THE second meeting of the Axom-Naga round table was held in Kohima on May 13 2016 under the aegis of the Axom Sahitya Sabha and the Naga Hoho. The continuance of such dialogues between neighbours will go a long way in cementing better ties in the relationship among the two states of Nagaland and Assam. The cultural exchange between the two people started since time immemorial and has also been recorded in our oral traditions by almost all the tribe bordering the Axom traditional boundary. The problem started when Nagaland was carved out of Assam in 1963 without taking into consideration the agreed terms of the 16-point agreement for consolidation of the forest areas that were mostly transferred to Assam through the 1925 notification that created The Naga Hills district boundary.
The Aos recount one such instance when 9 villages of the Aos went to Sibsagar to meet the Axom king and decided to open a Hat (trading place) and it was opened in Amguri on the banks of the Melak. The Aos in their oral history recounts that the boundary started from Laidagarh Ali to Haluading Bazaar to Amgur hat on the banks of the Melak River then straight to Deodar Ali that goes upto Moriani then through Nakatolia to Titabor and thence to the Lotha border through Dhangtora. It also goes on to say that most of these places had trading places during the reign of the Ahom kingdom. There are still many villages in Nagaland that considered the traditional boundary as the Deodar Ali, and these villages used to collect tributes from villages in Assam till the creation of the state of Nagaland.
Tradition also says that many of the Axom villages beyond the Deodar Ali in the Nagaland side of the border were formed after the fall of the Ahom Kingdom with permission from the big Naga villages thereby the practice of collecting tributes from these villages. It was in 2007 that many of the Axom villages in the border had stopped the 500 strong AASU activists who had started initially to destroy the Tsutapela police outpost and they appealed to the AASU to honour the traditional ties the Axoms share with the Nagas.
The present chief minister of Assam, Tarun Gogoi is from a constituency that borders the Naga areas and is surely aware of the traditional ties that the Nagas and the Axoms had. But in 2013 he stated that “Our case is very clear. The Naga Hills district boundary was created by a 1925 notification and the same boundary was made into the border of Nagaland when it was formed in 1963, But Nagaland does not accept it…..It is a constitutional boundary, Nagaland does not accept that,”.
A political decision created the state of Nagaland but the issue of boundary with Assam is now with the Supreme Court of India which is seen by many Nagas as a case of India not serious of the Nagas. Many opine that it is one area where the Supreme Court should not have stepped in.
Whether it’s for good neighbourly relations, exchange of ideas and cultures and stronger bonding between the people of the two states, all will come once both accept and acknowledge each other’s history. More so, as neighbours when both accept and acknowledge their shared history then only the question of give and take and compromises from both parties starts. The stand of the Assam government of not willing to go beyond 1925 will be the biggest stumbling block in tackling the issue.