When Th. Muivah and Isak Chishi Swu stepped on Indian soil last year, they made headlines in the ?national media? (this term I know is irksome for many, metro dailies seems a more appropriate term). A few regional papers devoted several column inches for days on end trying to interpret the return of the duo to a country from where they are self-exiled. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was then the Prime Minister of India. For this country, getting the Naga national leaders to come to Delhi for talks was some achievement. But as far as the talks are concerned, the two sides are nowhere near to arriving at any solution. Polite and correct conversations were made by both sides. There seems to be an underlying fear that speaking what is uppermost in the mind and hearts of both parties might jeopardise the fragile peace in Nagaland.
It would be irrational to expect an easy solution to an imbroglio that has beset the Naga people for close to half a century. Talks are necessary to break the silence on both sides. Each party had tried to tackle the issue according to its received wisdom. The Nagas claim even today that they were never part of the Indian national movement for free India. They claim a distinct nationality and argue that they have been forcibly integrated into the Indian Union by an act of treachery by the numerically strong ?Indians? and their better-armed soldiers. The Battle of Kohima where the present capital of Nagaland was virtually laid to siege by the Indian army is still fresh in the memories of some of the survivors. It was inevitable that the Nagas, who only had a few old guns left by the Japanese, were surmounted by the more formidable Indian army.
Having done that, the army adopted a ploy which the British did in the Malay peninsula. They regrouped the villages, uprooting people from their hearths and homes. People were kept in these camps and subjected to all kinds of atrocities. Sometimes they went without food for days. Their rice fields were burnt and their homes razed to the ground. Nagas still recall with deep anguish the smell of burnt rice; an army jeep coming to a halt with a screech; rapes and other inhuman acts, beating men black and blue and very often sending only their bodies back to their wives.
Obviously, at the time, there were no human rights groups. People suffered in silence. The silence was broken only by their agonised howls of pain and frustration. Frustration at their inability to do anything. Protests would lead to more reprisals. Tales of suffering were narrated by the elderly to their young and these narratives were deeply etched in the minds and hearts of the present generation. But the Naga story never got beyond Nagaland. Those of us who think we know the Naga story know only the political history of the movement. We are hardly aware of the trauma that Naga women and men had to undergo in the midst of their freedom struggle. The social canvas was a closely guarded secret, almost a sacrosanct arena. They did not wish others to know. At the time there were no prying newsmen save one or two brave hearts like Harish Chandola whose photographs are a testimony of state-sponsored violence.
Now, at last, the silence is broken. The Naga Story, a documentary by Gopal Menon, tells it like it is. First-hand accounts of army atrocities by those who bore the brunt, are the high points of the film. Such a film could not have been shown in the movie halls. It would have been clipped to pieces by the censor board until it ceased to make any sense. Fortunately, a select audience were able to watch the film at the recently-concluded Films For Freedom Festival, held at Shillong on December 9-10. Hosted by Freedom Project, the festival event included a workshop where renowned documentary filmmaker Sanjay Kak discussed various aspects of censorship. Overt and covert censorship both by state and non-state actors, the community and pressure groups are an assault on freedom of expression and on democracy.
Hopefully films like The Naga Struggle, which also has an epithet, The Other Side of Silence, will be viewed by Indian civil society. This is necessary if the rest of India is to engage with the Naga issue, their identity and their historical realities. Documentaries have their own value because they tell their stories which mainstream cinema does not have space for. Although the film generated a heated debate and was labelled as a propaganda by some and as a one-sided version by others, by and large it was educative and enlightening.
Coming back to the peace process, this time the arrival of Messrs Muivah and Swu at New Delhi did not create such a flutter as it did last time. Barring the Indian Express, which made it the main story, other metro dailies carried the story on page 9 or 10 which is usually relegated for stories from the North Eastern region. But that is not surprising. Peace processes are slow moving and therefore not exciting. Besides, there is nothing new to tell except for the same concern that both sides have about not over-stepping boundaries.
No one will deny that the Naga leaders have themselves come of age and are speaking the language of diplomacy, a trait that the Ulfa still has to learn. Their expression of concern for their ?neighbours?, the Meiteis, Assamese, even while articulating the dream of a Greater Nagalim, ostensibly exhibits a distaste to get into any further altercation with the people of Assam and Manipur valley if they can help it. It is almost an appeal that the neighbours should try and understand their constraints. This is, of course, easier said than done. Territorial integrity of states is an issue that is emotive and politically sensitive. A bigger geographical space means more land for settling a growing population, more agricultural land and also more allocation of funds from Delhi. How the Naga leaders work through this knotty mass will ultimately prove their wisdom.
There is the other factor that merits consideration. Should the peace process break down, will the militants have the energy to go back to the jungle? What kind of support will they receive from a population that is weary of bloodletting and fed-up of men and women in fatigues. There is a future that beckons those who have a stake in peace. And the young are conscious, that should there be a cessation of amity then history will repeat itself, replete with violation of human rights, particularly of women.
Too much has been lost in the struggle and too little gained as a result. It is, to say the least, an unequal struggle. Arms are, therefore, no solution. Perhaps its is time to look for other solutions even while the peace process carries on and polite conversations are exchanged between the Government of India and the Naga leadership.
