Thomas
NNC Member
Today, August 14, 2026, is the 80th Nagaland Independence Day. When all the Nagas celebrate Independence Day, we are in one voiceinforming the world that the Nagas are an independent nation and the Naga National Council (NNC), the institution of the Naga nation, is tactfully safeguarding the sovereign Naga nation since its inception(1946-2026) to date. However, some people whodo not know the Naga national history havea question about who gave Independence to the Nagas, or why we are celebrating Independence Day while we are under the rule of India and Burma.
Nagas were a free nation.
The history of Naga Independence is that the Nagas have never fallen into any foreign domination in our history. We were a free people from time immemorial. We have no treaty or agreement, even with the British Colonial Regime in the 19th century, which might tantamount to surrendering our sovereignty to British suzerainty. The British, however, administered over one-fourth of the Naga territories for over 67 years (1880-1947), which would be considered as forced occupation. But the rest of the Naga territories, including the Eastern part of Nagaland, were left untouched as “unadministered areas”, also called the free Naga territories by the British.
Inherent Declaration of Independence.
As we have been a free nation from time immemorial, we need not declare independence. However, in those days, the Nagas faced a changing world after World War II, and we needed to announce our age-old Independence to the outside world so that no nation couldusurp our sovereignty in the future. Our forefathers, therefore, announced our age-old Independence on 14th August 1947 in time, before India and Burma became independent nations.
Because India and Burma were ascertained to become independent nations according to the Atlantic Charter, which was signed on 14th August 1941, by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the President of the USA.Hence. Our pioneer leadersdecided to declare our age-old Independence before India and Burma became independent nations. This was an inherent declaration of Independence and not given by any other nation, because the Nagas were not subject to any other nation.
Good understanding with India and Burma.
For the declaration of our age-old Independence, our leaders established good understanding with Indian leaders and Burmese national leaders. Our leader A.Z.Phizo was in Yangon (Rangoon) since 1936, and he was well acquainted with Aung San, U Nu, other Burmese national leaders, and Indian national leader Subas Chandra Bus. They agreed to recognise each other’s Independence, and decided to join handswith the Japaneseimperial Army to fight against the British for their Independence.
The Father of India, Mahatma Gandhi, also assuredly said that the Nagas have every right to become an independent nation outside India. No Indian leader will force the Nagas to join the Indian Union.The first Prime Minister of India,Jawaharlal Nehru, also clearly describedon 19th August 1946 that “The tribal (Naga) areas defined as being those long frontiers of India which are neither part of India nor of Burma nor of Indian States nor of any foreign power.” In accordancewith the understanding of the Indian national leaders and the Burmese, our forefathers announced the age-old Naga Independence to the world.
Nagaland has no part of India or Burma.
The Naga territories were never part and parcel of India or Burma from time immemorial, and neither neighbour with the two nations.And no boundary in the middle of Nagaland either. However, the British drew a boundary, known as the McMahon line, in the heart of Nagaland in 1914 without the knowledge of the Naga people. Following the cursory boundary of the British Colonial regime, India and Burma divided our country without the knowledge of the Naga people in March 1953, after gainingtheir independence from the British on August 15,1947, and on 4th January 1948, respectively.
As they (India & Burma) divided the Naga territories, they sent their armed forces to Nagaland in 1955, after eight years of their Independence,and forcefully occupied Nagaland. The Nagas, thus, became the two nations’ occupation.The Nagas stood against the invasion of India and Burma, and have been relentlessly defending our sovereign nation to date. This is a case of aggression, but not a case of the internal affairs of India and Burma, nora revolutionary movement of a political ideology or a demand for shared sovereignty from any other nation. But fight for recognition of our independent nation by the world, India and Burma as well. Our case is similar to the case of Ukraine and Russia.
The division among the Nagas.
The first division among the Nagas took place in 1960, when the so-called Naga People’s Convention (NPC) signed the 16-Point Agreement with the Government of India (GoI) on July 27, 1960, and accepted statehood under the Indian Union, having their own opinion that the Nagas should have education and infrastructure development first, without considering that the Nagas could develop as an independent nation. The NPC leaders deviated from the Naga national principle as an “independent nation” by disregarding the Naga national institution ‘NNC’ and joining a foreign national institution.
