The Naga National Council (NNC) and the Federal Government of Nagaland (FGN) have announced an initiative to document atrocities committed against Nagas during the 1950s, describing it as a “Naga national undertaking of collective memory.”
In a statement titled “Message to all countrymen and women – Lest we forget our home as a People and Nation,” the two bodies said Nagas experienced “unimaginable atrocities and brutality when external forces struck the nascent Naga nation on its soil from the 1950s.”
The organizations said they would formally record the atrocities committed during that period and remember “the lives of individuals who selflessly and voluntarily gave their resources, who gave their life-long years of inimitable services to serve the people and who made the supreme sacrifice and laid down their lives for the national cause.”
Calling the effort a responsibility owed to “the generation of our parents, our grandparents, to ourselves, and to the future generation,” the statement said documenting history was a commitment to “our struggle, to freedom and to human dignity.”
“Because when people stop telling stories, a nation ceases to exist,” it stated.
The process, the NNC and FGN said, will be undertaken with “solemnity, honor and commitment” and will involve participation from Nagas across regions, including village-republics.
“This is our bounden duty. God is our witness and guide,” the statement added.
