Once again there is a separate statehood demand and this time it’s in Nagaland. The Frontier Nagaland demand has not come out of nowhere, but does it have the potential to create roadblock for NSCN (IM)’s Greater Nagaland agenda? Ratnadip Choudhury tries to find out
The Telengana movement in the south has ignited a similar spirit in the hills of Nagaland. Inspired by the statehood stir in Andhra Pradesh, the Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation (ENPO) has come forward with a demand of carving out a new state — Frontier Nagaland. This demand comes after six Naga tribes, including the Chang, Konyak, Sangtam, Khiamniungan, Yimchungru, Phom. Along with the ENPO, they want the new state to be carved out of Tuensang, Mon, Kiphire and Longleng districts of eastern Nagaland as well as Tirap and Changlang districts of adjoining Arunachal Pradesh, which have a dominant Naga population.
This demand, although only a resurgence of an old claim, comes at a time when the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) is involved in a 13-year-long peace process with the Centre and its idea of creation of a Greater Nagaland that seeks to bring, besides Nagaland, all Naga-inhabited areas of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur under one administrative set-up. This idea has been vehemently opposed by neighbouring states. In 2010, violence escalated when the Manipur government did not allow NSCN (IM) General Secretary Thuingaleng Muivah to enter the state to visit his native village.
The ENPO has its own reasons to rack up the demand. It feels that successive governments in Nagaland have failed to ensure development and create jobs for the people of these areas and they feel oppressed and alienated in their own land. “This is a mass movement. Our demand of Frontier Nagaland is based on historical facts. For decades, Eastern Nagaland has been left underdeveloped. Our people don’t get jobs,” says ENPO General Secretary Toshi Wungpung. To this end, they have already sent a memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh explaining why eastern Nagas feel the need for a new state. The ENPO delegation has also met Home Minister P Chidambaram to make it very clear to New Delhi that they are not going to turn back.
A trip to Eastern Nagaland and a graze of the Nagaland government’s own records show the sorry picture of development in the areas. Successive governments have overlooked the issues concerning the upliftment of these Naga tribes that constitute nearly half of Nagaland’s total population. Not more then five percent of them have government jobs, and there are no other job avenues. Their economic condition has gone from bad to worse.
“The issue of underdevelopment and neglect of the eastern part of Nagaland has been an issue doing the rounds for sometime. The demand of job reservation for these underdeveloped areas has been gaining momentum, so this demand of creation of a separate state is something very expected in the present geo-political scenario,” explains John Sema, a teacher of political Science at Nagaland University. The ENPO is taking the movement to the masses by organising rallies in the area. “You have to look back in history. It is only after India got independence that the present land (eastern belt of Nagaland) came under the North East Frontier Agency (NEFA) whereby the state of Nagaland was created. It is our legitimate right to have a separate state. Even the Constitution of India has enshrined a special provision for this region. However, this provision is denied by the state government… because of which we are backward both politically and economically,” thundered ENPO Vice-President Yonglam Konyak at a recently held public rally in Kiphire.
“Media should not mix this demand with the process of reconciliation or the peace initiative. Those are involving underground outfits. This is not a new demand. This is rather an economic movement for fulfilment of economic aspirations of these people because no one can deny the fact that successive state governments in Nagaland have failed to ensure development in the eastern belt,” opines Geoffrey Yaden, editor of Nagaland Post.
A peep into Nagaland’s socio-economic fabric perhaps gives us a clearer picture. Nagas from communities like Sümi, Ao, Angami or Lotha have benefited the most from whatever economic development the state has seen in decades of deadlock and insurgency. Ministers and MLAs from the eastern part of Nagaland only remained busy securing the future of their kin. If the demand gains ground, it certainly runs the risk of undermining the idea of Greater Nagaland that NSCN (IM) wants to bargain out of New Delhi, although it is pretty clear that the Centre is in no mood to re-draw boundaries to meet such aspirations.
This situation perhaps helps New Delhi the best. “We have taken note of the ENPO’s demand that it has become impossible for them to continue as part of Nagaland because of the gross neglect,” says a highly placed MHA official on condition on anonymity. The game plan is clear. India first tried to settle with the main Naga tribes through the Shillong Accord but when it failed, it waited for the NSCN to split under its own contradictions. Going by the trend of the peace initiatives that have been floated by the home ministry, the Centre might try to play on the contradictions of the marginal and frontier Naga tribes. “Having failed to get Muivah to agree to a settlement without Greater Nagaland, now New Delhi might take advantage of this new development. This effort, if successful, will only rupture the generic Naga identity and weaken the movement to create a nationality out of somewhat disparate tribes,” explains Subir Bhaumik, expert on Naga-India conflict. The Shillong Accord is seen as the genesis of the political disintegration of the Nagas and if New Delhi plays its political cards on the Frontier Nagaland demand, it is going to lead to even more chaos.
