School at Lakhuti. He began school “in 1932 or 1933 when he was about 9 to 10 years old” (Family Interview). “How did I study?” Khodao asked in the interview. “I babysat two of my younger brothers with only one year break in between. I would take them for breastfeeding before school, after school, and lunchtime.” In 1935, the year the morung (bachelors’ dormitory) in his khel (section) of the village was rebuilt, he went to the Mission Middle Elementary School at Vankhosung. According to his nephew, Womomo, when Khodao came home for holidays later that year wearing short pants and sporting an English style hair-cut, his parents did not allow him to enter the house. He studied grades 3rd to 6th from Vankhosung.
In January 1942, the Japanese invasion of Burma began under Lieutenant General Shojiro Iida of Japanese Fifteenth Army. By March 8, 1942, the Allied Forces (British, Americans and Chinese) surrendered Rangoon to the Japanese. The war povided an opportunity for Khodao to pursue his education. Describing the hardship that he endured in order to get an education, Khodao explains: “At that time there were no educated people. After finishing sixth grade, I worried about where I would get the money to do High School. As I was thinking such, war [WWII] came.” There was recruitment for the Labour Corps and Khodao went up to Vankhosung to join. Those who wanted to join the Labour Corps were asked to step out from the line. Khodao also stepped out to volunteer but he was young and short, and reached only up to the shoulder length of the others in height. Only the older ones were chosen in the first round of selection. A second time he stepped out of the line to be chosen.
“You will die, you will be shot. Will you manage?” the recruiting officer asked him.
“I will manage,” Khodao replied.
“Will you be able to carry luggage?”
“Yes, I can carry.”
“Will you be able to run from the enemy [Japanese]?”
“Yes, I will be able to run away from the enemy.”
“Will you shoot others [the enemy]?”
“ I will shoot them.”
The third time the recruiting officer asked Khodao:
“You will really be able to do all these?”
“Yes, I will manage.”
Khodao was recruited as Quartermaster for the Naga Labour Corps that constructed the Indo-Burma road. According to Khodao, “thousands and thousands of Nagas in the Labour Forces cut and made new roads connecting Nagaland to Burma for Army conveyance – to halt the advancing Japanese in Burma.”
After the fall of Rangoon on March 8th, there was exodus of refugees from Burma to India. The Japanese bombed Imphal on May 10th and May 16th, 1942. The Labour Corps were still in Burma. The bombings brought on fear. Khodao reminisced the uncertainties of those days when I interviewed him on December 29, 2010. Lying down in bed and gasping for breath in between sips of rice beer he told me, “When we were there, the Japanese came and bombed Imphal heavily. Ayiiioo, what, me… I walked for ten days and reached Kohima.”
The Nagas’s help to the British and Allied forces was invaluable. As Lieutenant-General later Field Marshal William Slim acknowledged, “The war against the Japanese in Burma could not have been won without the support of the Nagas. These gallant Nagas whose loyalty, even in the most depressing times of the invasion, had never faltered. Despite floggings, torture, execution, and the burning of their villages, they refused to aid the Japanese or to betray our troops” (1956:341-342).
At the end of the War, Khodao was awarded the Burma Star for his service as Quartermaster with the Labour Corps in Burma. At the end of his service in Burma, he was offered a choice for his remuneration.
‘Will you take Rs. 600.00 or the gun?” The officer in-charge asked him.
“Sir, I have to continue my schooling. I have studied only till sixth grade and would like to resume my studies. I have no use for the gun,” Khodao responded.
With the money he earned from his service in Burma, he went to Christian High School in Jorhat, Assam for High School.
By early 1944, the Fifteenth Japanese Imperial Army, supported by forces of the Indian ‘National Army’ … under Subash Chandra Bose, overran Burma and occupied Nagaland. Khodao was in 8th grade then. Philip Adams, the Police Superintendent at Jorhat, who was earlier the Sub-Divisional Officer of Mokokchung, recruited Khodao to be a scout for the British soldiers. According to Khodao:
The Japanese had filled the whole of Nagaland. At that time there was no one to guide the British soldiers. From Mariani to Golaghat, to Goronga, and after sleeping at Merapani…[we went towards Wokha to intercept the Japanese]. If it was not for me the British did not know the way. By the time we reached Sanis, the Japanese had already reached Wokha. Our hostel building in Vankhosung was dismantled. We chased the Japanese down to Chumukedima and many of them were shot dead. I was studying in 8th grade then so I could help them only for two or three months.
After reaching the British soldiers to Chumukedima, Khodao went back to Jorhat to complete his High School studies. He then went to Serampore College, at Calcutta for Intermediate Arts and returned to Wokha and worked as a teacher at a private school. While in Wokha, he served as the second president of the Lotha community and brought about an important change in certain socio-cultural practices among the Lothas. According to Khodao’s cousin Ashemo Yanthan:
When he was serving as the Lotha president, he stopped the practice among the Lothas of throwing away all the belongings –including wealth – of those who died from unnatural causes [literally, those who died in dirt]. Now, even for those who die an unnatural death, throwing away belongings is not allowed. He was the one who changed that. In those instances where the villagers forced the families to throw away belongings because of an unnatural death such as falling from a tree, he would go and collect the thrown out belongings and sell them for the common fund of the Lothas.
Due to differences with the owner of the school at Wokha, Khodao was discharged from his position as a teacher. By then the Naga movement was beginning to gain momentum. He joined Phizo as a member of the NNC. One day while he was on his way to Litami for a meeting of the NNC, his enemies tried to way-lay him. His would-be assassin took an aim and pulled the trigger but the gun jammed. Pumping his chest Khodao said to the would-be assassin:
“If you want to kill me do it right in front of me.”
A second time the gun jammed.
Realizing the failure, the would-be assassin ran into the woods. His travel companions offered to go after the would-be assassin but Khodao dissuaded them:
“If I were meant to die, I’d have died. Let it be.”
A high point of his collaboration with Phizo was the plebiscite that commenced on May 16, 1951. When I interviewed Khodao on December 29, 2009, I said to him, “I heard you carried the plebiscite papers in bamboo containers [used for carrying water] and went from village to village.” And he responded in an agitated tone:
Don’t tell me such childish things. I took the plebiscite. Phizo said we would have a plebiscite. I said, “aaaabo, that is a big word [a serious thing]. I went up to Kohima and met him at the Mission Compound. “Where? We will have a plebiscite. India does not believe us, so go and teach [the people]” he told me. So I went teaching people about the plebiscite.
According to Khodao, he made an incision on his thumb and signed the plebiscite with his blood. On March 11, 1952, Phizo, Khodao and Imkongmeren met with Nehru at Delhi. Khodao continued agitated:
So after conducting the plebiscite, we went and handed it in Nehru’s hands. “Hey, Nagas have taken a plebiscite. You Indians do not believe the Nagas, so we have conducted a plebiscite. So 99.9% of Nagas claim Nagas are not Indians so we will live separately. Nagas are not Indians so don’t disturb them.” Nehru angrily banged his table three times saying, “I will never allow the Nagas to become independent.” “Apaaa, India is not in your hand, don’t say like that,” I told him. The troubles began from then on.
Reacting to Nehru’s negative response to the plebiscite and threat to the Nagas, the Naga National Council at their meeting on April 12, 1952 at Mokokchung resolved “that an appeal be made to the UNITED NATIONS organization, … to assist in helping India and Nagaland to conclude a settlement whereby a Naga independent state may in Nagaland be established forthwith (emphasis original).” In a letter in the Naga patriots in 1992, he would write, “Since the Naga plebiscite in May 1951, Mr. A.Z. Phizo and I clung together. After Nehru’s visit to Kohima in March 1953, we went underground, and we talked about going abroad for seeking help” (London:18/11/1992). For many months, the NNC members moved from one camp to another in the jungles including one at Jurang near Khodao’s village Lakhuti.
One day in July 1956, Khodao came home for the final time in order to continue his journey further for the Naga cause. His nephew Womomo who was seven years old then remembers the day Khodao left home. “He wore a green shirt. It seems this is what he told my mother: ‘I am setting out sacrificing for the Nagas so I have bought notebooks and given to Sabeni [he had planned to marry her]. If I don’t return after three months, don’t imprison other people’s daughter [don’t keep her waiting for me to marry her].” He pressed his hand on Womomo’s head and left.
