Kaka D. Iralu
OF late some Nagas have been bragging and boasting about their achievement in being able to safely tug away Nagaland’s right to its land and resources in Article 371A of the Indian Constitution. Some have stated this achievement as the Guardian Angel of Nagaland, while others have called it as a provision purchased by Naga blood. Such tall claims have left me totally dumfounded and angry.
As far as I am concerned, the rights of a nation to its land and its resources are, as a rule, always enshrined in the Constitution of their own country. For example, India’s right to her land and its resources is enshrined in their own Constitution and not based upon an article in the Constitution of China or Pakistan. Like all other nations, Naga rights to Naga lands and its resources are also enshrined in the Naga Yehzabo (Constitution) under Article 3. The wording of this right runs as follows: “Each village is a republic within its own territory having full authority over its own affairs including land, community, organization, social, culture, religion, customs and practices.” This Constitutional guarantee of village supremacy and land ownership rights is unique to Naga customs, traditions and culture. Nagas had always lived like this in their sovereign democratic village republics from time immemorial.
This Constitutional right from the Naga Yehzabo comes after Article 1 of the Yehzabo which state the territory of Nagaland as: “The territory of Nagaland shall comprise of all the lands inhabited by the Nagas.”
Nagas are therefore not a people unsure of their national identity or their national land and their rights thereof.
In the light of all these facts I would like to ask a question to any Nagas who are thinking that they have achieved a great thing in inserting Article 371A in the Constitution of India. My question is: “Is it really a big deal and a great achievement to have one’s right to one’s own lands enshrined in the Constitution of a foreign country that has invaded your lands?”
Tragically, what the Naga People’s Convention (NPC) and the 16 Point Agreement did to Nagas and their rights to their lands was precisely this treachery of transferring Naga rights to their lands from their own Yezabo to a foreign country that had invaded Nagaland in the 1950’s. In doing this, the NPC changed the “invasion crime” into an “invitation issue” where a foreign authority was invited into our lands to rule us from within. This foreign constitution into which our land ownership rights were transferred was the Constitution of a totally alien and foreign nation who did not know anything about our polity, culture and legal systems which had been running our political affairs for thousands of years. As a result, this foreign Indian constitution, far from making us a strong nation reduced us to a totally dependent nation politically and economically.
Also, as opposed to our clearly defined territories stated in our own Constitution, what we got from India through the NPC was a state without even a clearly defined territory. Along with this undefined territory, we also got an extra Constitutional bonus document called “The Nagaland Penal Code”. This Penal Code contains the most dehumanizing Acts and Regulations like The Assam Maintenance of Public Order Act 1953, The Assam Disturbed Area Act 1955, The Armed Forces Special Power Act 1958, and The Nagaland Regulation act 1962 etc. These acts and regulations besides sanctioning- searching our private homes without search warrants, arresting us without arrest warrants- even nullified our very right to life by sanctioning that a Naga can be shot to death even on mere suspicion.
This was what the first generation of educated Nagas who collaborated with the Indian government condemned the upcoming generations of Nagas to.
Today, the last remnants of this generation of Nagas are ready to even sell Naga lands to outsiders through the Nagaland Special Development Zones (NSDZs). They are now trying to completely reverse even the Naga national stand of URRA UVVIE to URRA FOR SALE. As stated earlier, this whole process began by first transferring our rights to our lands into the Constitution of India under Article 371A. Now under the protection of that same Article, they are going to even sell our lands to both Indian oil experts, foreign investors and God know who else. As far as I am concerned, there cannot be any higher act of treason then to sell one’s own motherland through the provisions and protection of a foreign country’s Constitution.
All Naga villagers who are the real owners of all Naga lands must unitedly rise up to oppose the threat from this greatest injustice that can be imposed on the Nagas by India and their Naga collaborators. After all Naga martyrs did not lay down their lives and shed their blood so that Naga rights to Naga lands and its resources can be enshrined in the Constitution of India.
