Grata Somare, Leonardo Vigorelli

T H E T W E N T I E T H C E N T U R Y

In this century the Nagas have experienced two World Wars and both, albeit in different ways, have contribu-ted to important transformations in the traditional so-ciety.

Until then the Nagas had not directly encountered any reality not connected with that of the village, and each village was an integrated, harmonious and closed sy-stem which guaranteed political stability, social justice, personal and religious freedom to every one of its members. In the village all men were equal, and the common bond of membership, the prestige of the chiefs and the opinions of the elders resulted in the fact that conflicts over decisions to be taken were very rare. Men and women had equal rights, and everybody had all he needed to live. No family ever left a need member alone and neither beggars nor thieves existed. Each family possessed its own home and tilled its own land. Rivers and forests belonged to all and all could use them equally. Social power did not need police, army or prisons for reenforcement.

Such was the world the Nagas knew when they came in touch with "modern civilization", and through in-ternational events they learned to comprehend that change was inevitable and that their destiny depended on realities which were much wider than those that they had known until now. About 2000 Nagas from different tribes were recruited by the Regional Administration during the First World War and sent to labour fields in France. This experience gave them the occasion for reflection and debate, and a new consciousness about themselves matured which gave way to a stream of thought wich in turn resulted in the birth of a pan-Nagas identity.

When they returned from Europe, these Nagas pro-moted the foundation of a Naga Club in Kohima and in Mokokchung in 1918. The members of this circle, which gave voice to the aspirations of the emerging middle class, realized that the British would have left India sooner or later, and they were concerned about the future. They intended to found a political movement of solidarity among the various tribes which would allow the reacquisition of power and the control of their territory. Until then the Nagas had never considered themselves as belonging to the same nation. The long usual occur-rence of inter-tribal strife and of headhunting had kept the groups separated until then. Even the word Naga, as symbol of the ethnic unity of all the hill peo-ples, was spread and accepted thanks to the name of the Club.

When in 1929 the members of the Naga Club met with J . Simon in Kohima, who led the commission charged with designing the new guidelines for the future rela-tions between England and India, they declared that they wished to be placed directly under the jurisdic-tion of the British Government and asked to start a policy of self-government based on tribal organisms. They said to the Commission: "You English have been the only ones who managed to defeat us, and when you are gone, we wish to be again that which we had been before".

At the same time when the nationalist sentiment assu-med shape with those Nagas who had been educated in the Baptist schools and looked towards the We-stern world, a quite diverse movement manifested itself among the Kacha and Kabui Nagas. Its founder, Jadonang, established a link with traditio-

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rial beliefs and preached a ritual cult with Hindu in-fluences, through which the Nagas would have regai-ned their former richness and driven out the forei-gners. The great popularity of this movement, the elements of rebellion against the British administration and the reputation of cruelty which surrounded its rites, led to its repression by the Government and to the hanging ofjadonang. Also his sister Gaidiliu, who succeeded him as head of the movement and who had devoted her life to resistance against the English, was captured in 1932 and jailed for insurrection. The long imprisonment and the less anti-Indian attitu-de ofjadonang and Gaililiu led Nehru, after indipen-dence, to express the benevolence of the Indian Go-vernement and thus calling Gaidiliu "the Queen of the Nagas", granting her a pension as a political prisoner.

Due to its strategic position the Southern section of the Naga Hills was the site of military operations du-ring the Second World War. Between the spring and the summer of 1944 the area around Kohima was the site of a battle that was to be for the Japanese that which Stalingrad had been for the Germans. After four months of fierce fighting in the jungle the British and Indian troops with the brave cooperation of the Nagas managed to block the Japanese attempt to penetrate into the subcontinent from Burma.

Along with the destructions the war brought a wave of modernization to the hills: goods and ideas flowed through the new channels opened for military purpo-ses. In February 1946 a conference of tribal representatives founded the Naga National Council ( N N C ) , an or-ganization which soon assumed the task of beco-

ming the spokesman for the political claims of the new nation.

Intervening in the debate which eventually led to In-dia's independence, the National Council, two months before India's formal declaration of indepen-dence, made public the intention not to become part of the Indian Union, but to give birth to an indipen-dent, sovereign state of their own, as soon as the Bri-tish had left.