‘Four-Month Trek’ to London and Charisma of a Nationalist
From Nagaland Khodao went to Shillong where he stayed with an Angami Naga who was in the Assam Rifle, a para-military. From there he trekked for three days and with the help of a muslim entered East Pakistan, present Bangladesh. Later, in an interview with the The Times reporter, Khodao recounted the journey from Nagaland to Pakistan to a London-bound aircraft with other Naga nationalists as a ‘four-month trek’ during which he and the team were ambushed twice and even swam rivers as wide as the Thames. According to Khodao, twice they were ambushed by Indian soldiers. The second time occurred when he had crossed the border into Bangladesh, then East Pakistan. From Pakistan, Yong Kong, General Kaito, and Major-General Mowu, “left for Britain to join Mr. Phizo in his fight to bring the country’s independence claims to the world’s attention.” (The Times. September 12, 1962.)
Initially, Khodao Yanthan, Kaito Sukhai, Mowu Gwizautsu and Yong Kong were denied permission by the Home Office to enter Britain as they lacked the necessary papers. A writ petiton against the British Attorney General was submitted on behalf of the four Nagas. The four Naga leaders were sponsored by International Committee for the Study of Group Rights for their stay in London. Additionally, Phizo who had reached London in 1960, also submitted a sworn affidavit statement for the four Nagas saying:
For the purposes of conferring with some of my colleagues in the Naga National Movement before taking the Naga case for independence to the United Nations, the General Assembly of which is due to meet on the 18th day of September, 1962, I decided that four of my fellow countrymen should come to London en route for New York. In concert with the International Committee for the Study of Group Rights I arranged for the four Nagas, General Kaito Sukhai, Mr. Khodao Yanthan, Mr. Mowu Gwizautsu and Mr. Yongkong should leaave Pakistan, where they have been staying temporarily in preparation to coming to London, for these consultations. (Sworn before Anthony R. Attenborough, Commissioner of Oaths, September 1962).
On September 10, 1962 Khodao and his three colleagues – Yong Kong, Mowu, Kaito – reached London but “were refused leave to land at London airport because the documents on which they were travelling did not satisfy the immigration officer as to their identity and their nationality (The Times, September 12, 1962). After further investigation they were released. A statement issued for their release by the Home Office said: “These documents have now been further examined and other available information has been considered; and as a result the Home Secretary has given instructions to admit them into this country as Commonwealth citizens.” (The Times, September 12, 1962). The Home Office further stated that the object of the four Naga leaders was “to present their case for independence from India to the British people.”
Life in London was not ready-made for Khodao and his colleagues. Khodao shifted his residence fourteen times from the time of his arrival in 1962 to his departure in 2000. There were times he was nearly homeless. In a letter to Kaiso, Joint Secreetary of the NNC, he would write, “Still no place where to live.” (Feb 18, 1987). He still has admiration for his Jewish landlords who on a couple of occasions even searched an apartment for Khodao and helped him move. He tried to establish himself working different jobs such as at Boots Chemists, at a warehouse, two times in a restaurant, and finally he asked the British government to help him get some training for a job. Ultimately he landed a job at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in 1971 and worked there for sixteen and a half years till his retirement in 1988. “Working at the BBC was fun,” he said. When he retired, he received a pension from the state as well as from BBC.
But his life in London was anything but comfortable particularly in his old age. Writing about his ordeals in London to the nationalists Khodao says, “My life here in London is worse than living in prison. There is no one to help me at this my age either for work, to bring for food, or to wash and clean my room, so on. I live like a vagabond. Sometimes after nightfall I go out to collect half-rotten fruits or vegetable from the street. My weekly expense is Rs.4000 = £100, my room rent alone Rs.1760 per week. Think!” (General Information, July 31, 1991).
Khodao’s presence in London was an important element of his charismatic leadership in Naga nationalism. His self-exile in London was with a mission to seek international help and support for the Naga cause together with A.Z. Phizo, the then President of NNC. An important characteristic of a charismatic leader is the ability to give hope to the followers. What kind of hope did Khodao give to the people? In London, Khodao made use of opportunities to get the British people involved including writing to newspapers such as The Times, The Daily Telegraph, and to Mirror Group Newspapers. For instance, in one press release titled, ‘BRITAIN IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE NAGAS’ MISFORTUNE’ Khodao described how “Nagaland as a nation gave best of her loyal service for Britain in hour of her need for a noble cause.” Khodao accused the British of letting the Nagas down:
Britain has been keeping quiet too long, as if she is innocent. There will not be an excuse. Naga blood has already run enough to reach Britain. Nagas have cried too long to Britain to repair her past commitment. On the 9th April 1946, Nagas warned the British Cabinet Mission, camp – New Delhi, that the Nagas’ case should not be implicated with that of India; and demanded that the Nagas should be independent the day the British left India. The Nagas asked for ‘fish’ but the British gave them ‘snake’ (India?); but to the Indians the British gave ‘bread,’ not ‘stone.’ The British came and conquered the Nagas and, when they left, slung them off at the mercy of India’s hands. Britain is today directly involved for the Nagas’ misfortune. WHAT IS BRITAIN GOING TO DO FOR THE NAGA PEOPLE??? (9/1/74, emphasis original)
Khodao also tried to engage with the British public, particularly some of the prominent personalities, to make them aware of their responsibility for the Naga political problem. Among them was his close friend, David Astor, an English Newspaper publisher and Editor of The Observer for 27 years, who had compassion for the marginalized including Nelson Mandela and supported their cause. When Khodao returned to London after his six-months visit to Nagaland in 1990, after an absence of thirty-five years, he described David Astor’s support for the Nagas’ cause in a letter to his patriotic friends in the following manner:
Mr. David Astor (an Hon. English Gentleman) was so impressed for my Home-Went Mission [sic] that he has started helping me. This English gentleman is our old Naga friend since the time we arrived in Britain in 1962. Please write to him stating about the present Naga political circumstances and situation and give a big THANKS for his unfailing helps and support for the Naga cause all these years and so on. (Dear Patriotic Friends.. January 21, 1991).
Other notable persons that Khodao tried to influence included the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop David Jenkins of Auckland. But some of these connections were not encouraging. For instance, from July to August 1994, there was a correspondence between Khodao, then President of Naga National Council (NNC), and the Rt. Honorable John Enoch Powell, a British politician, MP and one time Minister of Health. The exchange began with a letter by Khodao to Enoch Powell on July 19th in which Khodao enclosed a copy of his speech titled, “NOTES” on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Battle of Kohima held at York on 30th and 31st July, 1994. In his speech, Khodao described Nagaland as the victim, let down by the British:
After the war, Britain gave independence to India. But in the most humiliating way, India then occupied Nagaland by force, claiming a legacy inherited from the British Raj. … The Nagas are wondering why the British Government is afraid to speak out openly in support of the Naga Cause, in the same spirit that the Nagas had supported the British in times of their war. Britain still has a responsibility in the Naga misfortune, because the British left India without resolving the political case of the Nagas …”
In response, Powell wrote, “I can fully understand how you feel; but the fact remains that by the India Independence Act 1947 the United Kingdom ceased to be in any way responsible for India’s government or its treatment of its component races” (July 25, 1994). Undeterred, Khodao wrote back to assert his position:
… your statement of course is only an Englishman’s lame-excuse. … Because under whatever Act 1947 India became Independent that was only a matter between Britain and India. … A British control of the Naga territory (bordering Assam) which was called ‘Naga Hills’ was NOT INCLUDED in the British India. It was a ‘Buffer Zone’ to protect the administered area of Assam from the Nagas. … A traveller once met a man, a friend in need but the traveller betrayed and sold him to a stranger and then went away. Who was that traveller who met the man befriended him? (Khodao’s letter to John Enoch Powell, August 10, 1994). (August 10, 1994, emphasis original)
In spite of his nationalist zeal, Khodao also felt that the Nagas were not ready yet to be a nation. When queried by family members what he, Phizo and Yong Kong did for the Nagas in London, Khodao replied: “There is nothing done openly or secretly. Mmmmmmmm mmmmmm, all the nations on earth know that Nagas are right and India is wrong. But some people have the misconception that it is better for the Nagas to stay with India because the Nagas have not reached civilized standards.” In an interview with family members he shared his opinions candidly. According to Khodao:
[People called] the Nagas are backward if you compare with other civilized nation. … We are not yet mature in terms of civilization. We have not kept pace with others. Yes, we like it, we want to take it, we want to have it, but we don’t have the strength yet. … Roman civilization is thousands of years old. We [Nagas] have only heard the sound of civilization but we are not civilized. Compare our land to others’ lands. Our population is small, our land is small, and we are not touched by the sea. … The British really know that Nagas are backward, that the Nagas are among the backward people in the world. If there were cannibals, we would have been hunted and eaten.
