By H. Srikanth
Exploring Nagaland and participating in the Hornbill Festival was on our bucket list for many years, and we were glad that we could make it this time. Apart from exploring Kohima and the surrounding villages, we spent the first three days in Kisama village where the festival was organized. Every year, the Hornbill Festival attracts thousands of Indian and foreign tourists. The festival could not happen last year because of the Covid Pandemic. Although this year the state government decided to resume the Hornbill Festival only a couple of months back, it attracted several tourists from different parts of India. All hotels were booked, most stay-homes around Kisama village were occupied; taxi drivers and shop owners were expecting good business. Although the Festival was primarily aimed at showcasing Naga history, folk culture and traditions to the outside world, we observed that all local people in Nagaland also owned the festival. Several entertainment and cultural activities were organized not only in Kohima, but also in other towns in Nagaland by different youth and civil society organizations. The local people were out in large numbers, strolling in illuminated night bazaars, selling, buying and eating street food.
As one who had seen some other such state festivals in the north-eastern states, I felt the Hornbill was organized in a more systematic way by the Tourism department in collaboration with other government and civil societies. There was bonhomie all around. The Hornbill Festival has the potential to promote and strengthen peace, understanding and harmony among different ethnic groups in Nagaland, and also between the Nagas and the rest of India. Unfortunately, all that festivity ended abruptly, once news of the killing of innocent Naga civilians in Mon district spread like wildfire and the Naga tribes started disassociating from the Hornbill in protest. The gory encounter has now become a rallying point for an organized political movement of the indigenous communities in the northeast to end the AFSPA regime.
The Nagas were the first in the northeast to experience the dark side of Indian democracy. The then nascent sovereign Indian State could not accept that a numerically insignificant, economically backward community in a remote corner of the country dared to express its reservations against joining the Indian Union. Indian government’s reluctance to abide by the Nine Point Agreement of 1947 and Nehru’s refusal to Naga National Council NNC’s demand for sovereign Nagaland led to the Naga resistance movement under the leadership of A.G. Phizo. Instead of continuing the negotiations to convince the Nagas, the Indian State deployed para-military forces and enacted black acts such as Armed Forces Special Powers (Assam and Manipur) Act, in short, AFSPA to quell the Naga resistance. But, far from suppressing the Naga insurgency, human rights’ violations carried out during the counter-insurgency operations united the Naga tribes and widened the support for the movement in other Naga inhabited areas.
The movement that started in the 1950s went through several ups and downs under different militant organizations and leaders in subsequent decades. Realizing that violence alone would not yield the intended results the Indian state created the Nagaland state in 1963, assuring autonomy through Article 371-A of the Indian Constitution, and sponsored development programs. Seven decades of Nagas’ uneasy relations with the Indian Union has created a section which no longer finds any merit in the idea of sovereign Nagalim. Corruption and factional fights among the Nagas did weaken the morale of the resistance movement to some extent. All these socio-economic changes did create the conditions for the latest round of peace negotiations.
Ever since the peace negotiations started in 1997 between the Indian State and the Naga rebels, law and order situation in Nagaland has improved considerably. Most Nagas reposed faith in the ongoing negotiations and believed that something acceptable to both the parties would emerge and establish permanent peace in the region. During this interlude, anti-Indian feelings which were rampant in the first three decades of Indian independence have considerably mellowed down. Many Nagas accept that they cannot completely sever their relations with India and seek independent Nagalim. Instead, the Naga groups are insisting more on greater autonomy and ethnic integration. These demands are no doubt complicated as they have implications for other states and communities in the region. Nevertheless, if the negotiating parties are sincere and reasonable, it is possible to arrive at a solution acceptable to all parties. But the delay in arriving at an acceptable solution is causing tensions among the Nagas, who started doubting the sincerity of the Indian government. What happened to the innocent local coal mine workers in Mon district only rekindled their fears and suspicions about the sincerity of the Indian State in finding a lasting solution to the Naga problem.
The incident is definitely shocking to the Nagas who were in the midst of the Hornbill Festival and looking forward to peaceful Christmas celebrations. The violence that followed the untoward incident was expected. However, one can see that the Nagas’ reactions this time is different. Unlike earlier times, the lead in mobilizing the people is not taken by any one leader or militant group. It is the civil society which reacted spontaneously and took the lead in channelizing public anger against the botched-up Army encounter. The Naga civil society confronted the Assam Rifles not in remote jungles, but right at the heart of the town amidst glaring eyes of the media – local and national. This Naga civil society could be blackmailed by the national digital channels which, left to themselves, would love to paint all dead Naga coal mine workers as terrorists and even Chinese agents. When confronted by the jingoist media obsessed only with national security, the Naga civil society does not blink even for a second to express their admiration for the militant leaders whom they consider as their national heroes. The Nagas may have problems with their own militant groups, but they do consider them as part of their community, and not treat them as terrorist or anti-national groups. One only has to see what is written on the memorials erected in Khonoma and Kohima to understand the respect that the Nagas have for the militant leaders who fought for the cause of the Nagas.
The present phase of peace negotiations became possible not only because the governments and the militant groups wanted it, but also because of the pressure from the Naga civil society. The civil society has emerged as a force to reckon with, alongside governments and militant groups. Any attempt to provoke and antagonise civil society would be disastrous. Even at a time when the Nagas had limited resources, they withstood the onslaught of the military and paramilitary forces and dared to challenge the Indian State. The Nagas of today are more educated and resourceful than what they were in the 1950s and 60s. They cannot be led or misled by any leader, government or media house. The emerging Naga civil society organisations are aware of the changes taking place within and outside the Naga world, and ready to listen and accommodate. But they accept nothing under duress, at the cost of the Naga pride and Naga interests.
India can win the trust of the Nagas through dialogue, reason, development, mutual trust and emotional bonding. Military operations and draconian acts like AFSPA have become redundant in the changed circumstances. It is high time the Indian Army, the central government, the ruling party and the media learnt to deal with the Nagas in mature and responsible ways. (The writer teaches Political Science in NEHU, Shillong. Email: [email protected])