The Global Naga Forum (GNF) has come out in support of the Rengma Naga People’s Council (RNPC) of Karbi Anglong in Assam in opposing the renaming of East Rengma Mouza as “East Mouza.” This move, seemingly innocuous on the surface, has deeper implications that the GNF deems concerning.
“No government or organization — local, state, national or international — has the authority or the right to edit a Naga tribe out of their history or remove the Naga people from their homeland.”
– Global Naga Forum
In a public statement issued on Monday, the GNF said that the removal of the word “Rengma” from the mouza’s name is an insidious move that is part of a well-documented history of dispossessing the Rengma Naga people of their ancestral land, alienating them from their indigenous rights, and de-legitimizing their identity as a people.
The GNF’s stance is backed by historical evidence tracing back to the creation of the Rengma Hills in 1841. Over the years, the Rengma Hills were divided and placed under various district administrative units in British Assam, including the Naga Hills district and Nagaon district. In 1887, the Rengma Reserve Forest fell under the jurisdiction of the Sivasagar district administration.
The GNF said that the Rengma Naga people in Assam have not fared better under Independent India. “Since the late 1970s, the Assam government has used the Rengma Reserve Forest to settle refugees and ex-service personnel and their families including from Nepal and Bangladesh. And now the new local Sarkari Gaon Burah Association wants to remove the Rengma identity altogether from East Rengma Mouza,” the GNF said.
The GNF said that the separation and de-legitimization of the Rengma Nagas in Assam is a microcosm of the larger story of the Nagas as a whole. The organization said that the division of ancestral Naga lands into several separate administrative units has led to a steady de-recognition of the peoplehood of the Nagas.
The GNF cautioned that the plight of the Rengma Nagas in Assam reflects a broader narrative concerning the Nagas as a whole. “Let Nagas in other parts of India and in Myanmar not kid themselves,” it said, adding that the “separation and de-legitimization of the Rengma Nagas in Assam is a microcosm, a synecdoche, of the larger story of the Nagas as a whole.”
It said the Naga people’s modern history, 1947 to 2020s, shows this. “The division of ancestral Naga lands into several separate administrative units has led to a steady de-recognition of the peoplehood of the Nagas. The complicated history can be summarized in one short paragraph,” the GNF said, encapsulating this complex history in a concise summary.
The GNF said that when colonial Britain left the subcontinent in 1947, it left the Naga people separated in two countries, India and Burma. “The same year, when India became a postcolonial nation-state, India did not only keep the colonial-era division of the Naga people in place. It did even worse,” GNG said. “The same year, when India became a postcolonial nation-state, India did not only keep the colonial-era division of the Naga people in place. It did even worse,” it further said.
The GNF said that India did not stop there. “The Indian government separated the Naga people into four states – Assam (1947), Nagaland (1963), Manipur (1972), and Arunachal Pradesh (1975).
Fast forward to today. Indian armed forces continue to keep a tight control over the Nagas under the extra-judicial Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958 (AFSPA); and Indian government functionaries and agents have started removing the word “Naga” from Naga areas in Arunachal Pradesh and ethnic Naga names like “Rengma” from Naga areas in Assam,” GNF added.
The GNF said that this is what the RNPC is protesting against.
The GNF said that it joins the RNPC in appealing to the Assam government and the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) to stop the Sarkari Gaon Burah Association from their “ill-conceived action” of removing the word “Rengma” from East Rengma Mouza.
The GNF also appealed to the people of Assam and the government to act decisively to safeguard the historic rights of the Naga people and refrain from becoming “part of Government of India’s systematic annulment of Naga peoplehood.”
The GNF said that it firmly believes in and stands by the conviction that no government or organization – local, state, national or international – has the authority or the right to edit a Naga tribe out of their history or remove the Naga people from their homeland.
(Mokokchung Times, with inputs from agencies)