The Telengana movement in the south has ignited a similar spirit in the hills of Nagaland. Inspired by the statehood stir in Andhra Pradesh, the Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation (ENPO) has come forward with a demand of carving out a new state — Frontier Nagaland. This demand comes after six Naga tribes, including the Chang, Konyak, Sangtam, Khiamniungan, Yimchungru, Phom. Along with the ENPO, they want the new state to be carved out of Tuensang, Mon, Kiphire and Longleng districts of eastern Nagaland as well as Tirap and Changlang districts of adjoining Arunachal Pradesh, which have a dominant Naga population.
This demand, although only a resurgence of an old claim, comes at a time when the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) is involved in a 13-year-long peace process with the Centre and its idea of creation of a Greater Nagaland that seeks to bring, besides Nagaland, all Naga-inhabited areas of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur under one administrative set-up. This idea has been vehemently opposed by neighbouring states. In 2010, violence escalated when the Manipur government did not allow NSCN (IM) General Secretary Thuingaleng Muivah to enter the state to visit his native village.
The ENPO has its own reasons to rack up the demand. It feels that successive governments in Nagaland have failed to ensure development and create jobs for the people of these areas and they feel oppressed and alienated in their own land. “This is a mass movement. Our demand of Frontier Nagaland is based on historical facts. For decades, Eastern Nagaland has been left underdeveloped. Our people don’t get jobs,” says ENPO General Secretary Toshi Wungpung. To this end, they have already sent a memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh explaining why eastern Nagas feel the need for a new state. The ENPO delegation has also met Home Minister P Chidambaram to make it very clear to New Delhi that they are not going to turn back.
A trip to Eastern Nagaland and a graze of the Nagaland government’s own records show the sorry picture of development in the areas. Successive governments have overlooked the issues concerning the upliftment of these Naga tribes that constitute nearly half of Nagaland’s total population. Not more then five percent of them have government jobs, and there are no other job avenues. Their economic condition has gone from bad to worse.
“The issue of underdevelopment and neglect of the eastern part of Nagaland has been an issue doing the rounds for sometime. The demand of job reservation for these underdeveloped areas has been gaining momentum, so this demand of creation of a separate state is something very expected in the present geo-political scenario,” explains John Sema, a teacher of political Science at Nagaland University. The ENPO is taking the movement to the masses by organising rallies in the area. “You have to look back in history. It is only after India got independence that the present land (eastern belt of Nagaland) came under the North East Frontier Agency (NEFA) whereby the state of Nagaland was created. It is our legitimate right to have a separate state. Even the Constitution of India has enshrined a special provision for this region. However, this provision is denied by the state government… because of which we are backward both politically and economically,” thundered ENPO Vice-President Yonglam Konyak at a recently held public rally in Kiphire.
“Media should not mix this demand with the process of reconciliation or the peace initiative. Those are involving underground outfits. This is not a new demand. This is rather an economic movement for fulfilment of economic aspirations of these people because no one can deny the fact that successive state governments in Nagaland have failed to ensure development in the eastern belt,” opines Geoffrey Yaden, editor of Nagaland Post.
A peep into Nagaland’s socio-economic fabric perhaps gives us a clearer picture. Nagas from communities like Sümi, Ao, Angami or Lotha have benefited the most from whatever economic development the state has seen in decades of deadlock and insurgency. Ministers and MLAs from the eastern part of Nagaland only remained busy securing the future of their kin. If the demand gains ground, it certainly runs the risk of undermining the idea of Greater Nagaland that NSCN (IM) wants to bargain out of New Delhi, although it is pretty clear that the Centre is in no mood to re-draw boundaries to meet such aspirations.
This situation perhaps helps New Delhi the best. “We have taken note of the ENPO’s demand that it has become impossible for them to continue as part of Nagaland because of the gross neglect,” says a highly placed MHA official on condition on anonymity. The game plan is clear. India first tried to settle with the main Naga tribes through the Shillong Accord but when it failed, it waited for the NSCN to split under its own contradictions. Going by the trend of the peace initiatives that have been floated by the home ministry, the Centre might try to play on the contradictions of the marginal and frontier Naga tribes. “Having failed to get Muivah to agree to a settlement without Greater Nagaland, now New Delhi might take advantage of this new development. This effort, if successful, will only rupture the generic Naga identity and weaken the movement to create a nationality out of somewhat disparate tribes,” explains Subir Bhaumik, expert on Naga-India conflict. The Shillong Accord is seen as the genesis of the political disintegration of the Nagas and if New Delhi plays its political cards on the Frontier Nagaland demand, it is going to lead to even more chaos.
