Dialogue  April-June 2008 , Volume 9 No. 4

North-East Scan

A Spurt in Terrorist Mayhem

D.N. Bezboruah*

 In the Northeast – especially in Assam – it is now the season of blood and rain. And not all the rain seems enough to wash out the blood spilled by terrorists. After all, another killing field called the North Cachar Hills district (or NC Hills for short) has emerged with another terrorist outfit — the Jewel Gorlosa faction of the Dima Halam Daogah (DHD) – sending chills down every spine. For some reason, the outfit is more popularly known as the Black Widow. In the first three months of 2008, the Black Widow terrorized the entire district and its neighbouring areas killing and kidnapping people at will. It evinced a special hostility to Railway employees, workers of the lone cement company of the district and workers of the power and highways sectors. It also targeted workers and truck drivers from mainland India. One clear impression that seems to have been created was that the Black Widow was totally opposed to the opening up of the district or any improvement in communications. It has been gunning down even the workers engaged in the widening of the national highway within the district.                 

     The temporary lull of April was shattered when on May 10 the Army attacked a Black Widow base and killed a few of their rebels. The State police put the number at six, but the Black Widow claimed that 12 of its men had been killed and several injured. The outfit decided to retaliate at once, and even if it could not take on the Army, it killed 22 innocent people, including 10 railway men and an equal number of truck drivers and their assistants in a series of attacks in the next few days. The four truck drivers and their six assistants were lined up and shot, in a style reminiscent of the days of militancy in Punjab. None of them were combatants; none of them had any connections with the Army.            

    Then, quite inexplicably, on May 19, the DHD (J) offered a ceasefire that was to extend until June 25. Anywhere else, where the administration gives pragmatism too a thought in the handling of such situations, it might have sent out feelers and taken a day or two to find out exactly what the rebels had in mind in making the ceasefire offer. But here the government has always put ‘prestige’ over everything else in such matters, just as conducting the Independence Day and Republic Day ceremonies every year for the government officers alone (in defiance of the call of terrorist units of the State to the people to boycott these celebrations) has become a token of the government’s ‘prestige’. So, on May 20, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi ordered intensified operations against the Black Widow and assured journalists that the suspended train and road services in the NC Hills would be resumed within two days under tight security. He promised armed escort vehicles to trucks and said there would be a bullet-proof compartment for security personnel on trains plying in that area! Truck operators have, however, refused to operate in the area unless the State government pays Rs 10 lakh as compensation to each of the families of the dead truck drivers and assistants and Rs 1 lakh to those injured. The railway employees too have been demanding compensation for the casualties suffered at the hands of the Black Widow. It is not difficult to see that the DHD(G) had very little choice except to end its murderous activities because of the public hostility building up against it. In addition to the truckers, the Railways had suspended train services and evacuated more than 1,200 of its employees from 13 railway stations in two special trains. Food became scarce very quickly, and the people mounted pressure on the Black Widow to see reason. Obviously, the Black Widow had to make the best of a bad situation by declaring a unilateral ceasefire. One reason for the ceasefire should be clear from the fact that the outfit also appealed to the Railways to resume train services.                                                

    There has been virtually no government response to the very serious breakdown of law and order in NC Hills beyond empty promises of security to truckers and the Railways. No minister or bureaucrat has visited the affected areas. Nor have police officers toured the trouble spots to assess the situation for themselves rather than depending entirely on the reports of their subordinates. These days, police officers are unable to take a single step unless their own security arrangements are totally water-tight. What security can they possibly offer to the people? What horrified the people no end was the announcement of Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on May 20 that his government had decided to set up a 1000-strong auxiliary battalion comprising former militants. In other words, he plans to set a thief to catch a thief. In a State where terrorism has been turned into an industry, such bizarre initiatives are no better than hara-kiri.

