The Price We Have Paid For Our Freedom

(A short introduction about Nagaland to all visitors of The Hornbill Festival)

By Kaka D. Iralu Hidden away from the prying eyes of famous world travelers and also hidden from the marching feet of history, our forefathers evolved the purest form of democracy from all their sovereign democratic republic villages. Our villages were however cut off from the rest of the world because no major world trade routes (like the Silk route etc.), ever traversed across our lands. The mountainous terrain of our lands and our wild Headhunting practices entombed us within its shadows for eons of human civilization and the march of history. Yet, within the confines of these geographical and historical facts, our ancestors even developed the shortest legal system and a most unique land ownership system- unsurpassed in human history. Our eerie presence in world history (dating as far back as the 12th century B.C.), burst into the limelight only in the early 1880’s when the British Imperialistic power stumbled across our lands in 1832. We further made our imprints in the pages of history when our third resistant up rising against the British coincided with the second Anglo-Afghan war in 1879. But despite our spirited defiance of the mighty British Empire from 1832 to 1947, our national existence was again shrouded under the Indian National flag for all the past 70 years. This has happened despite the fact that we had unfurled our national flag on 14th August 1947 and informed the UNO on the same date. As for India, she was granted her Independence by the departing British power on 15th August 1947-one day after the Naga declaration of their independence. Nagas were thus the first nation to declare their independence in the post Colonial period. Prior to this event, the white races of Europe and the West had ruled the whole of Asia, Africa and the Middle East for over five centuries. For details of this introduction about Nagaland, anyone can read the book “Nagaland and India, the Blood and the Tears.” This book is available at the Bamboo and Cane Handicraft unit (Mon District), at the Bamboo Pavilion, Hornbill Festival- Kisama.