An Indian village that saw the domestication of one of the world’s oldest rebellions
Last week, a helicopter appeared above the green, rolling hills of Ukhrul in India’s northern state of Maripur.
By the time he touched down at the Somyal helipad outside Comdal Village, the crowd had started chanting. When the door opened, the crowd was heading towards a frail man with dark glasses and a black robe. Soon, they wrapped him in a traditional hut.
After more than half a century, thuingaleng Muivah, India’s oldest, came home.
Now 91, Mr Muivah is the General Secretary of the National Council of Socialium of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah), or NSCN (IM), today the organization is often considered as its shadow.
His supporters see him as the custodian of India’s quest never realized – the unique nature of the Naga people. His critics remember something else: the movement is accused of killings against him and he runs the same government in Nagaland by using “taxes” many calls to report – allegations NSCN (IM) denies.
Nagaland, a large Christian state wedged between Myanmar and Bangladesh, is home to people spread across neighboring Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and ASSAMS. Mauivah wants full sovereignty or “greater Nagaland” including Nagas covering all borders, especially in Manipur.
Mauivah himself was born in Manipur – a reminder that Naga identity extends far beyond the borders of Nagaland.
This was his second attempt to return home – the first, in 2010, was blocked by the government of Manipur, citing security concerns. When he finally started to get his wife back last week, almost the whole village gathered to welcome Avakharari – “Old Father”, as they call him. Among them was the only survivor, the child of Asui Muiva, who is 84.
“Generations come and go, but this tribe lives with the voice of his deputy, Atem, as he is too weak to speak for himself. “The argument we are fighting for is greater and less than ours.”
Muivah had left this same Hillside home in 1964, Trekking East to join the Naga struggle for sovereignty – a journey that took him to the jungles of Northern MYANMAR, dialogue camps in Delhi China and dialogue talks in Delhi.
After leaving the forests due to the ceasefire in 1997, Muivah lives in Delhi and in a camp in Hebron in Nagaland, which serves as signs proclaiming, “Freedom is looking at the signs of the birth of all nations”.
“His return to his hometown is a political one – driven by a long stint at home. His calls for the nagar flag
The Naga Struggle Divides India itself. In 1918, to bring back the World War of the People’s workers who work in the Naga Club to emphasize a different identity. When India gained independence in 1947, the Naga leaders refused to join the new republic, declaring, “We are not Indians”, and we had their Indians”, and we had an unknown Plebiscite on independence in 1951.
As the armed conflict began to intensify, the Indian government sent in troops in 1955. What followed were decades of agitation, intellectual breakdown and resignation. Rebellion claimed thousands of lives, generations undone and hills shaped by resentment.
Political scientist Sanjib Barib Baruah, “we are in the middle of an old but still very cold armed movement.”
Muivah was born in March 1935 in Somdal, where his family lived. Educated at a local Christian school, he was initially drawn to reformist ideas and Naga nationalism.
In his youth, Muivah was a nationalist court, singing “God bless my Nagaland” in school and asking his people why they were “humiliated” under the colonial government. After studying at St Anthony’s College in Shillong and studying Marx, Hegel and Rousseau, he joined the Naga National Council (NNC) – the first political organization of Nagas seeking independence in India – in 1964.
People remove the Naga flag – a symbol of an unfulfilled political dream – as they await Muivah’s arrival last week [AP]
Two years later, 31-year-old Mauivah joined more than 130 turillas on a 97-day journey through the forests of Northern Myanmar in Yournanmar Province to Yunnan. “We carried our rice and slept on the grass when it was clear,” he said in a 1998 interview. “I could stand hunger, but sometimes there was no water to drink.” They crossed the rivers on the edge of the bamboo and got under the thick wandergrowth, and they were lost in the subzero cold.
Beijing trained the rebels in guerilla warfare, Marxist-Leninist Theory and “people’s war”. Muivah studied briefly at the Beijing College of Diplomacy, visited Vietnam and came back speaking highly of Mao and Zhou Ensai – although he would include their views on great nationalism. He returned to Nagaland after five years.
In 1980, Muivah along with his partner Isak Chishi yu and Ss Khaplang founded the NSCN, breaking away from the old NNC which signed the opposition pact in Delhi.
Their group also started – into the NSCN (IM) and NSCN (K), led by the Khahang of Myanmar – to spread small international offshoots in the northeast.
At its height, the NSCN (IM) was the mother of all rousers in the region, training and several races and running intelligence agencies in India called “Sound State” in all the hills, according to Subir Bhaumik of the region. The group faced allegations of looting, killings and human rights abuses.
Critics within the Naga insurgency also point to its violent legacy. The Zeliarong United Front (ZUF) has accused Cuivah of ordering “the merciless killings of many prominent leaders” and fighting Indian taxes, “visiting Indian forces,” said party spokesman Louis Gangmei.
Over the years, Muivah has been transformed from a China Comity to a political anothitoror. After decades of exile – in Thailand, the Netherlands and the Border of Myanmar – he entered the ranks of India.
But his demand for a separate Naga flag and constitution remains a stumbling block. In an interview in 2020, Muivah told journalist karan Tharar: “Nagas will never be part of Indian India, and they will not accept its constitution. There can be no solution without our flag and our Constitution.”
The Government of India granted great freedom, but refused any concessions implying sovereignty; The 2015 Framework Agreement, once hailed as a breakthrough, is now dead. “We did not give up our free existence and sovereignty,” Maivah announced last week. “Come on, we’ll defend it to the last one.”
The armed forces of Muivah’s party were kept under guard as they awaited his arrival [AP]
But in the last decade, as Muivah’s health declined and the organization split into many factions, the influence of the NSCN (IM) became apparent. The younger generation of Nagas, tired of blockades and looting, are now more and more demanding for peace and economic stability.
At the same time, experts like fonzi say that “the proud display of Naga flags in their village proves the vitality and strength of the Naga Society” – A reminder that we are determined.
Most importantly, he adds, “even the most conservative states can choose live deals with armed groups rather than trying to prevent him and redistribute them”.
Muivah says his party has held more than 600 rounds of talks with New Delhi in the country since the late 1990s. However, critics remain unyielding. Zuf-based Manipur dismissed his return as “empty,” arguing that “there is no reason to glorify a person who has failed the nagas among all the Nagas.” Supporters believe he is war-weary, uncertain of peace, and still waiting for the political payoff that has defined his life’s struggle.
In 2006, he told Mr. Bhamik, a journalist, “I am very tired. I feel doubly tired because there seems to be no result coming out of the talks.” The wait continues.
Additional reporting by Abhishek Dey