      Since social and economic factors provide a strong motivation for terrorism, it is bound to find its best soil in undeveloped regions, States with a very high rate of unemployment, glaring disparities of income and a festering sense of social injustice. The future face of terrorism – criminal terrorism – is already visible in the Northeast. Mr Jayanta Rangpi, CPI(ML) leader of NC Hills, keeps saying that the main cause of the turmoil in NC Hills and its contiguous district of Karbi-Anglong is the apathy of the government towards the two-decades-old aspirations of the people of these districts for an autonomous State. In the first place, one is not sure whether he is talking of the aspirations of the people or of political leaders of these districts like himself and veteran Congress leader G. C. Langthasa who are known to be fabulously rich and extremely powerful. Secondly, what is the country going to gain from yet another splintering of Assam that will give rise to another autonomous State that can never be economically viable, given the concern of the leaders of the autonomous council for their own coffers rather than the development of the districts? Assam Health Minister and government spokesman Himanta Biswa Sarma recently alleged that three ruling members of the council — chief executive member Debulal Hojai, executive member Mohit Hojai and former MP Prakanta Warisa –have close links with the militants. They are believed to be responsible for diverting government funds meant for the council to militant outfits through two contractors. There is also the inconvenient fact that Debulal Hojai is related to Niranjan Hojai, commander-in-chief of the other faction of the DHD known as DHD(J). He said that the government had decided to act against those with specific charges and to constitute a commission of inquiry to get to the bottom of the truth. Warisa denies these charges as well as charges about his links with the NSCN(I-M) of neighbouring Nagaland. He points out that he lost the last Assembly elections to Congress veteran G. C. Langthasa whose method of winning elections with the help of the rebels is well known. Mr Himanta Biswa Sarma denies this charge saying that a man who had lost two of his sons to militants and whose family is under constant threat from the rebels, could not possibly have anything to do with militants. But one can never be sure. Mr Sarma could be getting the cause-and-effect sequence wrong. He could also have overlooked the equations of broken promises and vendetta.                                                        

     Whatever may be the ultimate fallout of the unchecked experiments with criminal terrorism in the Northeast masquerading as ‘insurgency’, the  bottom line is that the government’s failure to deal with it firmly – despite having a unified command structure of administration with the Army as a partner and a former lieutenant general as Governor of the State – will tell heavily on the survival of the Northeast as an integral part of India. It is also bound to tell on the ethos of coming generations that are taking to violence and benign abductions as legitimate ways of making a living. Not to speak of demolishing every nexus of politicians with militants, punishing those who use militants to grind their own axes and launching full-scale counter-insurgency operations against the Black Widow, the government has not even outlawed this terrorist outfit. The next attack of the Black Widow – after its self-imposed ceasefire – is bound to be bloodier and far more spine-chilling. And it is going to remain confined to soft targets. And that’s the rub. After all, no one is likely to shed any tears over what one terrorist outfit does to another – as in the case of the 12 NSCN (Unification) rebels being gunned down by the NSCN (I-M) in a clash at Dimapur on May 16. But the government has a duty to protect civilians from the terrorist outfits that are indirectly the creation of our politicians.

North-East Scan

India's North East: One Script, Many Actors

Patricia Mukhim*

In what could be a bizarre response to the problem of security in Manipur, the State government is now arming citizens, Salva Judum style. Then the Director General of Police, Manipur makes a statement that the special police force (SPO) is being recruited and provided with arms would also be used fight militants. This has caught the villages of Heirok who clamoured for arms to defend themselves, on a back-flip. They deny that they ever said they would fight militants. They only wanted to defend themselves. This is the drama in Manipur, the script for which is cleverly crafted by the State. In fact so contorted is this drama that even the great dramatist of our times, Ratan Thiyam would wince at its murderous intent.

      In the North Cachar Hills of Assam, the Dima Halam Daogah (DHD) faction led by Jewel Gorlosa massacred innocent truck drivers and railway employees. From the look of things citizens are completely helpless and are increasingly having to depend on their own wits for survival. In a retaliatory action the trucks and railways suspended their services to North Cachar Hills thus resulting in food scarcity. Then in a sharp turnaround and as if the macabre massacre was just a bad dream the DHD (J) says it will lift its ban on the East-West corridor and gauge conversion programme to ostensibly, “give peace a chance”. Anyone who keeps track of these statements and counter statements would not fail to trace the deranged nature of the militant’s mind or the infantile expressions of their stances.

     Switch the lenses to Arunachal Pradesh where the script has been written and the drama  ready to be enacted. The appointment of a retired general as governor is no accident. With so many politically incorrect statements being spouted out by China over Arunachal Pradesh and with the ULFA and NSCN making that State its safe corridor into the dragon country and into Myanmar, it would sound illogical not to have a unified command for counter insurgency operations which are spill-overs from two other states. Never mind if Arunachal Pradesh is an otherwise peaceful state.

       Assam, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh require additional reinforcements of central security forces because the police are seen as having failed to contain violence. The North Eastern states are therefore depending more and more on the Centre to manage the violence in their backyards. Such demands for central intervention to maintain law and order are articulated at seminars and workshops. At a recent seminar in Shillong attended by the usual suspects- retired security personnel, retired civil servants and academicians mostly Delhi-based and presumably ‘knowledgeable’, a young official from the Ministry of External Affairs, said, “I am surprised that responsible politicians are so keen to pass over to Delhi even state subjects like law and order”. This was in response to the plea of a former chief Minister of Manipur demanding the early setting up of the National Highway Protection Force, a centrally funded force, to guard the vulnerable national highway 39. The official was verbally lynched for his tongue in cheek  assertion. No one in the past had spoken so unequivocally. The official hit the bull’s eye but people so used to self flagellation, winced.