But Pandit Nehru, President of the Indian National Congress, had a different position which he had expres-sed clearly to the members of the N N C a year before: "It is obvious that the Naga territories are too small to become indipendent politically... They are situated between India and China and are inhabited mostly by backward peoples who need substantial help. It is thus inevitable that they become a part of India... At the sa-me time our policy regarding tribal areas is directed to-wards guaranteeing them the greatest possible free-dom and autonomy..."

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In June of 1947 an agreement was reached which see-med to bridge the two alternatives as well as the divi-sion within the N N C which opposed radicals and mo-derates (the former advocating immediate indepen-dence, whereas the latter wanted to maintain some sort of relationship with India until the Nagas would have acquired the capacity to govern themselves). In this agreement the Nagas received guarantees as to their rights over their land and their religious freedom, and it was established that all laws issued by the Cen-tral Government would require the approval of the N N C before being applied. Finally it was declared that the Government of the In-dian Union would exercise a protective function over the Naga Hills for a period of ten years, at the end of which "the Naga Council would have been asked to declare whether this agreement should be extended or whether some other agreement should be found".

This ambiguous conclusion opened the way for misin-terpretations which shortly afterwards led to the birth of an armed clandestine movement for the indipen-dence of the Naga Hills. Some people had in fact inter-preted the document in the sense that the conditions of their autonomy from India would be re-negotiated at the end of ten years, whereas others thought that the Nagas would have been able to achieve the right of self-determination.

In the difficult years after indipendence the Indian Go-vernment assumed a stricter position, out of fear that a series of secessions would lead to a breaking up of the Union. In a parallel development, within the N N C the more intransigent wing gained influence. In 1949 Zapu Phizo Angami was elected President of

the N N C , and for the next forty years he was to re-main the leader of the Indipendence Movement.

From 1952 on, relations between the Nagas and the In-dian Government deteriorated constantly. The In-dians looked with suspicion and hostility at the N N C in whose secessionist positions they saw the dange-rous seeds of a collapse of the Union and a threat to its sovereignty in an area of strategic importance. At the same time the N N C called for the boycott of the general elections and reiterated that "the Nagas were not Indian and did not wish to become so". The situation precipitated in March 1953 after Prime Minister Nehru's visit to Kohima. The visit itself had already been marked by mutual distrust. The police operations which followed gave rise to the opinion that the N N C heads would soon be arrested in order to decapitate the movement, and thus many leaders went underground. From this moment on, Naga opposition turned from protest and civil disobedience to open hostility. A guerilla movement developed gradually, and from 1955 on, acts of sabotage along communication lines and clashes became common practice. During the same year the foreign missionaries were asked to leave the area, and a year later, while a state of emergency was declared in the Naga Hills, the underground indepen-dence fighters founded the Federal Naga Government and promulgated a constitution. In it Nagaland was declared "a republic with a sovereign people", neutral and without an army; a parliament was constituted and taxes abolished. Furthermore, the claims of autonomy of each tribe and of each village were recognized as well as equal political rights of the sexes.

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As a result of this non-declared war a climate of terror descended upon the hills, because the population found itself between the retaliation of the Indian troops, and the coercion of the rebels as well. According to official data of the Indian Government 1400 Nagas were killed between 1956 and 1958, and on-ly by the end of the Fifties did the concept of a gradual solution of the Naga Question gain ground as the only possible way to end the violence, while at the same ti-me the N N C continued to refuse any type of compro-mise. The result of the discussions between the Naga Peo-ple's Convention (NPC) , a moderate organization, and the Indian Government, was the birth of a distinct administrative unit under the jurisdiction of the Mini-stry of External Affairs, called Naga Hills-Tuensang Area, and in 1963, the creation of a new state called Nagaland. A.Z. Phizo, who was living in London in exile, repu-diated this political solution, declaring that the N P C did not represent the prevailing opinions and that it was therefore not authorized to represent them.

Against all expectations, instead of putting an end to the hostilities, the birth of the new state gave rise to a surge of militant nationalism and to a recurrence of ar-med action. The Indian Government escalated the mi-litary pressure and transferred the civilians from the strategic areas. In 1964 an armistice was signed, thanks to the media-tion of a Peace Mission promoted by the Baptist Church, but since the parts involved were unable to reach an overall agreement, the situation deteriorated again between 1966 and 1972.

