Robin Temsu
Sazolie College
The mighty British Empire was brought to its knee by the practice of satyagraha and ahimsa; the insistence of truth, through the practice of non-violence. Against which the powerful British colonial administration had no answer. This was the genius of Gandhiji who set the tone for popular social protest movements at the beginning of the 20th Century in India. To appreciate the impact of what he did, one has to look back in history to understand how social movements were fought before he came into the political limelight.
India’s Response to British Colonial Rule
The initial leaders of the Indian freedom movement who were called moderates (1885 -1905) relied on petition, prayer and delegation to address and achieve their goals. They were highly disillusioned as their belief in the British sense of justice and fair play backfired. Colonial Britain’s interest reigned supreme visa vie the needs and aspirations of the people of India. The fall-out of this disillusionment created a section in the congress, known popularly as the Extremist, who adopted the slogan,”Only Action will Do,” as their methodology to achieve their goals. The partition of Bengal in 1905 was the watershed. The extremist extremism knew no boundaries and unleashed an era of tit for tat. Countless lives were lost on both sides, and the police brutality was immortalized in the incident at Jallianwalla Bagh Massacre in 1919. Unarmed men, women and children were shot at, and several were killed, including a nursing baby. The Governor and the Army General went scot-free protected by the law. The Hunter Commission inquiry acquitted the perpetrator of their heinous act.
The Colonial Repressive Laws and the AFSPA
On the pretext of controlling terrorism, Britain promulgated inhuman laws such as the Rowlatt Act in 1919 to uproot any resistance towards colonial rule. The Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act of 1919, popularly known as the Rowlatt Act, authorizes the arrest for 2 years without trial, any person suspected of terrorism living in British India. Several laws were promulgated in British India to quell the ever-increasing national movement.
One such law was the Armed Force Special Power Ordinance of 1942 to suppress the Quit India Movement. Under the law, special powers were bestowed upon the armed force to curb unrest by the use of force to an extent of death of the person. Modeled on these lines the central government enacted the Armed Force Special Power Ordinance of 1948 to curb internal disturbances within the country in 1947. It was a tumultuous period in India with the partition of the country and the challenges at the borders. After a decade, in 1958 the central government christened the ordinance as AFSPA (Manipur & Assam) to deal with India’s northeast, after labeling it as a disturbed area. Assam because then, Naga Hills, was a district under Assam and there were contagious Nagas areas in Manipur. The act was specially passed to curb and suppress the ‘self-determinism’ movement in the Naga Hills.
AFSPA, in its 63 years of existence has only succeeded in alienating the people. The Act violates provisions of international human rights law, including the right to life, the right to be protected from arbitrary arrest and detention, and the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. It also denies the victims of the abuses the right to a remedy.
The Curious Naga Case
Army atrocities under the AFSPA had become a recurrent occurrence in Nagaland since 1958 and the Northeast. Kaka Iralu, a child of AFSPA, born two years earlier in 1956, chronicled in his book, “Blood and the Tears” published in 2000, the historical account of the 52 years of Indo-Naga war and retells the story of those who were not allowed to tell it. In an interview with Wataru Haejima in 2020, late Kaka, recounting the atrocities of the Indian army upon the Naga people remarked
“Mutilated bodies scattered in the town day after day, people being tortured on the streets – all these realities of the Naga people were hidden from the view of not only the world but also the people of India, supposedly the “world’s largest democracy.”
In a gathering at Delhi after Kaka gave a brief gist of his book, ‘Blood and tears,’ a certain professor who was chairing the event opined that the book would have been better if it was written by a non-Naga; implying subjectivity in its content and the need for authenticating the facts of the people being killed in Nagaland by the state. But the fact is, this is an insider’s account of one’s history, which no outsiders could ever conceive, think or dare to write. The book in minute detail chronicles the atrocities of the state - names, number of people killed, place and village of occurrence. To date, Kaka’s books remain unchallenged and unsurpassed. In the words of Wataru Haejima, “He is the man who revealed the history and truth of the Naga people that no one before him had dared to divulge,” and the sobriquet …” The Man who Wove Nightmares into History.”
The recent incident at Oting, Mon district is an appendage to Kaka’s book that refuses to be closed. The army under the cover of AFSPA in broad daylight massacred 13 innocent people. 12 from Oting village and one non-local by the name of Bipul Konwar were killed. Another civilian was killed as an angry protestor stormed the Assam rifle camp the next day on Mon. Altogether 14 innocent civilians lost their life. One incriminating evidence that is coming out from the eyewitnesses is the attempt of the elite 21 Para Military force, to stage-manage the killing as an encounter with militants. This is nothing new in the Northeast as rogue army personals have often used fake encounters for revenge and personal glory. Hopefully, this is not true.
For the first time in the Naga memory after the initial national fervor in the 50s, we are witnessing pan-Naga uproar against the highhandedness of the state against its citizens. The dehumanizing aspect of AFSPA cannot be hidden in this age of digital media, where citizens have become the repository of their own stories and history. Besides certain Hindi belt TV channels and anchors, the Oting incident has received its due attention as it should. The world has become flat, and I suspect Kaka would have been very proud of the Naga Nation to some extent.