      The MEA guy was also puzzled at the continued whining of “Delhi treats North East like a step sister and mainland India does not understand North East”, in all seminars he has attended. He said that the poor mainland Indian was paying taxes to pump money to the North East so where was the alienation? I believe we could do with such straight talking, unpalatable though it may sound!

    In the last two decades, North East India has featured very prominently in the radar of the Planning Commission and other ministries. These have set aside handsome amounts for “holding seminars, workshops and discussions on the North East”, essentially for Delhi to feel the pulse of the NE in the right place and not grope around for the wrong pressure points, but actually to pamper the region. Now this patronage has resulted in the proliferation of a host of NGOs with Manipur leading the way. Almost every house has a sign board for an NGO. Sometimes the same board has names of two different NGOs on either side. The right side or wrong side is displayed depending upon who comes to visit.

     These days getting funds from national and international funding agencies has become easy. You only have to state the extent of the problem and they are there to assist. Most funding agencies have no time to physically monitor projects in which they invest. They are as bad as the Planning Commission when it comes to monitoring. What these international NGOs want are glossy reports with photographs so that they can convince their donors that the dollars and euros are well spent. Everybody’s troubled conscience is assuaged and we are all back to business as usual. United Nations agencies like the IFAD which send their mission teams repeatedly to evaluate projects and do course corrections are not very much appreciated. But IFAD is one agency that believes in getting value for money and to wrest out more unintended benefits if possible.  

     Today there are no dearth of North Easterners criss-crossing the corridors of power in Delhi. Getting funds for any project is no problem. And if you are looking at the North East as a problem region you are in the right place. There are as many problems as there are people here and as many insurgent outfits as there are ethnic groups. The Centre has been particularly generous with funds to NGOs who espouse the cause of peace and conflict resolution. In recent times we have shifted to “development discourses” and there is money to be made from this theme too. So who says that the North East is a region of problems? On the contrary, this region provides immense opportunities for personal growth.

     You could claim to be an interlocutor for this group and that group. You could profess to be a peace activist or a development worker stepping in where the State has failed. You could even claim to have both an inside and a ringside view of the security situation in the region and be smoothly co-opted on board the numerous committees and commissions. Since Delhi is by and large ignorant of the real and imagined problems in this region anyone who speaks knowledgeably is an asset in whom the State readily invests.

       Sadly all this is ghettoizing the North East. In the process the large majority of well meaning individuals who live simple lives are being caricatured as spineless nincompoops. We have been lumbered with a particularly unflattering reputation of swallowing up development funds faster than a python does its prey. Truly, this calls for serious introspection. We need to know whose tune we are dancing to and who are the puppet masters pulling the strings. 

 North-East Scan

Arms and the Ordinary Man

Pradip Phanjoubam*

 The Manipur government has gone ahead with the dangerous idea of militarising civil society. In a cabinet decision which will go down in the place’s history either as a necessary but bitter pill, or else as a blundering act aimed at encouraging lynch mob psychology, chief minister Okram Ibobi and his ministers have decided to arm citizens embittered by the atrocities of various militant organisations.

According to official reports, 300 volunteers would be recruited from Heirok village about 30 km from Imphal, and another 200 recruited from Lilong Chajing, about 15 km from Imphal. The volunteers would be given .303 rifles and paid Rs 3000 monthly stipend plus allowances, and put under the supervision of the Manipur police.

The two villages have been witness to unprecedented public outrage over unprovoked killings by militants during March and April, and have been demanding arms from the government to fight back future assaults. Official indications are, more villages have already been short listed to be similarly armed.

It is too early to predict what history’s verdict would be, whether it ultimately is seen as a final reckoning, when those who have taken the public so much for granted, are paid back in the same coin, or else the decision becomes the last straw in the slide towards the ultimate brutalization of a society already on the verge of insanity.

For the sake of the future of the place, Okram Ibobi better be absolutely sure of what he is doing. One also hopes he is doing all this of his own independent will, informed only by a reasoned determination to make all necessary moves within his command to resolve a vexing problem threatening to destroy the place. By this one also implies one    hopes equally earnestly this decision was not prompted by a weak leader’s desperate need to put up a tough front to hide failings, or to show “results” in his report card to his bosses.