Against the bakground of the conflicts wich took place

in Southeast Asia in those years (the URSS-China si-tuation and the Vietnam War) political-ideological di-visions also arose inside the underground movement and deep-rooted tribal rivalries surged again. Nor did the Naga Nationalist Organization, moderate and pro-Indian, succeed in gaining credit with the Par-liament in Delhi as the representative of the majority of the Nagas. In 1972, in the wake of an attempt on the life of the Pri-me Minister of Nagaland, the N N C and all under-ground organisms of the Federal Government were declared outlaws.

Restless years followed which were marked by difficul-ties and divisions within the armed resistance move-ment, despite some support from the People's Repu-blic of China and an agreement with North-Burmese guerrilla movements. In 1974 the United Democratic Front, a political orga-nization close to the Federalists, succeeded for the first time in obtaining the majority in the State Assembly and in forming a government wich survived until the following year when the central government declared a state of emergency and dissolved the Assembly. Both the Indian Government and the underground movement found themselves in a stagnant situation without any hope of being able to arrive at a stable solution, when the possibility of reaching an "honou-rable and acceptable" agreement was upon the hori-zon. In November 1975 some Federalist representatives si-gned a document in Shillong in which it was declared that the underground movement recognized the In-dian constitution and agreed to put down their arms. But even this agreement failed to put an end to the ho-stilities. A .Z. Phizo refused to acknowledge it, and also

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the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland, a Maoist Christian formation denounced it, criticizing also the position of A .Z . Phizo which it considered tribalistic, and doomed to failure. From its bases near the Burmese border the N S C N continued to support and promote the cause of armed insurgence in order to obtain independence, the right of self-determination and sovereignty, whereas the N N C maintained its attitude of political and military opposition to the Indian presence in Nagaland.

Since the end of the Seventies the situation in Naga-land has gradually lost some of the bitterness of the previous decades, and profound socio-economic chan-ges have taken place.

On a political level a strengthening of the moderate N N O which joined the Indian Congress Party, could be observed as well as a recess of the Naga National Democratic Front (formerly U D F ) , more inclined to-wards the underground movement; but the vitality of the independence movement and the continued exi-stence of the Naga Question are indirectly demonstra-ted by the strong military contingent still present in the State. A.Z. Phizo died in London in 1990, and his daughter Adino succeeded him as President of the N N C .

The years of political unrest have had important im-plications on the socio-economic plane, because they induced the inhabitants of the unsafe areas to move to major centres and opened a detailed network of com-munications in order to facilitate the movements of the Indian troops. These two elements, that is a relative tendency towards urbanization and the end of centuries of isolation,

along with a general increase in schooling, have accele-rated the decline of the traditional society and favou-red the contact with and adoption of new values and lifestyles. The abandonment of the village culture and of its me-chanisms of integration and equal distribution of wealth sometimes made the new city dwellers encoun-ter difficulties and hitherto unknown anxieties. Traditional institutions of membership and solidarity, such as the clans, have lost part of their meaning, and the productive self-sufficiency of the domestic unit has been substituted almost completely by markets and a monetary economy. The desire of something new, so-metimes intended in the sense of uncritical acceptance of Western models, has asserted itself, especially among young people. Demographic pressure, also partly caused by immigra-tion, has not been counterbalanced by an increase in agricultural productivity, and has led to an erosion of the margins of survival and to the onset of poverty. Changes in the way of life, the relative diffusion of new commodities and the consequent request for the

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satisfaction of new needs have obliged the Nagas to ask themselves about the feasibility of the autono-mous economic survival of an independent state, even in the case of a Great Nagaland, that is one, which would comprise the Naga populations of Burma, Aru-nachal Pradesh and Manipur. On the other hand, the birth of the new state and the influx of money as part of the economic subsidy policy from the Indian Government, have created a large middle class which is mostly employed in the bureau-cratic-administrative and commercial sectors, and which differs greatly from the rural population as far as financial means, schooling and general views of life are concerned. It is this new Naga ruling class which today must cope with the difficult task of guiding this impetuous stage of trasformation, without interrupting the link between the proud original cultural heritage of the past and the unavoidable present.

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