One thing Khodao was able to do was to be steadfast in his conviction about the right of Nagas’ political aspiration and his commitment to it. As Spencer writes about secular revolutionary charismatic leaders, Khodao also generated charisma “by convincing his followers that his vision of the future will come to pass. …His charisma thus flows from his mastery of the revolutionary dream that he constantly vitalizes for those around him (Spencer 1973:346-347). He was very clear in his beliefs. “The Nagas are NOT demanding an independence from the British-made India,” has been his mantra from the beginning till now. He inspired Naga people by his single-mindedness and exhorted them through letters not to stray from their goal. Writing to Zashie Huire: “WE MUST MOVE FAST while Mr. Phizo keeps well and alive. We have wasted too much of our time only in misunderstandings and licking our own wounds. … Unless we put to try anything that possible for political tactics and ventures, our present system of “wait and see” policy will lead us NOWHERE…” (Sept 14, 1989). Similarly, in one of his letters to the Nagas, he writes, “A survival of a nation rests upon the people as a whole. It is NOT a time for SEEKING a personal gain or glory at the expense of the Nation’s travail as our today. … the educated Naga must not yield into the enemy at the expense of the nation’s sufferings, or they shall be found wanting when the time of justice comes.” He then exhorted that “ the Nagas must fight and struggle like a wounded tiger in defense of the SOVEREIGN NAGALAND…” (Letter from London, Nov. 16, 1989).
The Shillong Accord of 1975 signed between a section of the NNC and the Government of India had resulted in the split within the Naga nationalist leading to the creation of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) headed by Isak Swu, Thungaleng Muivah and S.Khaplang. These leaders felt that Phizo had failed the Nagas by not condeming the Shillong Accord. The Nagas were, according to Khodao, “in a mess in a divided house.” After Phizo’s death on April 30, 1990, Khodao tried to clear this mess and unite the Naga nationalists. Writing to the NNC members who were to have a meeting on July 17, 1990 at Mokokchung, Khodao advised:
Now that the time itself has brought us to a new situation to bring us to UNITE and to UNDERSTAND for solving our political problems. Whatever has happened in the past is all over. Now, it is a time to forgive and forget – let bygones be bygones. … So, our first and immediate task is to bring all those colleagues in dissident or group together to REBUILD the NNC. … Without keeping our house in order first, Nagas cannot proceed ahead to solve the political deadlock. If the Nagas are not united, the NNC President alone can do nothing to save the nation. Even if Jesus himself comes down to be the NNC President, He will still ask the Nagas to unite and follow him – surely He won’t perform a miracle for the sake of the Nagas. How could the Nagas manage their future if Nagaland has been saved through a miracle? … So everything depends on our UNITY and self-reliance. (Advice from Khodao Yanthan, a Senior Executive Member, NNC, London, June 25, 1990).
In the meantime, fissures were taking place within the NNC. After Phizo’s death, his daughter Adino Phizo was appointed as an Acting President of the NNC as an interim measure until the election of the President according to the rules and procedure of the NNC. But on May 25, 1990, some NNC members met at Kohima and elected Adino by proxy to be the NNC President. Other NNC members, however, considered the election, unconstitutional. Khodao would call it an election “done by irresponsible people.” Khodao believed that the Angamis had misunderstood the whole electoral process in favor of tribalism and stuck with Adino even before the election was held. “Nevertheless I kept on working,” he said in an interview. “But the Angamis continued to proclaim Adino as their president. That’s how the troubles began. But who is Adino? She has no education. She was sent to cook for her father.” In July 1990, Khodao visited Nagaland for six months to take stalk of the situation himself. He felt deep down in his heart “the desparate situation in Nagaland.” Explaining his reasons for going home, Khodao said:
Any Naga leader who takes the responsibility for the Naga cause must not care for one’s own life to die or to live. …As I dedicated myself for the Naga cause I said to myself, “I must go and see by myself and study the situation” and even won’t allow the Indian government to stop me from going to my home Nagaland.” So I went down to the India House and asked for a visa to go to Nagaland through India. They cautioned me not to go to Burma or Mizoram, and prepared my visa for 6 months within two hours.” (letter to friends Kevilevor, Adino and Yongkong, March 31, 1991)
On September 18, 1990, Khodao was elected as the President of the NNC at a meeting in Wokha of the NNC members and the Regional Presidents and members of representation from 14 different tribes according to the NNC constitution. His immediate task as the President was to unite the NNC and NSCN; he was even willing to change the nomenclature of NNC and NSCN into a new name combining the two in order to unify the Naga nationalists. To that end, he advised the Naga nationlists:
“Come, let us reason together,” says the Lord.
It is time to learn the Right from the wrong.
It is time to understand the meaning of Christian love.
It is time to forgive for one another’s wrong done.
It is time to unite and stand together on the Right side.
For anything can happen when a nation struggles for its survival. (Have the Nagas learned a lesson from the Shillong Accord, November 18, 1992)
Initially, Khodao believed that his “Home-Mission” had “a complete effect and restored a Solid Unity [sic] among the Nagas – a New chapter in the Naga political struggle to unite and face the consequences” (Letters to the Editor, February 12, 1991). After Phizo died, Khodao tried to unite the Nagas and came back to Nagaland for six months in 1990, but he felt that “the Nagas would not understand fast.” He resigned as the President of the NNC because he felt that the members were not following his instructions. “I resigned by myself,” he said. Perhaps he was idealistic or did not comprehend the depth of discord and ambitions within the Nagas.
Next, Khodao met with Isak Swu and Thungaleng Muivah, the leaders of the NSCN. After meeting and discussing with them, he felt that “even though they were three different entities in flesh, they were one in work and spirit.” Family members were insistent on finding out why Khodao joined the NSCN led by Isak and Muivah. “I studied them thoroughly,” he said. “We quarreled much among the three of us. Then we came to the realization that even though we were three different bodies, our thoughts were united as three-in-one. I don’t often write and tell them ‘do like this, do like that.’ So, what I think, they also think the same and implement it.” In 1994 Khodao joined the NSCN (IM) and was elected as the vice-president of the NSCN on April 10, 1996 and subsequently was sworn in on August 1, 1996. Since then he has continued to be the vice-president of the NSCN (IM) till today. In an interview his nephew Womomo shared with me, “I take so much trouble for him [Khodao] but he does not share his thought with me in any special way. He doesn’t think, ‘This is my family member, let me speak to him in a special way.’ One day after we chatted he told me, “Understand it well. You are my older brother’s son but my real family are the NSCN (IM) members who are fighting for independence.”
The Charismatic Leader and the Followers: Acceptance and Expectations
Recognition and legitimization of the charismatic leader by followers is another important element of nations and charisma. As Weber writes, “it is the duty of those to whom he addresses his mission to recognize him as their charismatically qualified leader” (1948:247). Or as Ritzer points out, “although Weber did not deny that a charismatic leader may have outstanding characteristics, his sense of charisma was more dependent on the group of disciples and the way that they define the charismatic leader. … if the disciples define a leader as charismatic, then he or she is likely to be a charismatic leader irrespective of whether he or she actually possesses any outstanding traits” (2000:134). The acceptance and recognition of Khodao’s charisma by the Nagas was beyond doubt. Khodao’s image was and is larger than life. When he was away in London, stories about him were embellished.
The outpouring of support for him and acclamation was evidenced when he came home for a six months’ visit in July 1990. In Wokha he was welcomed with great pomp befitting the return of a deliverer. Describing the welcome at Wokha, the Journal News, a local newspaper reported: “The seniormost executive of the Naga National Council (NNC), Mr. Khodao Yanthan, was accorded a red-carpet welcome by thousands of people on his arrival in Wokha after a gap of more than 30 years on July 19 last. The welcome also witnessed the largest gathering of people and the longest cavalcade of vehicles ever seen in Wokha district.”