It is true that a large section of the public are also in two minds on the matter betraying the complex feelings they have towards the place’s slide to madness. Ordinary peace loving men and women, much as they hate violence, have also come to equally hate the lawlessness in which they have always ended up as bully victims. But while the vacillation on their part reflects an understandable human dilemma, those who have anointed themselves as leaders of society are supposed to be above this.

One thing is for sure, here is a clear admission by default that these leaders have not performed their duty of providing security to life and property of the state’s citizens and now they want to “outsource” this onerous responsibility to the embittered public.

The word “outsource” in this age of globalization, is current and in vogue. Not many in Manipur are unaware of how many jobs BPOs (Business Process Outsourcing) in various metropolises, and some even in Imphal, have given young educated job seekers from the state. But in the case of the Manipur government, this understanding is being given a very ironic twist. Indeed, without being aware of it, and before globalization and the BPO business began making an impact, Manipur has been by compulsion breathing this spirit for a long time.

The joke is, for the ordinary citizen in this beleaguered state, if he or she wants constant electricity, she would have to buy a generator. If she wants eggs for breakfast, she better keep a coop full of poultry at home; if she is fond of milk, think of raising a milch cow; if she does not want to run out of water, keep a pond to harvest rainwater; and now, if she wants security, the government’s advice is, she must keep lethal weapons at home and learn to kill. An absurd theatre no doubt, but this is Manipur’s reality.

It is a world in which a profound “absence” (of a government) has become the defining criterion of law.

Manipur has come to this desperate juncture in its history, but not without reason. Unfortunately, the lesson seems to be still bouncing off the hides of those who should have imbibed it more than anybody else. The arrogant and intoxicating sense of power that possession of lethal arms gives those who lack the discipline to handle arms, still is evident in the many death threats and intimidations still being hurled at individuals and institutions.

Under the circumstance, especially against the backdrop of the spiritual absence of a government, such a cataclysm as the state is heading towards is only natural. This is the bitter-sweet story of a people left to fend for themselves and do a vital job that should have been the sole responsibility of the government. One hopes this story has a happy ending, and from the foreseeable fire ahead, emerges a purged and purified new collective self of the harangued Manipur society. If it does not, no amount of the fabled ministerial wealth will be able to buy Ibobi out of history’s damnation.

Civilians as Combatants

     Heirok and Lilong Chajing, are two immediate demonstrations that legitimacy of the establishment, or more pertinently its challengers, cannot be sustained by appeals to nationalism alone, whatever hue that nationalism is of. In the end, the only lasting legitimacy of any establishment or its challengers will have to rest on the ability to qualify these legitimacy appeals with actual guarantees of quality of life.

So if arbitrary executions, detention, intimidations, murders by mistake, etc, are sought to be justified in the name of upholding nationalism, or dismissed as collateral damage in this war, the only casualty ultimately would be the awe with which the same brand of nationalism is held by the public.

Interestingly, it is Manipur more than anywhere else, which has seen the public saying no to these “nationalistic” atrocities regardless of which side of the battlefront the atrocities are committed from. In this sense, it would not be very wrong to say that the show of public outrage at the sudden spurt of midnight arrests and executions in 2004 (the final victim being Thangjam Manorama), marked by the naked protest in front of the Kangla while it was still occupied by the Assam Rifles, and the defiant stance at Heirok and Lilong Chajing today, where the public are actually ready to go to war over unwarranted killings by militants, tell the same story.

What we are witnessed to in either case is plain and raw public anger on display. The question is whether any government is warranted to give official sanction to expressions of raw public anger, however justified that anger is, instead of attempting to channel the same outrage into established institutional expressions. Wouldn’t this amount to a return to medieval justice, where public stoning to death, lynching, maiming etc, had official sanction?                                                                        The policy of arming willing civil population in insurgency situation is not altogether without precedence though. The experiment is currently being carried out in Chhattisgarh to combat the rising threat of Maoist insurgency. Much before this, Manipur was witness to another incarnation of the same policy in the shape of the Village Voluntary Force, VVF, founded by a towering figure, Major Bob Khathing, a highly decorated soldier and administrator in British India as well as independent India, and a minister in the first Manipur cabinet, while it was still a sovereign state and after the Manipur constitution came into force and the kingdom transitioned into a constitutional monarchy.                       Major Khathing’s VVF was founded to resist the Japanese onslaught into Ukhrul district from Burma during the World War II, and leading from the front he demonstrated how potent such a force can be. The VVF survived long after the war and were again put into action during the heights of Naga insurrection. While the force was known as VVF in the Manipur hills, it was named Village Guards, VG, in the erstwhile Naga Hill district of Assam. Most of the VVF volunteers in later years were to be absorbed into the Central government establishment, Special Service Bureau, SSB.

