Title: A Naga Odyssey: My long way home
Author: Visier Meyasetsu Sanyu with Richard Broome
Publisher: Speaking Tiger
Pages: 316
Price: Rs. 499
The history of Nagaland is inseparable from the village Khonoma. The village witnessed many political struggles. It is also a village where legendary Angami Zapu Phizo and General Secretary of the National Naga Council (NNC) Theyiechuthie Sakhrie were born. These two nurtured the idea of the Naga nation. They fell out over how to achieve independence for Naga. They had differences over strategy. Subsequently, Sakhrie was seen as a ‘traitor’ to Naga nationalism, kidnapped and killed.
The book A Naga Odyssey: My Long Way Home is authored by Visier Meyasetsu Sanyu with Richard Broome. He was also born in the same village in 1950. Same year, Phizo became President of the NNC, swearing an oath to uphold and preserve ‘the Independence and Sovereignty of Nagaland’. In June 1956, the author along with his family members had to leave their village and flee to forest following Indian Army’s attack on the Naga villages. His father carried his gun and others spears and axes. These attacks were the result of Naga Army’s attack on the Indian garrison at Kohima. The powerful story tracks Visier’s journey from a barefoot schoolboy to a Professor; from a small town to UN and Australia.
Phizo declared Nagaland independent on August 14 1947. He formed Free Naga government in September 1954. It led to the military operation. An Assam police unit was stationed in Khonoma. The history is British took control of Assam in 1826. The struggle to control the Naga Hills culminated in the Battle of Khonoma in November 1879. Brigadier General J L Nation, who led the British force, wrote in his report published in the London Gazette, April 27 1880, that the assault and capture of Khonoma was ‘one of the most brilliant feats arms’ in recent times by British officers.
Nagas are divided between India and Burma (now Myanmar). The author says,” Naga people in Burma occupy an area considerably larger than Nagaland in India”. The Nagas are suffering in Myanmar also but they are treated better than Rohingyas.
The history of Nagaland is quite complex and not easy to understand. The author explains the history and politics of Nagaland in a simple way. He also talks of Framework Agreement signed on August 3, 2015, between Central Government and National Socialist Council of Nagalim (IM). Unfortunately, the detail of the agreement is not yet announced. I had filed an RTI application asking for the details but it was not disclosed. It was said that the framework agreement will be ‘preamble’ to the soon-to-follow ‘final settlement’. But, there is hardly any progress on the issue. Earlier in 1997, the same group had signed a ceasefire with the government of India.
The author narrates, “There was much anticipation as Mahatma Gandhi had met with a Naga delegation in 1947 and heard the Naga declare they were not part of the British Empire. They avowed that when India gained its independence from Britain, so too would the Naga. Gandhi agreed, exclaiming: ‘But why wait, grasp your independence now!’ His assassination shortly after ended Indian tolerance of Naga claim for independence”. With the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi
Nagas lost their best friend in India.
Rajmohan Gandhi in his foreword correctly says, “Many Indians see Nagas as Indians. Many Nagas do not now think of themselves as Indian. Whether a close link is asserted or denied, knowledge of one another is scanty or close to zero. Those in India or elsewhere who would like to get to know Nagas and their history cannot do much better than to read Visier’s remarkable, if in places thorn-filled story.”