When he reached back London, he wrote to his friends Cecil and Violet Jackson in Colorado, USA, on January 28, 1991:
Arriving Nagaland on July 16, 1990, after 34 years of absence everything has been changed. My family members, only a few of them are alive. The people did not really believe it was Khodao Yanthan in the flesh. Many came to pinch my cheeks and smell at me [sic] as if it was real Khodao. Receptions were really too much to bear for kisses and huggings.
Similarly, to the Nagas abroad Khodao wrote on 25/1/1991, “My home arrival was an indescribable [sic]. … There were garlands and flowers wherever I went. I wept on several times seeing the emotions of the crowds. The Indian armies and police became my body-guards for my protection.”
Meanwhile, in Nagaland, many Nagas had real expectations that Phizo and Khodao exiled in London were doing something at the United Nations for the Naga cause. For the people in Nagaland, this mission added to the awe, aura and charisma of Khodao. Ekhùng [independence] was objectified in the narratives of those expectations. “Phizo ha ni motsü oni na ekhùng ji hansi tsata (Phizo and your grandfather are bringing independence), the older folks in the village would tell me when I was a child. Among many of Khodao’s followers, I was often struck by the sense of devotion and expectation in my neighbor, grandpa Avungo’s comments. “Ni motsü na nkomvü yivka (your grandfather will come soon)” he would say. Khodao himself narrated an experience similar to that of Simeon in the Bible, “Now Lord, you can let your servant go in peace,” during his short visit to Nagaland in 1990. When he was at his brother’s house in Wokha, a man visited him often. On his last visit, the visitor gave him Rs. 2000. He describes this experience in a letter to his ‘patriotic friends” on January 21, 1991:
Mr. KHONBENO NGULLIE LOTHA , Niroyo village, age 80, came to see me on several occasions with fruits and etc [sic]. On the Friday of 4th of January, 1991, I was taking my last bath in Nagaland from my brother Wonyimo’s house where I took my lodge, and as he watched me said: “I had never taken a bath in my life [sic]. And he showed me fractured scars on his legs and said: These were all what Indian Armies had done to me during the Indo-Naga War because I was the village chief.” And he produced Rs. 2,000 notes from his small bag and begging [sic] me to accept it despite my brother and I protested. Because he said: “I will go in peace and I have seen the one I have been waiting.” As I hugged I wept on his shoulder, and said bye to the Old Patriot.
Khodao, however, was realistic about what he could do and what to expect from the United Nations. In a press release titled, “London Calling Nagaland,” he writes, “Mr. A.Z. Phizo, President of the NNC, cannot bring the Nagaland Independence in a basket from outside, nor the United Nations Organization to give the Nagas their independence. Every nation or state is made by the people for their home, so did our fathers had made Nagaland and handed down to us to defend for it and to live in here as a free people and as a free human beings” (London, September 27, 1986). Likewise, he spells this out in a letter to Zashie Huire: “the UNO or other international Organizations cannot help us unless the Nagas at home work hard for themselves to make Others help us (Sept 14, 1989).” In another letter to the Naga nationalists, Khodao reiterated his stand:
The Nagas are fighting their own battle. There is no a ‘Fairyland’ where Nagas can go in quest for help. It is our own Self-Reliance with our United Force that we can fight our battle in whatever possible way we could. When a small nation struggles for its survival, outside world wants to watch and see whether that country could be viable and stand by its own in the future. Moral support and prayers we can have from Christian communities, but no nation will get involve itself for the Naga cause. For the sufferings of war or catastrophic disasters, International helps are available, but not in political matters – as we Nagas are facing today. No time to wait for a ‘Saviour’ or a Deliverer to set the Nagas free. It all depends upon the Nagas Alone.” (General Information from the President of the NNC to the Vice-President, General executive Members and to all Regional Members, NNC. London, July 31, 1991).
Charismatic leaders emerged in the Naga society in the Indo-Naga conflict who garnered a broad-based support of the people for the nationalist cause by providing new self-definitions, goals, directives and hope for the community. Khodao’s personal qualities are plenty. As traditional Naga culture upheld and celebrated a warrior’s feats, Khodao’s charisma can be understood from the cultural idiom of his status as an ekhúng (warrior) that ensued from his bravery during WWII, to his cunningness as a nationalist to outwit the Indian army and escape to London, his advocacy for the Naga cause in the international arena which kept Nagas’ hopes alive, his continuing resistance and defiance of the Indian state. Khodao’s charisma as a modern-day ekhúng (warrior) also is founded on his role as an educated leader. These elements are founded on the context of nationalism, initially that of different nations during WWII and later transitioning to Naga nationalism. To understand Khodao’s charismatic leadership, I will begin by examining the hallmarks of his personal ‘exceptional powers’ or qualities as a warrior gleaned from interviews by family members, personal interviews and a collection of his papers.
From the Student Warrior to a Nationalist
Khodao was born on August 25, 1923 at Lakhuti, the son of Nthio and Nthîo Yanthan. He studied Primary School at Lakhuti. He began school “in 1932 or 1933 when he was about 9 to 10 years old” (Family Interview). “How did I study?” Khodao asked in the interview. “I babysat two of my younger brothers with only one year break in between. I would take them for breastfeeding before school, after school, and lunchtime.” In 1935, the year the morung (bachelors’ dormitory) in his khel (section) of the village was rebuilt, he went to the Mission Middle Elementary School at Vankhosung. According to his nephew, Womomo, when Khodao came home for holidays later that year wearing short pants and sporting an English style hair-cut, his parents did not allow him to enter the house. He studied grades 3rd to 6th from Vankhosung.
In January 1942, the Japanese invasion of Burma began under Lieutenant General Shojiro Iida of Japanese Fifteenth Army. By March 8, 1942, the Allied Forces (British, Americans and Chinese) surrendered Rangoon to the Japanese. The war povided an opportunity for Khodao to pursue his education. Describing the hardship that he endured in order to get an education, Khodao explains: “At that time there were no educated people. After finishing sixth grade, I worried about where I would get the money to do High School. As I was thinking such, war [WWII] came.” There was recruitment for the Labour Corps and Khodao went up to Vankhosung to join. Those who wanted to join the Labour Corps were asked to step out from the line. Khodao also stepped out to volunteer but he was young and short, and reached only up to the shoulder length of the others in height. Only the older ones were chosen in the first round of selection. A second time he stepped out of the line to be chosen.
“You will die, you will be shot. Will you manage?” the recruiting officer asked him.
“I will manage,” Khodao replied.
“Will you be able to carry luggage?”
“Yes, I can carry.”
“Will you be able to run from the enemy [Japanese]?”
“Yes, I will be able to run away from the enemy.”
“Will you shoot others [the enemy]?”
“ I will shoot them.”
The third time the recruiting officer asked Khodao:
“You will really be able to do all these?”
“Yes, I will manage.”
Khodao was recruited as Quartermaster for the Naga Labour Corps that constructed the Indo-Burma road. According to Khodao, “thousands and thousands of Nagas in the Labour Forces cut and made new roads connecting Nagaland to Burma for Army conveyance – to halt the advancing Japanese in Burma.”
After the fall of Rangoon on March 8th, there was exodus of refugees from Burma to India. The Japanese bombed Imphal on May 10th and May 16th, 1942. The Labour Corps were still in Burma. The bombings brought on fear. Khodao reminisced the uncertainties of those days when I interviewed him on December 29, 2010. Lying down in bed and gasping for breath in between sips of rice beer he told me, “When we were there, the Japanese came and bombed Imphal heavily. Ayiiioo, what, me… I walked for ten days and reached Kohima.”
The Nagas’s help to the British and Allied forces was invaluable. As Lieutenant-General later Field Marshal William Slim acknowledged, “The war against the Japanese in Burma could not have been won without the support of the Nagas. These gallant Nagas whose loyalty, even in the most depressing times of the invasion, had never faltered. Despite floggings, torture, execution, and the burning of their villages, they refused to aid the Japanese or to betray our troops” (1956:341-342).
At the end of the War, Khodao was awarded the Burma Star for his service as Quartermaster with the Labour Corps in Burma. At the end of his service in Burma, he was offered a choice for his remuneration.
‘Will you take Rs. 600.00 or the gun?” The officer in-charge asked him.