Although the VVF’s role in these projects is known (www.manipurpolice.org), it is arguable if it has been of any help in bringing about a final resolution, considering that insurrections in Nagaland and Manipur are still far from over. The extent to which violence and militarization have taken roots in these societies is also for anybody to see.

Beyond the ethics of the development, there is another complication obfuscating the debate. This new war has an added incentive. In one go, 500 low salary (not so by Manipur market standard) jobs have been created, and in a job famished state, it will not be a surprise at all if there are more villages in the future clamouring for the benefits of the new policy to be extended to them as well. Much of the outrage such as those witnessed in Heirok and Lilong would then have acquired a mercenary hue. The depth to which violence would have sunk into the soul of the place is for anybody to imagine. The distinction between combatants and civilians too would have considerably blurred.

Nagaland –A politics gone awry

Patricia Mary Mukhim

There is no respite to the blood-letting in Nagaland. The more strident the call for unity and reconciliation among the NSCN factions, the fiercer the acrimony gets. There is something truly indefinable about Naga politics. There are too many scripts and one too many scriptwriters, each with their agenda. Naturally the actors who play out their script cannot be blamed. The battle is no longer about sovereignty. It is about control over dwindling resources because that has become an end in itself.
News that NSCN(IM) Chairman Isak Swu and NSCN chief SS Khaplang have broken the vow of silence after twenty years might sound like music to the ears of the simplistic who believe that unity among Nagas will solve all problems. But Khaplang is inscrutable while Swu a simple God fearing Naga who believes what he says. How a conversation between two incongruous minds, however historical the event is for Nagas, can be expected to bring to an end the bitter intra-Naga feuds is unfathomable but that is what has become the raison d’ etre of the Naga struggle for a homeland.
It is ironic that a unification move has only led to the emergence of a third faction in the NSCN – under a new suffix the NSCN (U). The suffix of alphabets to the NSCN nomenclature without in any way reducing differences does not bode well for the Naga people. For the common man the desire for a normal life where the pursuit of livelihood is not in any way hindered by abnormal circumstances is an aspiration. Whether this desire for normalcy can be called ‘peace’ or simply the ‘absence of violence’ is immaterial. In many tribal societies we do not have a single word for peace, nor do we understand the ‘word’ peace as it is dialectically propounded by western societies. The lack of appropriate vocabulary in tribal dialect has made us subservient to western thought and philosophies, very often at the cost of our own native wisdom.
Americanism and its influence on Naga social behaviour and political ideology is tremendous. The raucous war cry of “Nagaland for Christ’ first articulated by the NSCN (IM) would make any observer believe, especially in today’s context, that Christ advocates fratricide, extortion (which is nothing but the use of unholy means to a perceived noble end), terror, violence and revenge. That Christianity, known for its pacifist goals, has failed to make any impression at all in Nagaland is evident. At one time the church could be expected to call upon the warring cadres to exercise restraint. But now even that has petered out into the stillness of an undisguised loss of authority. Is this because there is a glaring gap between what church leaders preach and what they practice?
It would be difficult today to unravel the true ideological moorings of the Naga people. Not that it is an easy matter to comprehend what sixteen tribes consider their way of life. But an attempt can be made to see how, before the advent of Christianity, the Naga people resolved differences. Were they always a marauding tribe? Were they part of a belief system that endorses the coercive practices of extortion which in very simple terms is nothing but forcibly taking away somebody else’s hard earned money? The justification has always been, “we are looting the corrupt so no one should feel the pain”. Extortion is a euphemism for stealing, except that the thief then sprinkles holy water over his act to give it the seal of purification. Whether a person steals from a corrupt individual or from an honest man, his culpability is unquestioned. So when you consider the fact that all factions of the NSCN have pursued a morally wrong premise, then it is futile to hope that anything good can come out of that movement. The law of nature behaves the same way now as it did centuries ago. You cannot expect good out of an evil act. Yet you wonder how a people who wear Christianity like a badge of honour should violate its basic ethics without any qualms.
And what of the Indian state and its switchover to stand-by mode? There was never any doubt in anyone’s mind that the Indian state is a Machiavelli. Pitched against this astute giant with a 5000 year old history of civilization, the diminutive tribes of India’s North East naturally look like people from a different, less-endowed and less civilized planet. When such people assert their claims to anything at all, the superior power first condescendingly tells them they are wrong to speak about rights because after all the rights that they enjoy are bestowed upon them by the State. How does a hugely powerful country deal with its parts except to be paternalistic with them and to continually remind the parts that they are under obligation to it for all the benefaction?
Now if that does not work then the state uses the stick. But even the stick has only turned the parts much more belligerent. So the state adopts a third strategy which is to split the parts into smaller indistinguishable elements so that they undergo a mutation that defies any kind of naming and defining. While all these stratagems of statecraft are deployed those whose lives are thus controlled continue to act like robots mouthing out inanities that have actually lost meaning. As talks of peace reach a crescendo, more guns are smuggled in, each one more sophisticated than the next and with more fire power and accuracy, even while the church, the Naga Hoho and the host of Naga organizations watch in stupefied silence.
To add to the melee in Nagaland, Neiphiu Rio, the chief minister instead of getting into the act and putting a stop to the killings, has embarked instead on a new venture. His party the Nagaland People’s Front (NPF) has engaged the Marxists of Bengal to “integrate people from different social backgrounds in Nagaland into the party structure” Apparently, comrade Prakash Karat was ebullient that a remote north eastern ‘Christian’ state should now desire the services of a party that is inherently communist in approach.
The strong-arm tactics of the CPM cadres is part of the history of West Bengal. That is how they have retained their bastion. Is this what Neiphiu Rio wants to replicate? An uninterrupted rule of the NPF? Nagaland is not Bengal where people still use stones and sticks, a la Nandigram, to settle political scores. This is real gun country. People use the gun to send chilling messages to rivals and opponents. So before long, anyone with a different ideology or a voice of dissent could very easily be eliminated. It’s quite a scary situation. But that is the direction in which things are moving and there is not even a squeak from the otherwise politically savvy civil society.

