Speech of General (Retd) Thinoselie M Keyho, President, Naga National Council on the Ocassion of the 64th Anniversary of Naga Martyrs Day

I join the multitudes of freedom loving people of Nagaland in paying my most profound homage to the immortal souls of the Naga Martyrs.

Why has October 18th come to commemorated as the Naga Martyrs Day?

A very brief account is being retold to revere the sacred deaths of the patriots who had laid down their lives as the supreme sacrifice for the love of Naga Country, the eternal.

Exactly 64 years ago, some immoral Assam Police personnel in Dimapur tortured a young Sema lad to death on very flimsy grounds of suspected theft.

The Naga people of Kohima took out a Peaceful Procession in protest against the heinous crime, demanding for a proper inquiry amongst others. Then an Indian Intelligence Officer came speeding on his Motor Cycle and rammed into the Procession with full intent, injuring one ‘Processionist’. He therefore was angrily confronted by the crowd. Then a certain Assam Police Officer began intimidating and threatening the crowd with his cocked service revolver most menacingly. Mr. Zasibito Nagi, Vice President, Western Angami Group, NNC and also Judicial Member, KCC, on beholding the precariously poised volatile situation, most honorably attempted to defuse the same. But the trigger-happy Police Officer fired at point blank range and shot him dead in cold blood. Zisibito Nagi had not even been in the procession, just an innocent bystander, purely meaning well only.

However, the Government of Assam did not take any action in this case most appallingly. Had she set up an Inquiry Commission to go into the reason(s) as to why the Intelligence Officer ploughed right into the crowd with his speeding Motor Cycle the way he did; and ascertain as to who authorized the Police Officer to fire on innocent peaceful people and such other particulars; and bring the guilty to book and at least offer words of condolences and/or award appropriate compensations; then the matter would have been most amicably resolved and done over with. But the Government of Assam strangely did absolutely nothing of that sort. In its place and stead, the erring Intelligence Officer was allowed to roam most arrogantly about, scot-free, provoking all and sundry. And adding insult to injury, the murderous Police Officer was given undue promotion and even provided with bodyguards to patrol the streets of Kohima on endless rounds of defiance.

Observing these blatant misrepresentations and abuses of Justice, the Nagas were offended without measure, right to the very core; and the already very fragile sense of camaraderie towards the people of Assam and the whole of India virtually shattered to unredeemable fragments. The death of a noble Naga Icon of most profound standings had not been given due cognizance by the Indians comparable to that of even a miserable chick-ling’s, in her sick value system. The extend of hatred, contempt and discrimination displayed in such blatant manifestations further went on to vindicate our worst fears that we would never get any semblance of justice from this demoniac regime and thus the Naga sentiments have been irrevocably hurt and offended. This had been the primal provocation (No.1).

Next had been the maiden visit of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to Nagaland on March 30, 1953. The Nagas had been eagerly awaiting his visit. People gathered from all over and had agglomerated at the local ground to the tune and in excess of 10,000 odd strength, in order to pay our respects to his August presence. Then the Deputy Commissioner of Kohima, an Assamese, on his own accord, gave out the ruling that the Nagas would not be permitted to meet with the Dignitary nor could any Memorandum be presented to him; thereby most severely frustrating the noble Naga intentions, compelling them to walk out en bloc. The Prime Minister of India had been thereby made to suffer immense disgrace and humiliation for absolutely no fault of his. Here again, had the Government of Assam or the Government of India for that matter, instituted a Commission to go into the happenings and put things in their correct perspective; things would not have gotten to be so disproportionately nor malignantly misrepresented. But absolutely nothing whatsoever had been done in the correct line and the whole grotesque blame had been squarely dumped on the Nagas most unjustly. Immediately upon the departure of the Prime Minister, the Government of Assam sent her Assam Armed Police into Nagaland and started and never stopped Political Atrocities thenceforth. This had been provocation Number 2.

The situation steadily deteriorated from bad to worse as the Government of India sent in her Armed Forces to invade Nagaland from1954 and the rest is History most shameful.