“Sir, I have to continue my schooling. I have studied only till sixth grade and would like to resume my studies. I have no use for the gun,” Khodao responded.
With the money he earned from his service in Burma, he went to Christian High School in Jorhat, Assam for High School.
By early 1944, the Fifteenth Japanese Imperial Army, supported by forces of the Indian ‘National Army’ … under Subash Chandra Bose, overran Burma and occupied Nagaland. Khodao was in 8th grade then. Philip Adams, the Police Superintendent at Jorhat, who was earlier the Sub-Divisional Officer of Mokokchung, recruited Khodao to be a scout for the British soldiers. According to Khodao:
The Japanese had filled the whole of Nagaland. At that time there was no one to guide the British soldiers. From Mariani to Golaghat, to Goronga, and after sleeping at Merapani…[we went towards Wokha to intercept the Japanese]. If it was not for me the British did not know the way. By the time we reached Sanis, the Japanese had already reached Wokha. Our hostel building in Vankhosung was dismantled. We chased the Japanese down to Chumukedima and many of them were shot dead. I was studying in 8th grade then so I could help them only for two or three months.
After reaching the British soldiers to Chumukedima, Khodao went back to Jorhat to complete his High School studies. He then went to Serampore College, at Calcutta for Intermediate Arts and returned to Wokha and worked as a teacher at a private school. While in Wokha, he served as the second president of the Lotha community and brought about an important change in certain socio-cultural practices among the Lothas. According to Khodao’s cousin Ashemo Yanthan:
When he was serving as the Lotha president, he stopped the practice among the Lothas of throwing away all the belongings –including wealth – of those who died from unnatural causes [literally, those who died in dirt]. Now, even for those who die an unnatural death, throwing away belongings is not allowed. He was the one who changed that. In those instances where the villagers forced the families to throw away belongings because of an unnatural death such as falling from a tree, he would go and collect the thrown out belongings and sell them for the common fund of the Lothas.
Due to differences with the owner of the school at Wokha, Khodao was discharged from his position as a teacher. By then the Naga movement was beginning to gain momentum. He joined Phizo as a member of the NNC. One day while he was on his way to Litami for a meeting of the NNC, his enemies tried to way-lay him. His would-be assassin took an aim and pulled the trigger but the gun jammed. Pumping his chest Khodao said to the would-be assassin:
“If you want to kill me do it right in front of me.”
A second time the gun jammed.
Realizing the failure, the would-be assassin ran into the woods. His travel companions offered to go after the would-be assassin but Khodao dissuaded them:
“If I were meant to die, I’d have died. Let it be.”
A high point of his collaboration with Phizo was the plebiscite that commenced on May 16, 1951. When I interviewed Khodao on December 29, 2009, I said to him, “I heard you carried the plebiscite papers in bamboo containers [used for carrying water] and went from village to village.” And he responded in an agitated tone:
Don’t tell me such childish things. I took the plebiscite. Phizo said we would have a plebiscite. I said, “aaaabo, that is a big word [a serious thing]. I went up to Kohima and met him at the Mission Compound. “Where? We will have a plebiscite. India does not believe us, so go and teach [the people]” he told me. So I went teaching people about the plebiscite.
According to Khodao, he made an incision on his thumb and signed the plebiscite with his blood. On March 11, 1952, Phizo, Khodao and Imkongmeren met with Nehru at Delhi. Khodao continued agitated:
So after conducting the plebiscite, we went and handed it in Nehru’s hands. “Hey, Nagas have taken a plebiscite. You Indians do not believe the Nagas, so we have conducted a plebiscite. So 99.9% of Nagas claim Nagas are not Indians so we will live separately. Nagas are not Indians so don’t disturb them.” Nehru angrily banged his table three times saying, “I will never allow the Nagas to become independent.” “Apaaa, India is not in your hand, don’t say like that,” I told him. The troubles began from then on.
Reacting to Nehru’s negative response to the plebiscite and threat to the Nagas, the Naga National Council at their meeting on April 12, 1952 at Mokokchung resolved “that an appeal be made to the UNITED NATIONS organization, … to assist in helping India and Nagaland to conclude a settlement whereby a Naga independent state may in Nagaland be established forthwith (emphasis original).” In a letter in the Naga patriots in 1992, he would write, “Since the Naga plebiscite in May 1951, Mr. A.Z. Phizo and I clung together. After Nehru’s visit to Kohima in March 1953, we went underground, and we talked about going abroad for seeking help” (London:18/11/1992). For many months, the NNC members moved from one camp to another in the jungles including one at Jurang near Khodao’s village Lakhuti.
One day in July 1956, Khodao came home for the final time in order to continue his journey further for the Naga cause. His nephew Womomo who was seven years old then remembers the day Khodao left home. “He wore a green shirt. It seems this is what he told my mother: ‘I am setting out sacrificing for the Nagas so I have bought notebooks and given to Sabeni [he had planned to marry her]. If I don’t return after three months, don’t imprison other people’s daughter [don’t keep her waiting for me to marry her].” He pressed his hand on Womomo’s head and left.
‘Four-Month Trek’ to London and Charisma of a Nationalist
From Nagaland Khodao went to Shillong where he stayed with an Angami Naga who was in the Assam Rifle, a para-military. From there he trekked for three days and with the help of a muslim entered East Pakistan, present Bangladesh. Later, in an interview with the The Times reporter, Khodao recounted the journey from Nagaland to Pakistan to a London-bound aircraft with other Naga nationalists as a ‘four-month trek’ during which he and the team were ambushed twice and even swam rivers as wide as the Thames. According to Khodao, twice they were ambushed by Indian soldiers. The second time occurred when he had crossed the border into Bangladesh, then East Pakistan. From Pakistan, Yong Kong, General Kaito, and Major-General Mowu, “left for Britain to join Mr. Phizo in his fight to bring the country’s independence claims to the world’s attention.” (The Times. September 12, 1962.)
Initially, Khodao Yanthan, Kaito Sukhai, Mowu Gwizautsu and Yong Kong were denied permission by the Home Office to enter Britain as they lacked the necessary papers. A writ petiton against the British Attorney General was submitted on behalf of the four Nagas. The four Naga leaders were sponsored by International Committee for the Study of Group Rights for their stay in London. Additionally, Phizo who had reached London in 1960, also submitted a sworn affidavit statement for the four Nagas saying:
For the purposes of conferring with some of my colleagues in the Naga National Movement before taking the Naga case for independence to the United Nations, the General Assembly of which is due to meet on the 18th day of September, 1962, I decided that four of my fellow countrymen should come to London en route for New York. In concert with the International Committee for the Study of Group Rights I arranged for the four Nagas, General Kaito Sukhai, Mr. Khodao Yanthan, Mr. Mowu Gwizautsu and Mr. Yongkong should leaave Pakistan, where they have been staying temporarily in preparation to coming to London, for these consultations. (Sworn before Anthony R. Attenborough, Commissioner of Oaths, September 1962).
On September 10, 1962 Khodao and his three colleagues – Yong Kong, Mowu, Kaito – reached London but “were refused leave to land at London airport because the documents on which they were travelling did not satisfy the immigration officer as to their identity and their nationality (The Times, September 12, 1962). After further investigation they were released. A statement issued for their release by the Home Office said: “These documents have now been further examined and other available information has been considered; and as a result the Home Secretary has given instructions to admit them into this country as Commonwealth citizens.” (The Times, September 12, 1962). The Home Office further stated that the object of the four Naga leaders was “to present their case for independence from India to the British people.”
Life in London was not ready-made for Khodao and his colleagues. Khodao shifted his residence fourteen times from the time of his arrival in 1962 to his departure in 2000. There were times he was nearly homeless. In a letter to Kaiso, Joint Secreetary of the NNC, he would write, “Still no place where to live.” (Feb 18, 1987). He still has admiration for his Jewish landlords who on a couple of occasions even searched an apartment for Khodao and helped him move. He tried to establish himself working different jobs such as at Boots Chemists, at a warehouse, two times in a restaurant, and finally he asked the British government to help him get some training for a job. Ultimately he landed a job at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in 1971 and worked there for sixteen and a half years till his retirement in 1988. “Working at the BBC was fun,” he said. When he retired, he received a pension from the state as well as from BBC.
