The Naga insurgency and the ‘idea of India’

http://atimes.com/2015/07/the-naga-insurgency-and-the-idea-of-india/



Nagaland militant group

The Naga insurgency and the ‘idea of India’
By Kadayam Subramanian on July 1, 2015

The Naga insurgency arose out of Naga nationalism which focused on the sovereignty and territoriality of the Naga people. Naga nationalism was suppressed brutally by independent India. The long and painful saga of the Naga struggle for independence is well recorded. In 1963, India granted statehood to the Naga people but the demand for independence did not vanish. Peace moves initiated by India during the 1950s and ‘60s had only limited impact.

The Naga insurgency is the oldest and most powerful insurgency in India today. Bertil Lintner, in his perceptive book Great Game East: India, China and the Struggle for Asia’s Most Volatile Frontier, 2012, says that the Nagas were the first in independent India to challenge the ‘idea of India’ — a concept which preoccupies elite scholarship in India today.

After a prolonged struggle, Naga insurgents are now divided into two main groups: the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (greater Nagaland) or NSCN-IM led by Isaac Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah and NSCN-K led by SS Khaplang who does not want to dilute the original demands, namely sovereignty and territoriality. The former group, now willing to function within the Constitution of India, is in secret peace talks with government of India. The latter is excluded from the talks ostensibly because Khaplang is not an Indian citizen but a domicile of Myanmar.

Moreover, there is pressure too from the rival group as well to keep him out. The Khaplang too had signed a ceasefire agreement with the government of India in 2001 and would have liked to be part of the dialogue process but has now reneged from the agreement. His group seems to have become today the most powerful group among the Nagas of India and Myanmar. The impact of the exclusion of Khaplang from peace talks was seen in the June 4 devastating attack on the Indian army convoy in Manipur mounted by the NSCN (K) and two Manipuri groups of insurgents.