 

North-East scan

Nagaland –A politics gone awry

Patricia Mary Mukhim

There is no respite to the blood-letting in Nagaland. The more strident the call for unity and reconciliation among the NSCN factions, the fiercer the acrimony gets. There is something truly indefinable about Naga politics. There are too many scripts and one too many scriptwriters, each with their agenda. Naturally the actors who play out their script cannot be blamed. The battle is no longer about sovereignty. It is about control over dwindling resources because that has become an end in itself.

    News that NSCN(IM) Chairman Isak Swu and NSCN chief SS Khaplang have broken the vow of silence after twenty years might sound like music to the ears of the simplistic who believe that unity among Nagas will solve all problems. But Khaplang is inscrutable while Swu a simple God fearing Naga who believes what he says. How a conversation between two incongruous minds, however historical the event is for Nagas, can be expected to bring to an end the bitter intra-Naga feuds is unfathomable but that is what has become the raison d’ etre of the Naga struggle for a homeland.

      It is ironic that a unification move has only led to the emergence of a third faction in the NSCN – under a new suffix the NSCN (U). The suffix of alphabets to the NSCN nomenclature without in any way reducing differences does not bode well for the Naga people. For the common man the desire for a normal life where the pursuit of livelihood is not in any way hindered by abnormal circumstances is an aspiration. Whether this desire for normalcy can be called ‘peace’ or simply the ‘absence of violence’ is immaterial. In many tribal societies we do not have a single word for peace, nor do we understand the ‘word’ peace as it is dialectically propounded by western societies. The lack of appropriate vocabulary in tribal dialect has made us subservient to western thought and philosophies, very often at the cost of our own native wisdom.

       Americanism and its influence on Naga social behaviour and political ideology is tremendous. The raucous war cry of “Nagaland for Christ’ first articulated by the NSCN (IM) would make any observer believe, especially in today’s context, that Christ advocates fratricide, extortion (which is nothing but the use of unholy means to a perceived noble end), terror, violence and revenge. That Christianity, known for its pacifist goals, has failed to make any impression at all in Nagaland is evident. At one time the church could be expected to call upon the warring cadres to exercise restraint. But now even that has petered out into the stillness of an undisguised loss of authority. Is this because there is a glaring gap between what church leaders preach and what they practice?

      It would be difficult today to unravel the true ideological moorings of the Naga people. Not that it is an easy matter to comprehend what sixteen tribes consider their way of life. But an attempt can be made to see how, before the advent of Christianity, the Naga people resolved differences. Were they always a marauding tribe? Were they part of a belief system that endorses the coercive practices of extortion which in very simple terms is nothing but forcibly taking away somebody else’s hard earned money? The justification has always been, “we are looting the corrupt so no one should feel the pain”. Extortion is a euphemism for stealing, except that the thief then sprinkles holy water over his act to give it the seal of purification. Whether a person steals from a corrupt individual or from an honest man, his culpability is unquestioned. So when you consider the fact that all factions of the NSCN have pursued a morally wrong premise, then it is futile to hope that anything good can come out of that movement. The law of nature behaves the same way now as it did centuries ago. You cannot expect good out of an evil act. Yet you wonder how a people who wear Christianity like a badge of honour should violate its basic ethics without any qualms.

