The Naga Crisis: What is the “creative solution?”

MOHAN GURUSWAMY:

Recently while waiting at a TV studio to be called in for a panel discussion, I overheard a conversation between two BJP/RSS connected figures about Prime Minister Modi’s “creative solution” for the long festering Naga problem. The creative solution they were talking about was a “co-sovereignty” agreed upon by the leader of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN), Thuingaleng Muivah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in August 2015.  Speaking then Muivah said that this Framework Agreement “will give the Nagas maximum sovereign power to grow into a developed political people and it will also strengthen the security of India.” The details of this “historic” agreement were never spelled out. 

In May 2017, Muivah reiterated that the government of India has accepted the demand for greater Nagaland, creating ripples in Manipur, Assam, and Arunachal Pradesh. This announcement comes a month after Prime Minister Modi declared that the framework of agreement signed between the government of India and NSCN (IM) contains nothing against the interest of Manipur.

The questions now are what can Modi give and what does the Naga leadership want? Muivah, a Tangkhul Naga from Manipur says: “The political concept of NSCN is rooted in sovereign state and government. It is so because sovereign government can make people grow and develop their land into their fullest size.” A “creative  solution” has to find a bridge between this and the Constitution of India

Nagaland state is about spans over 6500 sq.miles and has a population of about two million. Till 1963 it was a district of the composite Assam state. There are thirty-five Naga tribes of which only sixteen live in Nagaland state. Several big tribes such as the Tangkhul who live in other states. There are also few Naga tribal groups in Myanmar. All together it is estimated that the total number of Nagas is close to 3.5 million. The Naga quest for a collective identity thus extends well beyond Nagaland and involves the dismemberment of Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, and some parts of Myanmar. This Naga homeland is what is now called Nagalim.

The neighboring state of Manipur (pop.2.85 million) has a long and distinct identity and was an independent princely state in British India and became a part of the Indian Union in 1949. It is unique among the northeastern states being the only one with a Hindu majority. The Vaishnavite Meitei’s constitute 54% of the population. A quarter of Manipur’s tribal people are non-Naga tribes like the Kuki, Paite and Hmar. The Tangkhul who are in the forefront of the Naga movement comprise of only 6% of Manipur or less than 200,000 still putting them among the bigger Naga tribes.

Now consider this, there are many more Kashmiris as compared to all the Nagas in the world. Then there is a hostile state with a heavily armed yet porus border to constantly infiltrate terrorists, arms and money.

To understand the Naga problem better we must first understand certain historical facts. The first of these is that the Naga Hills was the very last British annexation in the sub-continent. That annexation began with the establishment in March 1878 of the chief administrative center for the region at Kohima, then a large Angami village. 

The Naga tribes are generally considered to be of Tibeto-Burman stock.  According to Hokishe Sema, a former Chief Minister of Nagaland and later Governor of Himachal Pradesh: “there are no composite “Naga” people, and among them are many distinct tribes having more than thirty dialects, with almost every tribe constituting a separate language group. Moreover, their cultural and social setup varies vastly from tribe to tribe. Even their physique and appearance differ from group to group and place to place. The nomenclature, “Naga” is given to these tribes by outsiders.”

What now seems to bind the Naga tribes together is the rapid spread of Christianity in the Naga Hills. The first Baptist missionaries went there in 1836 when Reverend Miles Bronson set up a mission in Namsang. The church has never looked back since then and now maintains more than 800 churches and a majority of Nagas under its fold. 

The initial impetus to this Naga unity was provided in 1918 by the setting up of the Naga Club, with the tacit encouragement of the British authorities. Its members were important village headmen, government officials and educated Nagas including some recent graduates from Indian universities. When the Simon Commission visited in January 1929, the Naga Club pleaded: “We pray that we should not be thrust to the mercy of the people who could never have conquered us themselves, and to who we were never subjected; but to leave us alone to determine for ourselves as in ancient times.”

The Naga insurgency of 1954 saw the entry of the Indian Army once more into the region. Sadly the Indian Army’s promise to “exterminate terrorism” mostly degenerated into an indiscriminate and often lawless campaign of terror and destruction. It might have succeeded in quelling the insurgency but only exacerbated the alienation. The alienation persists. We have since the formation of Nagaland in December 1963 lurched from one political compromise after another. The spate of racist attacks on north-easterners in Delhi and the NCR has only added to the alienation.

Article 371A of the Indian Constitution specific to the Nagas does provide some safeguards. However most Nagas believe that 371A confers them a unique level of independence.  Justice Hotoi Khotoi Sema, a retired judge of the Supreme Court recently clarified to his fellow Nagas that Article 371 (A) of the Constitution of India, which grants special provisions to the state of Nagaland, has been ‘misinterpreted, misunderstood and misused’ largely due to “lack of communication’ between the executive and the common people.” The Nagas think that because of Article 371 (A), other provisions of the Constitution such as equality for women are not applicable in the state. 

Justice Sema reminded them that the state of Nagaland itself is a creation of the Constitution and the people of Nagaland too are bound by the Constitution.  He might add just as the Government of India is bound by that Constitution. 

So what is the “creative solution?” 

Mohan Guruswamy

Email: mohanguru@gmail.com