But his life in London was anything but comfortable particularly in his old age. Writing about his ordeals in London to the nationalists Khodao says, “My life here in London is worse than living in prison. There is no one to help me at this my age either for work, to bring for food, or to wash and clean my room, so on. I live like a vagabond. Sometimes after nightfall I go out to collect half-rotten fruits or vegetable from the street. My weekly expense is Rs.4000 = £100, my room rent alone Rs.1760 per week. Think!” (General Information, July 31, 1991).
Khodao’s presence in London was an important element of his charismatic leadership in Naga nationalism. His self-exile in London was with a mission to seek international help and support for the Naga cause together with A.Z. Phizo, the then President of NNC. An important characteristic of a charismatic leader is the ability to give hope to the followers. What kind of hope did Khodao give to the people? In London, Khodao made use of opportunities to get the British people involved including writing to newspapers such as The Times, The Daily Telegraph, and to Mirror Group Newspapers. For instance, in one press release titled, ‘BRITAIN IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE NAGAS’ MISFORTUNE’ Khodao described how “Nagaland as a nation gave best of her loyal service for Britain in hour of her need for a noble cause.” Khodao accused the British of letting the Nagas down:
Britain has been keeping quiet too long, as if she is innocent. There will not be an excuse. Naga blood has already run enough to reach Britain. Nagas have cried too long to Britain to repair her past commitment. On the 9th April 1946, Nagas warned the British Cabinet Mission, camp – New Delhi, that the Nagas’ case should not be implicated with that of India; and demanded that the Nagas should be independent the day the British left India. The Nagas asked for ‘fish’ but the British gave them ‘snake’ (India?); but to the Indians the British gave ‘bread,’ not ‘stone.’ The British came and conquered the Nagas and, when they left, slung them off at the mercy of India’s hands. Britain is today directly involved for the Nagas’ misfortune. WHAT IS BRITAIN GOING TO DO FOR THE NAGA PEOPLE??? (9/1/74, emphasis original)
Khodao also tried to engage with the British public, particularly some of the prominent personalities, to make them aware of their responsibility for the Naga political problem. Among them was his close friend, David Astor, an English Newspaper publisher and Editor of The Observer for 27 years, who had compassion for the marginalized including Nelson Mandela and supported their cause. When Khodao returned to London after his six-months visit to Nagaland in 1990, after an absence of thirty-five years, he described David Astor’s support for the Nagas’ cause in a letter to his patriotic friends in the following manner:
Mr. David Astor (an Hon. English Gentleman) was so impressed for my Home-Went Mission [sic] that he has started helping me. This English gentleman is our old Naga friend since the time we arrived in Britain in 1962. Please write to him stating about the present Naga political circumstances and situation and give a big THANKS for his unfailing helps and support for the Naga cause all these years and so on. (Dear Patriotic Friends.. January 21, 1991).
Other notable persons that Khodao tried to influence included the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop David Jenkins of Auckland. But some of these connections were not encouraging. For instance, from July to August 1994, there was a correspondence between Khodao, then President of Naga National Council (NNC), and the Rt. Honorable John Enoch Powell, a British politician, MP and one time Minister of Health. The exchange began with a letter by Khodao to Enoch Powell on July 19th in which Khodao enclosed a copy of his speech titled, “NOTES” on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Battle of Kohima held at York on 30th and 31st July, 1994. In his speech, Khodao described Nagaland as the victim, let down by the British:
After the war, Britain gave independence to India. But in the most humiliating way, India then occupied Nagaland by force, claiming a legacy inherited from the British Raj. … The Nagas are wondering why the British Government is afraid to speak out openly in support of the Naga Cause, in the same spirit that the Nagas had supported the British in times of their war. Britain still has a responsibility in the Naga misfortune, because the British left India without resolving the political case of the Nagas …”
In response, Powell wrote, “I can fully understand how you feel; but the fact remains that by the India Independence Act 1947 the United Kingdom ceased to be in any way responsible for India’s government or its treatment of its component races” (July 25, 1994). Undeterred, Khodao wrote back to assert his position:
… your statement of course is only an Englishman’s lame-excuse. … Because under whatever Act 1947 India became Independent that was only a matter between Britain and India. … A British control of the Naga territory (bordering Assam) which was called ‘Naga Hills’ was NOT INCLUDED in the British India. It was a ‘Buffer Zone’ to protect the administered area of Assam from the Nagas. … A traveller once met a man, a friend in need but the traveller betrayed and sold him to a stranger and then went away. Who was that traveller who met the man befriended him? (Khodao’s letter to John Enoch Powell, August 10, 1994). (August 10, 1994, emphasis original)
In spite of his nationalist zeal, Khodao also felt that the Nagas were not ready yet to be a nation. When queried by family members what he, Phizo and Yong Kong did for the Nagas in London, Khodao replied: “There is nothing done openly or secretly. Mmmmmmmm mmmmmm, all the nations on earth know that Nagas are right and India is wrong. But some people have the misconception that it is better for the Nagas to stay with India because the Nagas have not reached civilized standards.” In an interview with family members he shared his opinions candidly. According to Khodao:
[People called] the Nagas are backward if you compare with other civilized nation. … We are not yet mature in terms of civilization. We have not kept pace with others. Yes, we like it, we want to take it, we want to have it, but we don’t have the strength yet. … Roman civilization is thousands of years old. We [Nagas] have only heard the sound of civilization but we are not civilized. Compare our land to others’ lands. Our population is small, our land is small, and we are not touched by the sea. … The British really know that Nagas are backward, that the Nagas are among the backward people in the world. If there were cannibals, we would have been hunted and eaten.
One thing Khodao was able to do was to be steadfast in his conviction about the right of Nagas’ political aspiration and his commitment to it. As Spencer writes about secular revolutionary charismatic leaders, Khodao also generated charisma “by convincing his followers that his vision of the future will come to pass. …His charisma thus flows from his mastery of the revolutionary dream that he constantly vitalizes for those around him (Spencer 1973:346-347). He was very clear in his beliefs. “The Nagas are NOT demanding an independence from the British-made India,” has been his mantra from the beginning till now. He inspired Naga people by his single-mindedness and exhorted them through letters not to stray from their goal. Writing to Zashie Huire: “WE MUST MOVE FAST while Mr. Phizo keeps well and alive. We have wasted too much of our time only in misunderstandings and licking our own wounds. … Unless we put to try anything that possible for political tactics and ventures, our present system of “wait and see” policy will lead us NOWHERE…” (Sept 14, 1989). Similarly, in one of his letters to the Nagas, he writes, “A survival of a nation rests upon the people as a whole. It is NOT a time for SEEKING a personal gain or glory at the expense of the Nation’s travail as our today. … the educated Naga must not yield into the enemy at the expense of the nation’s sufferings, or they shall be found wanting when the time of justice comes.” He then exhorted that “ the Nagas must fight and struggle like a wounded tiger in defense of the SOVEREIGN NAGALAND…” (Letter from London, Nov. 16, 1989).
The Shillong Accord of 1975 signed between a section of the NNC and the Government of India had resulted in the split within the Naga nationalist leading to the creation of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) headed by Isak Swu, Thungaleng Muivah and S.Khaplang. These leaders felt that Phizo had failed the Nagas by not condeming the Shillong Accord. The Nagas were, according to Khodao, “in a mess in a divided house.” After Phizo’s death on April 30, 1990, Khodao tried to clear this mess and unite the Naga nationalists. Writing to the NNC members who were to have a meeting on July 17, 1990 at Mokokchung, Khodao advised:
Now that the time itself has brought us to a new situation to bring us to UNITE and to UNDERSTAND for solving our political problems. Whatever has happened in the past is all over. Now, it is a time to forgive and forget – let bygones be bygones. … So, our first and immediate task is to bring all those colleagues in dissident or group together to REBUILD the NNC. … Without keeping our house in order first, Nagas cannot proceed ahead to solve the political deadlock. If the Nagas are not united, the NNC President alone can do nothing to save the nation. Even if Jesus himself comes down to be the NNC President, He will still ask the Nagas to unite and follow him – surely He won’t perform a miracle for the sake of the Nagas. How could the Nagas manage their future if Nagaland has been saved through a miracle? … So everything depends on our UNITY and self-reliance. (Advice from Khodao Yanthan, a Senior Executive Member, NNC, London, June 25, 1990).
