Abstract

Chapter 3, ‘Legacies of Conflict’, discusses the complex legacies of decades of nationalist conflict that continue in Nagaland, including multiple sovereign contestants, disagreements over Nagaland's borders with neighbouring states, and the pervasive presence of an alternative map for a Naga homeland, ‘Nagalim’, that challenges India's cartographic limits. In this complex scenario, a highly masculinized political culture has emerged, one that encourages ‘strongman’ politics and an especially salient gendered social order.

Keywords: post-conflict, militarization, insurgency, trauma

Nagaland Republic Day

22 March 2016 marked the 60th Nagaland Republic Day recognized by Nagaland's oldest nationalist-insurgent group, the Naga National Council (NNC). The day celebrates the establishment of the Federal Government of Nagaland on 22 March 1956. Other Naga nationalist groups celebrate their own republic days on different dates, marking when their respective governments were founded. The NNC's Nagaland Republic Day involved an assembly of supporters at Chedema Peace Camp on the outskirts of Kohima, the headquarters of the Federal Government of Nagaland. The NNC president at the time, Viyalie Metha, opened the event with a series of Christian blessings and prayers, and an extended thanks given to the speakers and special guests at the occasion. Following the prayer and welcome, Metha delivered an extended recounting of the difficult circumstances that the Federal Government of Nagaland was founded in. As with most nationalist histories of Nagaland, his recounting began with the Naga declaration of independence on 14 August 1947, and guided the audience through the hardships and injustices endured by Naga communities at the hands of Indian paramilitaries in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. The chronological history was broken up with occasional mentions of traditional Naga governance systems and references to a ‘pure Naga democracy’ marked by a vague but widely understood model of village sovereignty, Christian devotion, and independence from outside rule. Metha closed his speech with calls for a resurgence of the nationalist spirit and a reunification of Naga territories outside of the state. The speech was followed by a series of other speeches by prominent NNC leaders, by the nephew of one of the founders of the Naga nationalist movement, the late Angami Zapu Phizo, and by Kaka Iralu, a revered writer and historian of the Naga nationalist movement.