United Tangshang Naga Council protests India's border fencing

DIMAPUR — The United Tangshang Naga Council (UTNC), Nanyun, Naga Self-Administered Zone in Myanmar, has raised serious objection to the Government of India's border fencing activities between Indo-Myanmar boundary pillars No. 172 and 173.

In a press release, the UNTC stated that the Tangshang Nagas in particular and the Naga people in general, have inhabited their present ancestral homeland since time immemorial as an indigenous people.

The council stated that the Government of India is well aware that the Naga people did not arrive in their present homeland as a result of settlement, occupation, or assimilation by any other powers.

According to the norms governing the formation of modern nation-states, the republics of India and Myanmar came into existence, and only in recent decades were the boundaries between the two countries demarcated and established as international borders under their respective administrative systems, it stated.

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“When the Indo-Myanmar border was delineated, our Naga people — who have lived in these areas for countless generations — unexpectedly found our ancestral homeland divided into two separate territories.

“Nevertheless, although we were administratively separated into two nationalities, the Naga people of both sides have continued to live honestly and peacefully under the governance of the two countries, while freely upholding our shared identity and our unity as one people and one homeland in accordance with our customs, culture, and traditions,” the council stated.

The UTNC asserted that any attempt to deny, undermine, or destroy their oneness as a people and the unity of Naga ancestral homeland will not intimidate the Tangshang Nagas, regardless of the cause or nature of such threats.

“We shall never submit or accept any action intended to divide us,” it added.

The council affirmed that the construction of fencing and boundary fortifications currently being undertaken between lndo-Myanmar Border pillars No. 173 (Pangsau Pass) and No. 172, within Nanyun township, “falls squarely within Tangshang Naga-inhabited territory.”

It went on to state that the act of constructing physical barriers to divide the Naga people — who are of one people and one family — disregards their existence and deeply pains the entire Naga community.

“The invisible unity of our blood, our identity as one people, and our belonging to one homeland cannot be erased or divided by any authority,” the UTNC stated.

“Therefore, we regard the Indian Government's plan to construct border fencing as a dishonourable act that constitutes psychological oppression against the indigenous Naga people and a strategic attempt to divide and erase our identity.”

The UTNC demanded the Government of India to immediately cessation of all border fencing activities along Indo-Myanmar border; recognise and respect the presence and value of the indigenous Naga population on both sides of the border; and to avoid any political arrangements that divide the indigenous Naga people.

“The government of India must take responsibility of the consequences arise from the public unless the border fencing project is ceased and withdrawn,” it added.

The UTNC stated that its demand is supported by various organisations, including the Naga Tradition, Literature and Culture Committee (Nanyun township), Naga Tradition, Literature and Culture Committee (Pangsau township), Tangshang Naga Baptist Churches Council (TNBCC), and Tangshang Naga Students Association (TNSA).