Kaka D. Iralu
The word CONFLICT was a word that never existed between Nagaland and India prior to August 1947. In fact, throughout all the aeons of South Asian history, Nagas and Indians had existed as two entirely different entities politically and culturally. Far from any social or cultural associations, most people in both India as well as Nagaland did not know about the other’s existence in those days. Here one can challenge any Indian historian or politician to produce even a shred of historical document to show that Nagas and Indians had socially or culturally interacted with each other prior to 1947. In consonance to these facts, Nagas and Indians had also never fought any wars prior to 1954. The actual fact is one where, in India’s long history of Hindu rule as well as Muslim (Mogul) rule, no Indian King or Ruler had ever been able to extend their ruler ship beyond the Brahmaputra river into India’s North Eastern frontier regions.
Because of all these facts, words like The Naga problem, insurgency, integral part, secession, honourable solution or peaceful solution etc did not exist in Indo Naga vocabulary in the past. But if one traces the origins of these words in the Indo-Naga context, one will discover that these words came into usage only after some Indian politicians and their Naga collaborators attempted to project Nagas as an integral part of India which is quite contrary to the existing historical records and facts. These modern day political collaborators have, for their own selfish ends, and against all existing historical records, tried to create the chimera of an Indian Beast with its left ears covering the whole North Eastern regions of India including the Naga territories. From the ears of this “made believe beast”, they are insisting that Nagaland too had always been an integral part of the great Bharat kingdom called India. From the ramparts of these false claims, they had gone on to denounce the Naga struggle for self identity and independence as “A secessionist and insurgency movement.”But whatever their fantastic claims may be, the Naga National Council’s reply to this claim nullifies and puts to rest, all the tall imaginative claims of these Indian and Naga collaborators. That reply is:
“THE QUESTION OF DIVORCE CANNOT ARISE WHEN THE QUESTION OF MARRIAGE DOES NOT EXIST IN THE FIRST PLACE.”
The ancient Naga territories with all its ancient forests and gigantic mountains had remained almost cut off from the rest of the world for many centuries. This isolation was made all the more remote because the inhabitants of these mountainous terrains were a race of head-hunters proud in their martial exploits. They were also fierce defenders of their territories, having fought so many centuries of war with their immediate neighbours like the Meteis, the Kacharis and the Ahoms. This fierce resistance against foreign aggression continued even with the British from 1832 to 1947. Therefore, let no modern Tom, Dig or Harry ever think that these territories and this proud race of people can simply be negotiated into a floating chimera hanging in somebody’s imagination.
Nagas, on their part, have no sinister plans with any neighbouring country to destabilise India or weaken her in any way. They in fact want to be India’s best neighbour in this modern global world. But make no mistake about this- that Nagas will never surrender to some modern “Nehruvian concept of history” and lose their own unique separate national identity from that of India.
