Our Correspondent
Diphu, June 20 (EMN): The Karbi Students' Association (KSA) has appealed to the NSCN (IM) to look after the non-Naga indigenous tribal communities living in Nagaland by ensuring that equal political rights and privileges will be provided as enjoyed by the other major Naga tribesmen so that nobody feels alienated.
KSA in a press release stated, "The Karbi Students’ Association (KSA) would like to reiterate and lay bare before the NSCN (IM) that we don’t want to enter into a verbal slugfest and bring one another down with an unguarded rhetoric. Regarding the statement on Mikir Hills, Rengma Hills or the ‘sons of the soil’, the KSA would like to say that we regard the Rengmas, Dimasas, Kukis, Garos, Khasis, and all scheduled tribes or indigenous inhabitants living in Karbi Anglong as our own. We do not count them as ‘immigrants’ but they are the indigenous inhabitants of Karbi Anglong and they have equal rights like Karbis".
"The majority of Rengmas live in Nagaland so declaring Tseminyu as the new district of Nagaland would be a step towards honouring our Rengma brother’s legitimate right. As far as our Rengma brothers in Karbi Anglong are concerned, they are our brothers and our brotherhood stands through the test of times. We will ensure that no foreign hand misguides them and destabilises the peaceful co-existence between us. We will honour all indigenous tribesmen of Karbi Anglong once Karbi Anglong statehood is achieved", it said.
"Moreover, our history is very clear and can withstand any rigorous scrutiny. The sources you compiled are some of the finest sources, but have you read them thoroughly and correctly? We would like to request the NSCN (IM) leader in charge of this documentation part to reread the entire books again before we show you where you have faltered in your reading of history. Looking at the response, one can draw a sharp conclusion that the person compiling the reports has minuscule knowledge about the history of the Karbis. We would like to appeal to the NSCN (IM) leader or compiler of these documentations to at least do an honest research before putting it out in the public domain with such substandard research pieces of writings. With rigorous academic scrutiny, this substandard piece of writing will be dismissed immediately. We actually expect credible information about us from an organisation like NSCN (IM), it read.
Here is the British account of the travels of the Rengmas--"The Rengma Nagas", the book written by JP Mills, MA, Indian Civil Service, Honorary Director of Ethnography Assam in 1936 in Introductory part in page 2 states, "About a hundred years ago or more a body of the western Rengmas migrated north-west to the Mikir Hills, where they are still living."
"The Angami Nagas", written by JH Hutton, CIE, MA, Indian Civil Service, published in 1921 in page 12 states, "As an example of how rapidly isolation produces dialectical change, I would mention the fact that the Rengma Naga families, who migrated some seventy years ago from Themokedima to the hills along the Kollani, are now almost unintelligible to members of the parent stock".
The book "The Lotah Nagas" written by JP Mills, ICS in 1922 in page xiv of the Introduction states, "Indeed it is now no longer quite clear whether this chief was a Lhota or a Rengma, and whether he protected against the pursuing Angamis the rearguard of the Lhotas crossing the Dayang northwards, or that of the Rengmas migrating westwards to the Mikir Hills...".
In page xix of the same book states, "The Rengmas thus migrated from the Kezami-Angami country, throwing out the Naked Rengmas eastwards to Melomi, and ultimately sending the bigger portion of the tribe westwards to the Mikir Hills."
The book "Travels and Adventures in the Province of Assam" by Major John Butler in 1855 states in page 124: "The Rengmah Nagahs are evidently descended from the Angahmee Nagahs; and it is said that, in consequence of oppression and feuds in their own tribe, they migrated to the hills occupied by the Tikophen Nagahs; but further discensions and attacks from the Lotah and Angahmee Nagahs compelled them to take refuge on their present low hills in the vicinity of the Meekirs"(sic). The Association further appealed for thorough judgement of facts to avoid misinterpretation of history.