‘History is not about the past and repeating events but about preparing for future’

Our Reporter
Dimapur, Aug. 14 (EMN): The Nagas started national movement in order to protect their identity and nation but in the end, it is the movement that is giving ‘our identity’, Dr. Visier Sanyu, President of Overseas Naga Association and member of Forum for Naga Reconciliation, said on Friday. He stressed on the need to ‘search our soul, regain our soul’ and not to fight among ‘ourselves’.

He was speaking at a webinar organised by the Global Naga Forum to commemorate the 74th Naga Independence Day on August 14. The other speaker of the event was professor of Central Washington University, Paul Pimomo.

Speaking on “Historical perspective of the Naga Political Struggle”, Sanyu stated that Naga elders laid the foundation of nationhood through their representation to the Simon Commission in 1929, but interestingly, Nagas tend to read one portion that say “leave us alone” while the government of India tends to avoid this part and give importance to another paragraph.

He said that right from the start, Nagas and Indian government have differences in their interpretation of their history, and after 18 years, in 1947, Nagas reaffirmed and declared its Independence on August 14. He said celebrating the day is important as it is the foundation of their modern sovereignty although they were always sovereign people and which they are protecting.

In 1948, after the declaration of Independence, nine-point agreement was signed between the Naga National Council and the governor of Assam for 10 years interim, but again there was different interpretation and different meaning to both the parties, Sanyu said.Jawaharlal Nehru sent army to Nagaland and army operation started and the Nagas started a home guard and organised Naga army and the federal government was formed, he said, adding that at the height of the Indo-Naga war, with good intention, the so-called Naga People’s Convention (NPC) was formed to bring peace and have a dialogue between the federal government and India government.

He informed that the NPC become the negotiator instead of the federal government of Nagaland and they formulated the 16-point agreement and the state of Nagaland was created. He also said that the Shillong Accord, which is much-talked-about and if read very carefully, ‘it was signed with the governor and on behalf of underground organisation and the word Naga was not mentioned’.

Morally questionable things are there but legally and politically, no Nagas signed the agreement, he said, adding that ‘more than this agreement, documentation and talks, there are many factors that have make us who we are and what we have become’.

He said the newly independent India started a military campaign against Naga nationalism in the mid-1950s at Khonoma village. The Indian army burned down his village in 1956 and after taking refuge in the jungles for three years and living in the outskirts of the village for a decade and returned to Khonoma in 1970, and as a result of long period of displacement and suffering, it brought about something strange and remarkable.

Sanyu described it as ‘cultural renaissance, new songs were written, new mix of legions were created, tradition were altered and taboos were broken out of desperation, festivals, weddings and funerals began to change as a result of deep search for meaning’. He said the physical hardship forced them to look at the world from a different perspective and deprivation led to the change in their food and belief system, and many superstitions melted away.

Many converted to Christianity during this period, and due to the factors known and unknown to them, and most beyond their control, including their inability to observe traditional rituals adequately or observe taboos which were compelled to break because of the changed circumstances, he said.

Three long years in the jungle gave them life and natured them and changed them forever, the speaker said. The shock of physical and cultural disruption disoriented them; they were confused and shaken and were desperately searching for something waiting beyond that would bring healing and give meaning to their harsh and altered landscape, and their world view was so disrupted that it had to be re-invented, he added.

On talks between the government of India and Nagas, past and present, he explained through a metaphor: There is an elephant in the forest and there is an ant; the elephant said that he is the king of the jungle and can crush the ant with his foot. The ant replied that, the elephant cannot do that even though he is strong. But in this mysterious universal scheme, both have different role to play, he said.

Even though the elephant can walk over the ant and crush the colony, there will be some under the ground who would survive and one day when the elephant dies, the ant would feast on his dead body for many years, he said, while referring the elephant to India and ants to Nagas. He said talks between the two parties have been, is and would be always in the same pattern.

Sanyu said the present agreement is not going to be sovereignty but after the agreement, the ants will have a feast but at the end of the feast the question will arise about sovereignty and if that happen and the feast is over, they must be united; it is not good to say that they were divided because of their enemy’s policies divide and rule. They must unite to fight their enemies who are occupying their land, but above all they fight is their greatest enemy – themselves, he added.

“Search our soul and regain our soul” and that is what our history would become and it is the process of the history, he said, adding that people must prepare their history, prepare anything and everything to face the future and that history is not about the past and repeating events but about preparing for the future.

“He who sleeps will not catch up with the one who walks. May we walk with our eyes open,” he said.

Speaking on the topic “Towards a Just Peace, Respecting Naga Rightd and Dignity”, Prof. Pimomo said that ‘the one basic historical fact about the Indo-Naga conflict is that even seven standard students must know it that it is a political issue not a law and order problem’.

He quoted B N Malik’s book ‘My years with Nehru 1947-64’ that read ‘though there was nearly one security troop for every adult male Naga in the Naga hills, Tuensang area, there was never a time when it could be claimed that the Nagas gorillas has been broken into submission’.

Pimomo said that the government of India has categorically laid down the baseline on the settlement of Nagas’ political questions namely ‘no sovereignty and no greater Nagalim’.

‘Most Nagas have learned and evolved over time and these days, Nagas go head-hunting in their dreams’, he added.

He quoted Nikatu Iralu’s remark: ‘India took the carrot and a stick to the Nagas and the Nagas have learned to tolerate the stick but became pathetically addicted to the carrot’. And he is right, he said, adding that once resilience, independent and proud communitarian Naga people have taken a crippling hit from India and’ our self-respect and dignity were re-shuffled’.

He concluded by saying that people’s relentless persuade for self-determination and self-reliance and common good bring out vibrant and individual talents of ‘our people especially among young generation; the future holds truly excited’.