Story of Nagaland Insurgency: Part-3

Circumstances that led to Shillong Accord

A number of events happened in 1970s that eventually led to the signing of the Shillong Accord on November 11, 1975. Firstly, the eastern wing of Pakistan was clipped in 1972 and Bangladesh was born. The underground Nagas were deprived of safe sanctuary after this. Secondly, the Indira Gandhi government imposed emergency in the country and security forces got a free hand to deal with situation. Thirdly, the Kashmir problem appeared to have settled and the underground Nagas pondered over if they should follow path of Sheikh Abdullah. Fourthly, the people of Sikkim voted in favour of joining India in a referendum and Sikkim became a part of India in 1975.

All these events gave a setback to the violent Nagas and moderate leadership started thinking in terms of staying as a protectorate of India. The Naga Peace Council and Sarvodaya leaders played an active role to bring the underground Nagas to negotiating table.

Aftermath of the Shilling Accord

The Shillong accord of 1975 is made of two agreements viz. three point agreement (signed in November 1975) and a supplementary agreement that was signed shortly after the first one in January 1976. They key points were as follows:

• Via this agreement, the rebels had to accept the Constitution of India without condition, surrender arms and renounce the demand for secession.
• The underground groups would have reasonable time to formulate their issues for discussion and bring them to negotiating table through the Nagaland peace council.

However, this agreement was opposed by some leaders in the NNC, who called it as total betrayal of Naga interests. Three such leaders viz. Isak Chishi Swu, Thuingaleng Muivah and SS Khaplang formed a Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) in late 1970s. This NSCN started an underground Naga Federal government having both Civil and Military wings. But in late 1980s, it split into two factions viz. NSCN (Isak-Muivah) and the NSCN (Khaplang). This split brought a series of killings and fractional hostility grew day by day. The NSCN (IM) remained most formidable insurgent outfit in India’s north-eastern states.  It was active not only in Nagaland but also in the Naga-inhabited areas of Arunachal, Manipur and Myanmar.

On August 01, 1997, a cease-fire agreement was negotiated between the Government of India and the NSCN-IM. Since then, more than fifty rounds of peace talks have been held between the representatives of the Government of India and the rebel Naga leaders. In August 2015, the NDA Government has signed the framework agreement with NSCN-IM.

What are demands of Nagas?

Apart from sovereignty, the Naga rebels demand creation of a ‘Greater Nagaland’ or Nagalim, whose territory not only consists of current Nagaland state but also Naga-inhabited areas of Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and some portions Myanmar. They call the Nagalim as rightful homeland of the Nagas. According to NSCN, the Nagalim lies in the Patkai range at the tri-junction of China, India and Myanmar.

Establishment of Nagalim has been the stated objective of NCSN (IM). While NSCN-IM has been engaged with the government of India in peace talks, in December 1994, the Nagaland state assembly had also passed an unanimous resolution to integrate all the Naga-inhabited areas of Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh with the present state of Nagaland. The demand for integration of the Naga inhabited areas into one (sovereign) unit is though they are diverse and heterogeneous by nature, the Naga groups and communities of the region were living in these areas from pre-colonial times in single continuous habitat that was subsequently divided by the British as well as the Indian and Burmese governments into multiple political and administrative units as per their convenience.

The NSCN-IM maintains that at present Nagalim has been subdivided by the Government of India into four different administrative units viz. Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland. Likewise, they claim that Myanmar too has parts of Nagalim and has divided it under two administrative units of Kachin State and Sagaing division.