The Nagas had declared her independent status ahead of India but willfully took time in setting her Government up. This wise course of action, or rather the lack of it, had been resorted to, since the Nagas did not want to provide the opportunity to the Government of India to crush the Naga National Movement on the pretext that the Nagas had put up direct confrontational challenge; but instead the Naga National pursued the wise ‘Non-violent, Non-Cooperation’ policy all along. But the most brazen and brutal invasion of the Government of India compelled and propelled the Naga National Council to set up her Government- The Federal Government of Nagaland on March 22, 1956. Thereafter ‘official’ confrontations between the Armed wings of the Nagas and the Indians commenced in actuality. And the death-day of Zasibito Nagi, the first martyr for the Naga Cause on October 18th (1952) has come to be commemorated as the Naga Martyrs’ Day for all the martyrs to follow in their thousands.

At the initial stages, the Nagas fought virtually bare-handed; seeing the haughty Indians’ inhumane atrocities of debasement and persecutions; having been moved to utter hurt, red hot rage, bitter tears and proverbial gnashing of teeth in thorough exhaustive provocation. But God had been good to us and we could do much exceedingly well and had gone from strength to strength. So the Government of India next resorted to the malicious “Divide and Rule” policy and set up the “Naga People’s Convention” at her own behest and instigation, evolved the infamous ’16-points agreement’ and brought about the so-called Nagaland State into existence. But this did not go to any length in weakening, hindering nor hampering the Naga National Movement, whithersoever. The Naga National Politics had gone way above such petty hitches much by far. This, however, in fact could boomerang on India herself very badly in much more than just one way of a mighty lot of reversals. Like the Biblical parable of the sewing on of one new and un-shrunk piece of cloth unto the old parent cloth tearing apart the latter to virtual shreds, the case vis-á-vis Nagaland State, the 16th, affecting the Indian Union may become a reality in course of time.

Politics and History have amply proven that India had committed a mighty big blunder in creating the State of Nagaland. Our neighbors had been immensely benefitted from this catastrophe, instead. For starters, the Mizos came to learn that “Armed Struggle Pays” and did exactly follow its path and got rewarded with Mizoram State in the bargain. Then the Government of India in order to ‘contain’ and ‘isolate’ the Nagas from foreign powers granted Statehood to both Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh. Finally the Union Territories of Tripura and Manipur were also given Statehood in the superficial show of rationalism and equality which actually are virtues most opposed to her ethics of the Caste System. So now that the trend had been set in motion; in exact fulfillment of the time-tested proverbs, “A spark neglected burns the house”, the fire is already snaking its way into different parts of mainland India most steadily adamant. The Naga Case may be and is truly a challenge to the collective wisdom and statesmanship of India’s think-tank. The wise and magnanimous tackling would surely bring her much accolades; but the reverse case of much shame and humiliation also awaits on the other side too; because the World surely is watching.

I stand here today challenging the wise and the mighty Nagas of substance: had the Nagas of yester years happened to fail to speak out of our rights and quietly cowered down and surrendered to the invading hordes of India; what do you think the fate of the Nagas would be like by now? Perhaps, we might in all likelihood be still the “British Naga Hills Excluded Area”; at best a District in the state Assam. The living conditions and political stand of the Nagas would not be much better off now than then. The present status and living standard that the Nagas have reached, if anything substantial at all, have all been made possible because of the lofty Naga National Politics and the unselfish yielding of their lives by the martyrs for the sake of the Naga Nation without the faintest shadow of a doubt. You, the educated and the learned, the rich and the endowed, the Officers of all cadres, yes, every single individual lolling in the luxury of the good life, isn’t it right and timely that we ascribe the deserved glory and honor to the noble souls who had done you all a mighty lot of good? Otherwise, you would be most correctly taken to be ‘the most disgraceful’, ‘the most disrespectful’ and ‘the most ungrateful’ people, God forbid! At least spare a kind thought for the future. It’s a matter of great shame (if you don’t!).

KUKNALIM