        And what of the Indian state and its switchover to stand-by mode? There was never any doubt in anyone’s mind that the Indian state is a Machiavelli. Pitched against this astute giant with a 5000 year old history of civilization, the diminutive tribes of India’s North East naturally look like people from a different, less-endowed and less civilized planet. When such people assert their claims to anything at all, the superior power first condescendingly tells them they are wrong to speak about rights because after all the rights that they enjoy are bestowed upon them by the State. How does a hugely powerful country deal with its parts except to be paternalistic with them and to continually remind the parts that they are under obligation to it for all the benefaction?

       Now if that does not work then the state uses the stick. But even the stick has only turned the parts much more belligerent. So the state adopts a third strategy which is to split the parts into smaller indistinguishable elements so that they undergo a mutation that defies any kind of naming and defining. While all these stratagems of statecraft are deployed those whose lives are thus controlled continue to act like robots mouthing out inanities that have actually lost meaning. As talks of peace reach a crescendo, more guns are smuggled in, each one more sophisticated than the next and with more fire power and accuracy, even while the church, the Naga Hoho and the host of Naga organizations watch in stupefied silence.

     To add to the melee in Nagaland, Neiphiu Rio, the chief minister instead of getting into the act and putting a stop to the killings, has embarked instead on a new venture. His party the Nagaland People’s Front (NPF) has engaged the Marxists of Bengal to “integrate people from different social backgrounds in Nagaland into the party structure” Apparently, comrade Prakash Karat was ebullient that a remote north eastern ‘Christian’ state should now desire the services of a party that is inherently communist in approach.

       The strong-arm tactics of the CPM cadres is part of the history of West Bengal. That is how they have retained their bastion. Is this what Neiphiu Rio wants to replicate? An uninterrupted rule of the NPF? Nagaland is not Bengal where people still use stones and sticks, a la Nandigram, to settle political scores. This is real gun country. People use the gun to send chilling messages to rivals and opponents. So before long, anyone with a different ideology or a voice of dissent could very easily be eliminated. It’s quite a scary situation. But that is the direction in which things are moving and there is not even a squeak from the otherwise politically savvy civil society. 

North-East Scan 

Naga mind must match Naga goal

Charles Chasie*

It has always been politically correct to talk “reconciliation”, “peace”

and “unity” in the Naga context. What is different this time is that more Naga people are talking about them more loudly than ever before. The big question is whether the time is ripening enough for reconciliation to take place and effect a final acceptable and workable solution of the Naga Issue.

       The biggest enemy of reconciliation and a final solution to the Naga Issue, especially since the early 1980s, has been the inability of Naga factional leaders to accommodate each other – in the late 1950s and 1960s, it was more about Overground and Underground division and how to bring them together. While everyone aspired for the best for Naga society, most factional leaders also wanted reconciliation and

solution according to their terms, with only themselves sitting at the negotiation table. This has frequently led to removing fellow ideological comrades across the factional divide, including assassinating and eliminating them, even while ‘shaking hands’ with ideological enemies, for short-term gains. How contradictory and self-defeating such thinking and actions have been has never been discussed in Naga Society as everyone was fearful of everyone else. It became a case where most Nagas were talking freedom in fear! 

    What could be some of the hurdles Nagas have collectively experienced in their recent past history and which still stand in the way? 

i)  In the name of culture and traditions, the level of Naga thinking failed to rise much beyond our tribes and ‘village republics’. Partly this was because our people didn’t know any better and these represent the only fall-back option. And because our ‘identity’ is

so closely bonded with them, few would dare to stray from the beaten path; those who tried to do so either got lost or their ideas were usually discounted within their own tribe communities – “This is not our/Naga culture” is usually reason enough to close arguments and, by default, to discourage new thinking within tribe communities. While there is much wisdom and security to be found in the tribe traditions and culture, these sometimes became “comfort zones” which prevented our people from further growth and breaking new paths to the future. The negative aspects of our practice of tribalism are a ready example.                                                                          

   ii)  In the backdrop of recent Naga political history, especially where it concerns the bonding and cementing of our different tribes into a people, there has been very little tolerance and accommodation of one another. Admittedly, Naga Nationalism launched Naga Peoplehood. But soon, Naga Nationalism also became the primary cause of tearing asunder the fabric of the emerging Naga Peoplehood. Naga Nationalism was a right and bold initiative as a response to the demands of the time. It needed to be matched with equally bold and imaginative thinking. This failed because our people failed to adequately appreciate the fact that we had taken upon ourselves the task of attempting to accelerate the process of change and moving the Naga people into the future. Our thinking failed to match our stated goal. While talking Naga freedom and sovereignty, our thinking and actions have always been moved by tribe and community value systems and considerations. So far, it has resulted in Naga failure to give themselves a fair chance to make their peoplehood work.