In the meantime, fissures were taking place within the NNC. After Phizo’s death, his daughter Adino Phizo was appointed as an Acting President of the NNC as an interim measure until the election of the President according to the rules and procedure of the NNC. But on May 25, 1990, some NNC members met at Kohima and elected Adino by proxy to be the NNC President. Other NNC members, however, considered the election, unconstitutional. Khodao would call it an election “done by irresponsible people.” Khodao believed that the Angamis had misunderstood the whole electoral process in favor of tribalism and stuck with Adino even before the election was held. “Nevertheless I kept on working,” he said in an interview. “But the Angamis continued to proclaim Adino as their president. That’s how the troubles began. But who is Adino? She has no education. She was sent to cook for her father.” In July 1990, Khodao visited Nagaland for six months to take stalk of the situation himself. He felt deep down in his heart “the desparate situation in Nagaland.” Explaining his reasons for going home, Khodao said:
Any Naga leader who takes the responsibility for the Naga cause must not care for one’s own life to die or to live. …As I dedicated myself for the Naga cause I said to myself, “I must go and see by myself and study the situation” and even won’t allow the Indian government to stop me from going to my home Nagaland.” So I went down to the India House and asked for a visa to go to Nagaland through India. They cautioned me not to go to Burma or Mizoram, and prepared my visa for 6 months within two hours.” (letter to friends Kevilevor, Adino and Yongkong, March 31, 1991)
On September 18, 1990, Khodao was elected as the President of the NNC at a meeting in Wokha of the NNC members and the Regional Presidents and members of representation from 14 different tribes according to the NNC constitution. His immediate task as the President was to unite the NNC and NSCN; he was even willing to change the nomenclature of NNC and NSCN into a new name combining the two in order to unify the Naga nationalists. To that end, he advised the Naga nationlists:
“Come, let us reason together,” says the Lord.
It is time to learn the Right from the wrong.
It is time to understand the meaning of Christian love.
It is time to forgive for one another’s wrong done.
It is time to unite and stand together on the Right side.
For anything can happen when a nation struggles for its survival. (Have the Nagas learned a lesson from the Shillong Accord, November 18, 1992)
Initially, Khodao believed that his “Home-Mission” had “a complete effect and restored a Solid Unity [sic] among the Nagas – a New chapter in the Naga political struggle to unite and face the consequences” (Letters to the Editor, February 12, 1991). After Phizo died, Khodao tried to unite the Nagas and came back to Nagaland for six months in 1990, but he felt that “the Nagas would not understand fast.” He resigned as the President of the NNC because he felt that the members were not following his instructions. “I resigned by myself,” he said. Perhaps he was idealistic or did not comprehend the depth of discord and ambitions within the Nagas.
Next, Khodao met with Isak Swu and Thungaleng Muivah, the leaders of the NSCN. After meeting and discussing with them, he felt that “even though they were three different entities in flesh, they were one in work and spirit.” Family members were insistent on finding out why Khodao joined the NSCN led by Isak and Muivah. “I studied them thoroughly,” he said. “We quarreled much among the three of us. Then we came to the realization that even though we were three different bodies, our thoughts were united as three-in-one. I don’t often write and tell them ‘do like this, do like that.’ So, what I think, they also think the same and implement it.” In 1994 Khodao joined the NSCN (IM) and was elected as the vice-president of the NSCN on April 10, 1996 and subsequently was sworn in on August 1, 1996. Since then he has continued to be the vice-president of the NSCN (IM) till today. In an interview his nephew Womomo shared with me, “I take so much trouble for him [Khodao] but he does not share his thought with me in any special way. He doesn’t think, ‘This is my family member, let me speak to him in a special way.’ One day after we chatted he told me, “Understand it well. You are my older brother’s son but my real family are the NSCN (IM) members who are fighting for independence.”
The Charismatic Leader and the Followers: Acceptance and Expectations
Recognition and legitimization of the charismatic leader by followers is another important element of nations and charisma. As Weber writes, “it is the duty of those to whom he addresses his mission to recognize him as their charismatically qualified leader” (1948:247). Or as Ritzer points out, “although Weber did not deny that a charismatic leader may have outstanding characteristics, his sense of charisma was more dependent on the group of disciples and the way that they define the charismatic leader. … if the disciples define a leader as charismatic, then he or she is likely to be a charismatic leader irrespective of whether he or she actually possesses any outstanding traits” (2000:134). The acceptance and recognition of Khodao’s charisma by the Nagas was beyond doubt. Khodao’s image was and is larger than life. When he was away in London, stories about him were embellished.
The outpouring of support for him and acclamation was evidenced when he came home for a six months’ visit in July 1990. In Wokha he was welcomed with great pomp befitting the return of a deliverer. Describing the welcome at Wokha, the Journal News, a local newspaper reported: “The seniormost executive of the Naga National Council (NNC), Mr. Khodao Yanthan, was accorded a red-carpet welcome by thousands of people on his arrival in Wokha after a gap of more than 30 years on July 19 last. The welcome also witnessed the largest gathering of people and the longest cavalcade of vehicles ever seen in Wokha district.”
When he reached back London, he wrote to his friends Cecil and Violet Jackson in Colorado, USA, on January 28, 1991:
Arriving Nagaland on July 16, 1990, after 34 years of absence everything has been changed. My family members, only a few of them are alive. The people did not really believe it was Khodao Yanthan in the flesh. Many came to pinch my cheeks and smell at me [sic] as if it was real Khodao. Receptions were really too much to bear for kisses and huggings.
Similarly, to the Nagas abroad Khodao wrote on 25/1/1991, “My home arrival was an indescribable [sic]. … There were garlands and flowers wherever I went. I wept on several times seeing the emotions of the crowds. The Indian armies and police became my body-guards for my protection.”
Meanwhile, in Nagaland, many Nagas had real expectations that Phizo and Khodao exiled in London were doing something at the United Nations for the Naga cause. For the people in Nagaland, this mission added to the awe, aura and charisma of Khodao. Ekhùng [independence] was objectified in the narratives of those expectations. “Phizo ha ni motsü oni na ekhùng ji hansi tsata (Phizo and your grandfather are bringing independence), the older folks in the village would tell me when I was a child. Among many of Khodao’s followers, I was often struck by the sense of devotion and expectation in my neighbor, grandpa Avungo’s comments. “Ni motsü na nkomvü yivka (your grandfather will come soon)” he would say. Khodao himself narrated an experience similar to that of Simeon in the Bible, “Now Lord, you can let your servant go in peace,” during his short visit to Nagaland in 1990. When he was at his brother’s house in Wokha, a man visited him often. On his last visit, the visitor gave him Rs. 2000. He describes this experience in a letter to his ‘patriotic friends” on January 21, 1991:
Mr. KHONBENO NGULLIE LOTHA , Niroyo village, age 80, came to see me on several occasions with fruits and etc [sic]. On the Friday of 4th of January, 1991, I was taking my last bath in Nagaland from my brother Wonyimo’s house where I took my lodge, and as he watched me said: “I had never taken a bath in my life [sic]. And he showed me fractured scars on his legs and said: These were all what Indian Armies had done to me during the Indo-Naga War because I was the village chief.” And he produced Rs. 2,000 notes from his small bag and begging [sic] me to accept it despite my brother and I protested. Because he said: “I will go in peace and I have seen the one I have been waiting.” As I hugged I wept on his shoulder, and said bye to the Old Patriot.
Khodao, however, was realistic about what he could do and what to expect from the United Nations. In a press release titled, “London Calling Nagaland,” he writes, “Mr. A.Z. Phizo, President of the NNC, cannot bring the Nagaland Independence in a basket from outside, nor the United Nations Organization to give the Nagas their independence. Every nation or state is made by the people for their home, so did our fathers had made Nagaland and handed down to us to defend for it and to live in here as a free people and as a free human beings” (London, September 27, 1986). Likewise, he spells this out in a letter to Zashie Huire: “the UNO or other international Organizations cannot help us unless the Nagas at home work hard for themselves to make Others help us (Sept 14, 1989).” In another letter to the Naga nationalists, Khodao reiterated his stand:
The Nagas are fighting their own battle. There is no a ‘Fairyland’ where Nagas can go in quest for help. It is our own Self-Reliance with our United Force that we can fight our battle in whatever possible way we could. When a small nation struggles for its survival, outside world wants to watch and see whether that country could be viable and stand by its own in the future. Moral support and prayers we can have from Christian communities, but no nation will get involve itself for the Naga cause. For the sufferings of war or catastrophic disasters, International helps are available, but not in political matters – as we Nagas are facing today. No time to wait for a ‘Saviour’ or a Deliverer to set the Nagas free. It all depends upon the Nagas Alone.” (General Information from the President of the NNC to the Vice-President, General executive Members and to all Regional Members, NNC. London, July 31, 1991).
