My Blog: Shanthi: May 2025

The Nagaland I visited!

In the whirlwind tour of the North-East States which I undertook in the month of April 2025, visiting from one corner of the Seven Sisters to the other, nothing touched my heart like that of Nagaland. I went to the Bangladesh border from Megalaya State and to the Chinese border beyond Bomla pass at 15,200 feet elevation in Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh State. I remember the cold and the shivering at the pass, but Naga country blew me over, not for what it is now, but for what it was a few decades back or even a few centuries back. I will narrate a few facts of its history which I learnt during my trip.

Nagas, people of the State of Nagaland are of many different tribes, as many as 50 tribes, living in Naga hills. They are of Mongoloid stock, close to north Western Myanmar and has river Brahmaputra at its western border. The important tribes being, Angami, Ao, Chang, etc. Some had republican system and others autocratic rule. Angamis practiced a pure form of democracy. The bravery of the Naga chiefs was legendary. “Naga” seems to be a Tibeto-Chinese word, a name for a place, and the people living there became the “Naga people.”

‘Head-hunting’ was the practice of Naga tribes, taking heads of enemies as trophies, which symbolized bravery and ritualistic entrance into manhood and enhanced social status. The greater number of heads hanging at the entrance of his house, the higher was his prestige. Unfortunately, their enemies were their own Naga people, belonging to another Naga tribe. Nagas were feared for their head-hunting practices and their raids into the neighboring states or people. As Christianity spread among them in the 19^th century, the head-hunting practice disappeared slowly but surely. The first church to be established was a Baptist church in 1872. Even today I could see many Baptist churches, and also Pentecostal churches in Nagaland. In Christian seminaries like SABC (South Asian Bible College), Bangalore, and SAIACS (South Asian Institute of Advanced Christian Studies – from where I did my year-long Pre-PhD programme in 2000!), Bangalore, I used to see more students from Nagaland than from anywhere else in India. 90% of the Nagas follow Christianity and they are more fluent with English, having benefitted from the education introduced by the missionaries.

Nagas had problems with the Burmese and have fought a few wars with them. Also, the British who wanted to incorporate them into their Raj had to wage many a war to finally bring them in. The village we visited, Khonoma, of Angami tribe, has a famous fort built in 1825, and from where they fought their wars against the British East India Company, the first one called the first Anglo-Khonoma battle of 1850, where the Nagas defeated the British. In a retaliatory battle of 1851, the British and some of the allied Naga tribes massacred the Nagas including civilians, in Kikruma village, but the British learnt to let the Nagas live their own lives, adopting a policy of non-interference in Naga affairs. In Khonoma itself the fort was demolished three times, and rebuilt, the last one in 1919.

Another site of historical importance was in Kohima itself, the capital of Nagaland, the Commonwealth Kohima War Cemetery, established in 1946 for the fallen in the World War II. In April 1944, around the Tennis court of the Deputy Commissioner, Nagas fought bravely along with their British and British Indian counterparts in the Battle of Kohima, where they effectively halted the invasion of British India by the forces of Japan, with the loss of some 2500 soldiers and officers, who lie buried in this field. The war lasted till June 1944. In this cemetery, I saw tombstones of soldiers from Punjab Regiment; of Royal Indian Army Service Corps; Dorsetshire Regiment; some as young as 19 years old. The allied forces lost some 4000 men, but the Japanese lost some 7000 men and had to retreat and give up their effort to enter into India.

The independent spirit of Nagas was not extinguished even after India got her independence in August 1947. They continued to fight for preserving their independent existence, safeguarding their traditional ways of life. Though in the beginning they wanted to be a part of Assam as one of its districts, with their own administration and traditional manner of rule, it was not acceptable to the newly formed country India. India could not have afforded an independent enclave within her boundaries, as it was repeatedly denied during the Integration of India, to the Princely States which wanted to have such arrangements.

Then started the so-called “Naga problem.” In 1947 NNC (Naga National Council) submitted a memorandum to the British, that they should be granted independence and not be placed under Indian rule, in view of the help rendered by them in WW II and also because in the 1935 Constitution of India, Nagas were left as an “Excluded Area.” They wanted the British power, on the eve of their departure, to assure them of their independence and be their “Guardian power.” British could not give any such guarantees. Nehru, the then Prime Minister of India tried to make the Nagas join the Indian Union of their own freewill. But this was not agreeable to the Nagas. They wanted internal autonomy. When talks failed open conflict began in 1956. In trying to suppress this tendency and to integrate Nagas into India, Indian Government used force, through the Assam police and Indian army, and it led to many atrocities, a reign of terror with rape, arrests, disappearances, and even executions happening. In 1956 when a leader of Nagas, Sakhrie was killed, the movement went underground. In 1990, A. Z. Phizo, acknowledged as the Father of Naga Nationalism passed away, who was living in self-exile in London since 1957.

Their leader Khrisanisa Seyie, from Khonoma village, member of Naga National Council (NNC), and the first President of Federal Government of Nagaland, in 1959 had this to say: “Nagas are not Indians; their territory is not a part pf the Indian Union. We shall uphold and defend this unique truth at all costs and always.” Nagas sought to create an independent Naga State. With untiring zeal, Seyie tried to unite all the warring Naga tribes under one umbrella. Their mantra was “Nagas will never allow themselves to be called Indians.” The union of India could not afford to give such an independent status within India to Nagas, a privilege which was denied to 565 Princely States.

In 1997, a ceasefire agreement was executed between Government of India and the national Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM). In 2001 another ceasefire agreement between Government of India and NSCN (Khaplang) came into being. After many false starts, and loss of life, the peace agreement held on and it is only in the last two decades or so there seems to be peace and development in Nagaland.

What a pity! Such a beautiful State, with hills and valleys and river-lets and water-falls, place still unspoiled by modern advances, with virgin forests, and beautiful people had become a battle ground and the people were caught in the fire between Indian government and the Naga freedom fighters. A similar thing is now being repeated in Manipur, where in spite of the guarantees given to them by the Government of India, an attempt is being made to replace the hill tribes Kukis, with Maiteis from Imphal valley. Manipur is still burning, one reason why I could not visit Manipur during my trip this time. I hope and pray that one day very soon peace and justice will prevail there and people would be able to visit without fear and enjoy the beauty of Manipur.

Till then “kei lawm e!” (Good Bye in creole language spoken in Nagaland).

Please see the pictures below.

Fort in Khonoma village