The evils in Jingoistic Nationalism and the contribution of Gandhi in fighting Injustice
The arrival of Gandhiji in the limelight of India’s political struggle marked a departure from the earlier methods of resistance. Moderates relied on petitions, prayers and sending delegations, and the Extremists employed armed struggle. Both failed to take the movement to its logical end due to its inherent philosophical and practical weaknesses. At this juncture Gandhiji after having accrued political success in apartheid South Africa arrived in India in 1915 with a new brand of social action to fight injustice - Satyagraha and Ahimsa. Satyagraha from Sanskrit & Hindi, meaning ‘holding on to truth’ or ‘insisting on truth’ to speak against evil, and refusing to submit to wrong or to cooperate with it in any way, by using non-violence as it tool – ahimsa (Sanskrit: ‘non-injury’).
The Gandhian Era (1917-1947) witnessed two World Wars, and by then the world was increasingly becoming more intolerant to wars and killing as a way of arriving at a solution, that ‘might is right.’ Also, the extremist extremism of tit for tat from 1905 - 1917 was seen as an act of terrorism, however, justified. In this context, Gandhiji’s weapon to fight for justice through satyagraha, ahimsa and non-corporation brought the mighty British Empire to a standstill. The people of India boycotted the government and launched the ‘swadeshi’ movement in keeping with the above principles. India boycotted Britain’s industrial production that was forcefully sold in India and took steps to set up nationalized industries. TATA then called TISCO was established in 1907 as a response to the clarion call of swadeshi. Another project was ‘khadi’ to counter the cheap manufactured goods that flooded the Indian markets by industrialized Britain, which exported 60 per cent of its county’s production to India. The economic interest of colonial Britain was affected by the practice of non-corporation, to buy British goods and by launching swadeshi. In 1958, Zealey called Khadi ‘a stroke of genius,’ for it became a symbol of resistance against colonial rule that could be understood both by the intellectuals as well as the uneducated masses. The mighty British colonial power was brought to its knee by a ‘naked fakir’ (Winston Churchill disparagingly referred to Mohandas Gandhi as the 'half-naked fakir') whose weapon of Satyagraha, ahimsa and non-corporation proved lethal for the British Empire in India.
The Naga Project to Fight Evil and Injustice: Within and Without
As a people, we cannot right a wrong by committing another wrong - tit for tat. But, yes, we can fight for truth and justice by adopting the path of Satyagraha, Ahimsa and Non-corporation. Extrajudicial killing by the armed forces or any fratricidal killing amongst the Nagas should be condemned in no uncertain terms. Laws such as AFSPA are a blot to democracy, as certain sections of the country and its people are treated unequally.
Far too long Nagas have maintained isolationism, and with it, the given attitude that says, “as long as it doesn’t happen to me or my tribe, I will have nothing to do with it.” This line of thought should give way to a broader mindset that thinks as part of a larger global community. Nagas must criticize and voice out against all evil and injustice, just as several organizations NGOs, communities within Nagaland and outside have condemned the Oting massacre, and supported the repeal of AFSPA.
Nagas stand in solidarity with their brothers and sisters at Oting village and seek justice for the 13 precious lives that were lost on that fateful day and another that was killed the next day while protesting. The ‘majority’ is the key to democratic function but not ‘majoritism.’ History records the act of majoritism in Hitler Germany, where 6 million Jews were killed based on Aryan supremacy. A philosophical death-end that reverberates even today, and a sober warning to what evil, humans can go to, based on collective majority. Majoritism doesn’t mean it's right or ethical. Christian Nagas must have higher ethics of life, of the world, and the environment. There ought to be no room for overt democracy nor should give place to jingoistic nationalism.
The uproar that followed the Oting massacre brought even the fame Hornbill Festival to a close. The six eastern Naga tribes were the first to boycott the festival, followed by other tribal Hohos as the brevity of the killing unfolded. Cutting across tribal lines the Naga family stood not just for their kin but was standing up for a bigger ideal – justice for human beings, made in the image of God, and that which is sacred. The President of Konyak Union, Kohima solemnly in his speech on 9 December at a program held in “Tribute of Oting Massacre” reminded the army, “No one has the right to take, what they cannot give back.”
The non-cooperation of the Naga public compelled the powerful opposition less government to call off the Hornbill Festival on the seventh day. This is also a warning to any government how unity/majority looks like in a democracy that is based on good ethics and morality. Increasingly, Nagas are looking beyond one’s myopic tribal affiliation to a broader worldview of justice and governance. Some recent examples are the ‘Mission Pot Hole’ by the Naga Blog in Kohima and the movement for ‘One government, One Tax’ by ACAUT in Dimapur.
Rosang Pongen, a resident of Kohima, whose simple initiative to repeal AFSPA has garnered around 92,699 signatures so far on Facebook. The Northeast media covered the story, but is it enough, or are we/they doing enough. Even if a quarter of Nagaland’s population signed the petition to repeal AFSPA, we are looking at a number around 5 lakhs from Nagaland alone. Prayer and petition are powerful constitutional means to address grievances in a democracy, and it is so heartwarming to see citizens like Rosang, who is in his mid-twenties, using tools that most youngsters are comfortable with, ICT (information and communications technology), for social change and action.
These augers well for the Naga family divided on intra and inter-tribal lines. When asked why the ENPO was withdrawing their participation from the Hornbill, it was remarked, “How can we sing and dance when someone has died in the family.” As of the Naga custom, it is taboo to merrymaking when there is a funeral going on in the neighbourhood.” This time the Nagas have won a defeated battle.