Naga Nationalism as Cultural Context
Charisma, however, is not confined to the dynamics between the charismatic leader and the followers; such relationships are based upon broader aspects of a culture – on value systems and cultural idioms. How can Khodao’s charisma as a leader be understood from the cultural context of the Nagas? Naga nationalism is the new cultural context. Ekhúngs (warriors) were recognized and legitimated in the context of the traditional Naga culture, a culture that needed ekhúngs, whereas recognition of Khodao’s charisma and leadership is in the context of Naga nationalism. As Weber noted, “in times of psychic, physical, economic, ethical, religious, political stress” (1948:245) people turn to leaders other than traditional or intellectuals (see also Keyes 2002:247). Charismatic legitimization (Ake 1966) or the process of creating loyalty for Naga nationhood through the influence of leaders such as Khodao or Phizo was possible because of the experience of hardships the people were going through due to the repression by the Indian army. From 1953 to 1964, the Nagas went through hardships caused by the Indian army following Nehru’s policy to counter Naga nationalism. It was in such atmosphere that charismatic Naga leaders came on the scene; it was also then that Naga nationalism gained the grassroots support. As Ake points out, “mass parties, massive anomie, and plebiscitarian democracy do not necessarily produce charismatic leaders. The crucial perquisite for charismatic leadership is that the masses perceive their leader as endowed with the gift of grace and that they be emotionally committed to his cause without reservation” (1966:5). In an effort to solve this, Nagas looked to leaders who would bring resolution to the conflict so that they could continue to live lives unencumbered by outside political domination. Charisma in nations-in-the-making had to do with ordering the future and the dynamics to follow that dream.
In terms of personal qualities as a warrior, Khodao’s exhibited bravery and endurance during his service in the War in Burma, and later as a Scout for the British soldiers against the Japanese. But the most important source of his charismatic leadership stems from his position as one of the few educated persons among the Nagas at that time. The role of the educated intelligentsia in nationalism cannot be understated. If colonialism and its hegemonic forces provided a political opportunity for the formation of a nationalist movement, it was the intellectuals and leaders of the colonized who seized such opportunities and mobilized the community for freedom from political domination. Intellectuals have been artisans of nationalism (Boyer and Lomnitz 2005; Kedouri 1970), whether it be framing the identity of the nation or framing the nation for the cause of the intelligentsia. Sociologists such as Edward Shils attribute a significant role played by intellectuals in the formation of the new states in Asia and Africa. While still under colonial domination, intellectuals in these new states “created the political life of the underdeveloped countries; they have been its instigators, its leaders, and its executants” (Shils 1960:330). Montserrat Guibernau (2000) describes the role played by intellectuals for maintaining Catalan language and identity during Franco’s dictatorship. Similarly, Toyin Falola (2001) discusses the role of Yoruba intellectuals particularly in their production of Nigerian historiography. In India, intellectuals such as Gandhi and Nehru played a pivotal role in influencing the directives of the Indian National Congress and in articulating Indian nationalism. Naga nationalism, according to Yonuo, “was born under the impact of the British administration and thereafter nourished by the educated Nagas in the early 1940s down till the present day” (1974:154). The primary agency that facilitated Naga national imaginings was the role played by the charismatic and educated intellectuals such as T.Sakhrie, Phizo and Khodao who envisioned a Naga nation. In the new cultural paradigm, ekhúngs (warriors) were the educated, and those who could fight their way in the new way of existence. Khodao was among the new breed of ekhúngs. Unlike Wallerstein or Apter who argued that leaders such as Nkrumah had a functional identification with the chieftancy, thus functioning “as a half-way house, mediating between the traditional societies and the modern bureaucratic state” (Ake 1966:4), leaders such as Khodao and Phizo were not chiefs, instead they gained leadership roles because of their education and were considered as the new intelligentsia. Were it not for such charismatic leaders such as Phizo and Khodao, Naga independence would not have taken off the way it did.
Another aspect, Khodao’s charism continues to be there because the evil (opponent) continues to be relevant (see Smith [2000] for binary oppositions of good and evil and the charismatic’s role to save the people from the evil). The Indo-Naga conflict has not been resolved and in such context, efforts to negate the contributions of pioneer leaders will continue to be defended by the populace for the sake of the cause. In this way, Khodao’s charisma continues to be rooted in the present reality; it is still part of the history in the making.
Weber’s theoretical ideas about charisma were formulated as part of a larger effort to think through the question of how noncoercive political authority is established (Keyes 2002:249). Dorothy Emmet (1958) suggests that Weber has conceptualized charisma too narrowly and assimilated it too hastily to a personal and irrational kind of authority. She distinguishes between the kind of leader who inspires strength and confidence in others and the leader with a will to dominate, and suggests that charisma is more applicable to inspirational leadership than the hypnotic leadership which Weber describes (in Ake 1966:5). Khodao’s charisma is one that inspires conviction, commitment and focus on Naga nationhood. The question to be asked, as Keyes (2002) says, is if Khodao’s charisma was just confined to “rituals of rebellion” (Comaroff 1985) or extended to “breakthroughs” (Bellah 1964) for what was conceived as the Naga nation.
Disenchanting charisma
In June 2000, he returned to Nagaland for a second time in his old age to die in his homeland. Among the pioneer Naga nationalists who lived in London, Khodao is the only one who has came back alive. Phizo died in 1990 and his body was brought back to Nagaland. Yong Kong died in 2008, and remains buried in London. Unlike his first visit in 1990, this time however, Khodao is resigned to the fact that he has done what he could do. “I have done my part, I have done what I can and I have left everything in the hands of Isak and Muivah,” he would say. “I have come to rest, I have not come to earn my daily wage, I have come to die but also to observe and see which faction is doing the right thing.” At the same time, frustration and anger are written on his face and demeanor; he is frustrated that his aim cannot be achieved in his lifetime. He is very sickly, testy, impatient and at times snobbish. Many people are also not realistic about Khodao’s health and age. Full of expectations many people come and ask him, “Kvüto yiala? Kvüthüng ekhùng hungla? (How is it going? When will we get independence?)” And he would reply, “Khodao does not have independence. It’s been more than fifty years, ask yourself,” and sends them away. Confused by such reactions, many have become disenchanted and his charisma has ebbed. Now the disenchanted describe his state as ‘getting mad.’ A number of times when I went home, some folks would tell me, “Ni motsü zvüala (your grandpa is getting mad).” Reactions vary however. Some, those who know him well, agree that Khodao is “a peculiar type” but also acknowledge that he is at a different wave-length. In the face of disenchantment, some want to save his image and legacy. Thus efforts to get Khodao to explain in detail what he did for the Naga cause in London are important concerns of family members. “Tell us what you did in London for the Nagas,” some of them ask him impatiently. Khodao’s answers, they hope would save his charismatic image and legacy. Khodao himself says, “I chose to remain unmarried, forsaking children and worldly riches so that the Nagas might succeed. … Whatever it is, people say ‘Khodao is becoming mad.’ They are mad. I am not mad. I did not make any mistake.”
Khodao now lives in Lakhuti.
“Why did I choose to stay in Lakhuti?” he asked me.
“I don’t know ” I replied.
“Because [in Wokha or Hebron Camp] I won’t get zütsü (pure rice beer) or even normal rice beer. That’s why I have come home,” he told me. But I knew there was more to that.
Khodao’s commitment to the Naga cause remains even in his old age at his deathbed. In my last meeting with him on December 29, 2009, I inquired about his health.
“Why is my life on this earth so hard? [I am] A man born who would not die, suffering like this. But then, for what is it so?[It is] For the Nagas,” he replied.
As I type the email to send the paper for a conference, I get a phone call.
Khodao Yanthan has just died within the last ten minutes, 5:00 pm. Monday, March 01, 2010.
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