The Indo-Naga Union, (INU)

Of all the Mongolian Hill people of the North East, perhaps one of the most political minded are the Nagas and the Mizos. The Naga related people of Arunachal Pradesh have also similar feelings but are at the moment not politically as open as their kith and kin the Nagas or the Mizos.

The credit for the love of politics in the Nagas perhaps stems from the very nature of their social structure in that there is no high or low in the society. The Village has no one person of authority, neither elected or selected or hereditary, for governance of the people. There is a Common Good Conscience felt in every member of the society and every erring person is judged by that standard of the felt common good conscience by the gathered in the society. For others, this is wild democracy even unimaginable but that it is here working in the Nagas is an undeniable fact; so said the people who wrote the Magna Carta first. British colonial Officers, particularly Mr. J.H. Hutton must  have a liking for the Naga love of Freedom and advised his Naga Dobashis to tell the Great Shahib expected to come soon to Kohima at the head of a Commission for political Reform in Colonial India.

Had it not been for Mr. Hutton, the Nagas like the other Tribal Communities of India would never have figured out the necessity of submitting a written Petition to the unheard of Mr. Simon Commission in 1929. None of the Manipuris or the Kukis or the Nagas of Manipur or the Khasi & Jaintias or the Mizos or the Mongolian Ahom Tai kindred people are known to have approached the Commission for political reformation. The Ahom Tai people belatedly, during Prime Minister Nehru, submitted a longish memorandum for a separate Ahom Tai State from Assam but by then the Iron had already grown cold and the Blacksmith could not shape the Iron. When the Naga Petition was brought to his notice, Mr. Simon’s Boss in England is said to have remarked that the wild Nagas has an   astute sense of their destiny beyond the wildest imagination of Mr. Simon himself. The Naga Case is a lucky except and except for a brief period of 1929 to 1945, Nagas were restlessly at their

Case for the last 81 years to date.

Initially Naga National Council [NNC] imitated Mahatma Gandhi’s Indian National Congress’s [INC] non-violent method for their political Movement but Assam Chief Minister Medhi’s derogatory remarks on the Naga’s peaceful Thumb Impression Plebiscite and his vow to make a “Belt out of Naga Skin” infuriated the Nagas:. The untrained newly formed Assam Armed Police imbued with Mr. Medhi’s intemperate spirit, inhumanely treated simple Naga innocent villagers: the Nagas went ‘Underground’; and violent confrontation germinated.

The great majority of the Nagas in the Villages expect the educated Nagas to find a solution to the long drawn out Indo-Naga Political Problem. The legitimately formed Dan Government of Nagaland constituting an Official Committee reportedly to advice the NSCN (IM) in the latter’s talk with the GOI is a mind boggling Idea: for a legitimately elected Government committed to the preservation of the Constitution of Indian advising an Organization that does not recognize the Constitution of India is an unbelievably strange Idea indeed. Be that as it may, none of the Naga National Organizations so far has informed the Naga Public even the main points of the “Competencies” they are working with the GOI.

The educated Nagas the Writer has approached, none seems to have a worked out list of his own opinion on the Issue: not even Naga National figures have any set thought out terms ready. To the shock of good Christian Nagas, the Writer here presents his opinion:

Terms:

1. On India taking cognizance of the Naga claim of Sovereignty, Nagaland agrees to a Union with India for 99 years at the end of the Period, India and Nagaland shall discuss the Issue for a mutually satisfactory Settlement.

2.  During the Period of the Union, India ensures the following in Non-amendable Special Constitutional provisions:

            i).  Article 371-A is made Non-amendable.

            ii).  Similar non-amendable provisions are made to the Nagas in:

            a).  Arunachal Pradesh.

            b).  Assam.

            c).  Manipur.

3. India agrees to put its diplomatic, economic and political influence on Burma to give the Nagas in Burma:

            a).  Freedom of Religion.

            b).  Freedom to Traditional Customary Practices.

            c).  Freedom of Transit between India and Burma in the pattern between India and Napal.

4. India makes annual financial Grants to Nagas commensurate with its national product and growth rate.

5. Nagaland shall be ensured special facilities for Foreign Education.

6. For the first 50 years, those from outside the State, not more than 20% of the indigenous population of Nagaland, shall vote in Nagaland Assembly Election.

7. Non-Nagas who have permanently and continuously lived and died in Nagaland; they and their descendants shall be treated as Indigenous of Nagaland.

8. Non-Nagas in Nagaland Government Service shall have the right to vote in Nagaland.

9. All India Services Officers of Nagaland Cadre who have served continuously in Nagaland for 20 years or more and their descendents shall be considered Indegenous of Nagaland.

10. There shall be a Separate Ministry in Nagaland for the welfare of the Minorities in Nagaland.

11. Non-Naga married to a Naga of Nagaland and their descendents settled in Nagaland shall be considered Indigenous of Nagaland.

12. There shall be a separate Representative of the President of India in Nagaland designated as Governor-in-Chief and a Separate High Court for the State.

Thepfulhouvi Solo (On E-Mail)