   iii)    After so many decades of relentless violence in society, and with no assessment of such possible impacts on society by Nagas, the Naga people, apparently, are unable to move forward. Reconstruction and Rehabilitation, two vital areas that could tremendously help the Nagas and Naga society, are tragically considered by Nagas only from an economic/developmental angle. Without an adequate and objective understanding/appreciation of the impacts of prolonged/entrenched violence on communities and society, healing, reconciliation and restoration are made more difficult. Unity and Peace can only be the ‘fruits’!

    There are, however, certain signs of hope in recent times despite continued and even escalating violence and killings between factions. One says this with some trepidation but considering the trends rather than actual happenings which are gloomy. So, what could these signs of hope be?

i)   Talks of Reconciliation, Unity and Peace have become louder with the public, apparently, no more throttled by the numbing “fear psychosis” that was normal just a few years ago. The Naga public is now beginning to speak out its mind openly and acting according to their conscience, including “chasing” the violent factional elements from their areas. This is not to say that the Naga public, per se, should oppose the factions. The point is since the factions claim to represent the Naga people and to be fighting for Naga nationalism, they ought to listen to the people who, in turn, should voice their opinions and act without fear or favour and in the interest of the collective welfare of all the Nagas. The chief minister has also announced his own resolve to forgive those who had tried to snuff out his life pre-maturely.

ii)  There are signs of Naga intellectuals and church leaders giving their determined focus on the subject of Reconciliation. One of the most complete and satisfying treatise on Reconciliation, in the Naga context, was given by Dr Wati Aier at the recent Naga Hoho general session at Peren, on May 30, titled, “A Campaign for a Common Voice Among the Nagas”. The press is often accused of sensationalism and selective indignation. Dr Aier’s paper talks about the Church’s generally “selective … and biased morality” and “structural and institutionalized sins” which are destroying the Nagas. He also comes down heavily on Naga political leaders of various hues who would quite happily interprete the Bible (St Paul’s Messages) according to what is convenient to them! Reconciliation does not mean Compromise or having to submit to the will of powerful, rich or even majority view – there would be no healing then. The paper deserves to be studied and deliberated upon at various fora of the Naga public. As a start, various church bodies ought to create opportunities/platforms for such discussion – if not this (healing, restoration and salvation) what is the role of the Churches in Nagaland?! One would like to suggest that those committed to Reconciliation may, with permission, even print the paper and give it out to people to read and reflect upon – at least the church bodies could do this and distribute to students in educational institutions. When a settlement comes, as come it must, reconciliation, or at least forgiveness, will be needed for it to work – even if this only means Nagas arriving at Ground Level Zero, hopefully, on a clean slate!

iii) It is heartening to read in the newspapers that the Overground politicians, in the form of the State Government’s Peace Affairs Committee (PAC), have begun meeting with the Underground factions and that the PAC has a programme to meet with all the factions. What this means is as yet too not clear. But one would like to read the best interpretation and take it to mean the beginning of bridging of the ideological divide in Naga Society following the 16-Point Agreement of 1960. The PAC’s task is unenviable as they have to not only cross their own ideological divide but also try to bring the warring factions to the negotiation table with themselves and further “facilitating” or creating agreeable conditions for settlement of the Naga Issue with the Government of India – How these will all work out is not clear unless Naga emotions, and ideological compromises, will help pave the way! What will further exasperate the efforts of the PAC, because it will be the most difficult, will be to bring all the factions to the negotiation table for without it the only result can be another Shillong Accord, with possible worse consequences. Even more, the PAC/State Government, and those interested in finding a settlement of the Naga Issue, will have to reach out to our neighbours in the NE for without this the Naga Issue cannot be settled to Naga satisfaction. The PAC, and Nagaland Government, will require much prayer support!

      Ultimately, it will all come back to reconciliation, healing and a mindset that will match the goal of Naga Peoplehood, as opposed to Naga Nationalism and Sovereignty. Naga peoplehood belongs to all Nagas. All Nagas must have a say in their collective future. Neither can anyone usher in the Future when such efforts are still dictated by the Past! Trying to do the impossible can only hurt oneself and complicate our situation in the long run, as indeed it has already. What is required, from all indications, is for each tribe and Nagas as a whole to work out an adequate framework of our peoplehood, late as it is. Only then Nagas may begin to build a proper ‘working’ society for themselves!