The 2nd divisiontook place when some of the Sema leaders defected from the NNC/FGN and formed the so-called Revolutionary Government (RG) on November 2, 1968. The differences emerged when the Prime Minister's level talks were held in 1967 in New Delhi. The Naga national leaders sensed the insincerity of the Indian leaders in resolving the Indo-Naga conflict, but they were playing a divide-and-rule policy to defeat the Nagas. Some of the Naga leaders wanted the case to be transferred to the NNC President A.Z,Phizo, who was then in London, to solve the case in the international arena.
However, Sema leaders refused and wanted to solve it by themselves. In those days, the President, Prime Minister of the FGN, and C-in-C of the Naga Army were Sema. They defected with all arms and ammunition brought from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), disarming the NNC/FGN.
In addition, the RG, joined hands with the Indian Army, seized 500 Naga soldiers under the Command of General Mawu, who returned from China with full arms in March 1969, without firing a single bullet. However, the RG surrendered en masse to the GoI on 16th August 1973, and became the Indian Army known as BSF (Border Security Force), like BGF in Burma.
The third time division took place in 1980, when the so-called National Socialist Council of Nagaland-NSCN(after 2000,Nagalim) was formed on January 31, 1980, to formulate the proposal of Suisa.
Accordingly, the NSCN-IM signed the Framework Agreement (FA) with the GoI on 3rd August, 2015, to implement Suisa’s proposal or competencies, demanding shared sovereignty, Constitution, and Flag from the GoI. This FA too is a result of deviation from the principles of the Naga nation.
In 1975, after the Shillong Accord, the FGN leaders transferred the case to the NNC Executive Council to solve the Indo-Naga conflict in the international arena, but Th. Muivah and Isak rejected Phizo’s leadership and defected from the NNC/FGN, as mentioned above. S
The nature of division.
The visions among the Nagas are not a lack of institution or weakness, but deviation from the national stand, which is the “Nagas are a sovereign nation.” Or attempted to solve the Indo-Naga Conflict within the Constitution of India. These divisions hinder the achievement of our national goal.
Deceiving policy of the NSCN.
The NSCN leaders, however, started to tell lies and false accusations against their own comrades as traitors, after the formation of the NSCN, by announcing that the Naga national institution, NNC, signed the SA, accepting the Indian Constitution and surrendered.
Therefore, young people of today areconvinced that the division among the Nagas took place when the NSCN was formed in 1980, because the NNC surrendered. No! It was not at all.The division was started in 1976 because of Muivah’s socialism. The problem was that Muivah and Isak, then General Secretary of NNC, and a Finance Minister of FGN, formed the NNC and FGN as a socialist form of government, known as one party one government, a centralized government in Eastern Oking (Headquarters) on 16th August 1976. In this new formation of government, the President of the NNC, A.Z. Phizo, became the President of FGN as well. (See the NSCN-IM souvenir of 1997, page 12, paragraph 10).
This new formationcreated a division among the Naga National leaders in the Eastern Oking. Because almost all the NNC/FGN leaders and the Naga Army officers did not support socialism.They instead firmly stood in defence of the Yehzabo (Constitution) of Nagaland, which was constituted based on the Naga traditional democracy. The division led to the killings among the Nagas. Because Muivah-Isak, and Khaplang killed all their own comrades, those who refused to support socialism started from November 1979 to 3rd January 1980, before the formation of NSCN. Therefore, Muivah’s socialism was the main factor for division among the Nagas.
While they committed the killings, they were top authorities of the NNC/FGN in eastern Oking up to January 30, 1980. This fact is proven by the document signed on January 29, 1980, in whichIsak signed as NNC Vice President, and Muivah asGeneral Secretary of NNC, with Khaplang and Brig. Thungbo, when the Eastern Naga National Council (ENNC)merged with the NNC. But on January 31, 1980, Muivah-Isak,Khaplang, and Brig. Thungbo defected from the NNC/FGN and formed the NSCN on the same day as mentioned above.
Then, after the formation of NSCN, they falsely announced that the NNC signed the SA, accepted the Indian Constitution and surrendered.Because when the people asked them (NSCN leaders), why the NSCN was formed, and why many Naga national leaders were killed, they needed to answer that because the NNC surrendered, the NSCN was formed, and the leaders who supported the NNC were traitors and deserved death. But they (Isak-Muivah) were top leaders of the NNC while they were executing the anti-socialist, and they never uttered a word that the NNC surrendered, when I was with them from 1976 to 1979. Moreover, they were top leaders of the NNC up to January 30, 1980, in the Eastern Oking, as mentioned above. Itis crystal clear that they have been telling lies.
When the Shillong Accord was signed, NNC President A.Z. Phizo was in London, General Secretary Th. Muivah was in China, and Vice President Imkongmaren was in an Indian Jail. Central Executive Committee Members Late KhodaoYanthan and Late YongkongNakshi were also in London with Phizo. None of these NNC leaders signed the SA, nor authorized to sign it, or expressed support for it. Also, none of the signatories of SA or the FGN leaders tries to convince Isak-Muivah or the Naga people to accept or support the SA.
Rejecting the Shillong Accord.
In the first place, the SA was diplomatically rejected by the Tatar Hoho (Parliament) of the FGN on 2nd December 1975. Again, when the GoI insisted on holdingtalks based on the SA for solving the Indo-Naga conflict, the FGN leaders tactfully rejected it, saying thatthe FGN transferred the case to the NNC’s central Executive Council, led by A.Z.Phizo, President of the NNC. Let the Indian Prime Minister hold talks with him and solve the protracted Conflict. It is a clear indication that the FGN did not accept the SA.
Secondly, in Eastern Oking the Naga national workers under the leadership of Muivah and Isak, the NNC/FGN leaders, denounced the SA in one accord on August 15, 1976. I was with them. This proved that we have no division on the matter of SA, The fact that the Eastern Oking is not under the platform of the SA, as it is a Naga territoryunder the Burmese military occupation, and there can never be a division on the matter of SA.But the differences were only on the matter of Muivah’s socialism.
Thirdly, when the NNC general meeting was held on May 11-12, 1978, in Khoma, A.Z.Phizo’s Village, the SA was deliberately ignoredand adopted a resolution that the SA should not be a basis or a process for holding talks with the GoI for solving the Indo-Naga conflict. Eno Tubu Kevichusa who was a sessional secretary of the NNC meeting, and he became the NNC General Secretary after Th. Muivah in 1982, gave advice to Muivah and Isak on July 9, 1983, that not to use the SA as their false political propaganda, but ignored it, as the NNC General meeting did in May 1978. (The NSCN-IM soldiers joined hands with the Indian Army,and Tubu was killed on June 4, 1996, at his residence in Dimapur).
According to the aforementioned records, the NNC/FGN leaders had no dispute with the SA, and were rejected by all. Indeed, the Accord was an invalid document in itself, because some of the Naga leaderswere made to sign it on behalf of the Representatives of underground organizations, without the NNC/FGNbeing mentioned in the document.The document itself proves it. So, there was no roomto project the SA as a surrender Accord orto tell lies by anyone who believes in Jesus Christ as our Lord God.
However, the NSCN-IM leaders continue to write that the NNC signed the SA, accepting the Indian Constitution and surrendered. Because they always needed to justify the formation of NSCN, and the killings they had committedbefore the formation of the NSCN, by projecting the SA as an infamous or capitulation accord.
Knowingly telling lies is unwise and I would like to request the NSCN leaders and supporters that what has been telling lies in the past 46 years be stopped henceforth, as we are all followers of Jesus Christ, and the NSCN soldiers as well, should stop knowingly believing the lies.Instead, repenting of past misdeeds, let us praise Jesus Christ our Lord God for delivering our nation from the brink of doom byturning the Accord into null and void in itself in 1975.
Supporting the NNC again.
Now, the NSCN actionsspeak the truth to the world that the NNC has never surrenderedand the Nagas are a sovereign nation, by observing the Nagaland Independence Day and Plebiscite Day every year.With this, theNSCN factionsare supporting the NNC once again. It is the need of the hour that all Nagas have to support the NNCas a common national institution, following the Naga people had given their mandate to the NNC in May 1951, to safeguard Nagaland and speak for the future of the Naga people.
