Naga Separatists Confirm Christian Connection

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Naga Manifesto focuses on religious exclusivism

 

The following is the excerpt from The Frontline( a magazine from The

Hindu group) on the Nagaland Terrorists' manifesto which talks of the

christian angle to their activities:

 

"....Consider, for instance, the following passages from the

manifesto of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim dealing with

what it sees as the fundamental contradictions between `Indians' and

the `Nagas'. The manifesto as a whole is as typical an expression of

the desire for the realisation of an `uncontaminated homeland' as any

one can find in the region. Adopted on January 31, 1980, the founding

day of the NSCN, and revised in November 1993, the document

constitutes the most explicit expression of its ideology. "The

involuntary influx of Indian nationals from the over-populated India

into our country has set all Nagalim under constant threat of

eventual submersion. In this connection, it may be recalled that

before the year 1947, there was not a single Indian in Nagalim. It is

now with more than two hundred thousand Indians...<B> The spread of

Hinduism and the queer noises have reached our homeland. Although as

a doctrine Hinduism is not a recruiting force, it is not to be easily

dismissed, since it is backed by a Hindu government. The forces of

Hinduism, viz., the numberless Indian troops, the retail and

wholesale dealers, the teachers and the instructors, the intelligent,

the prophets of non-violence, the gamblers and the snake-charmers,

Hindi songs and Hindi films, the rosogula makers and the Gita are all

arrayed for the mission of <u>supplanting the Christian God, the

Eternal God of the universe</b></u>. The challenge is serious; there

is no hiding, no pretension... To join the Indian Union... is to

allow ourselves to be drowned and perish in these waves of dead

doctrine. Whereas to defend the Nagalim's Independent Existence... is

to assure ourselves safe from the doom of Hinduism. This is a simple

logic. The failure of the Christian leaders to grasp the way the evil

forces work and their failure to face them in the way they should,

has indeed, placed Nagalim on a most serious trial. We are not only

confronted with a war of physical force but also with more dangerous

insidious war of assimilation."

 

Addressing those `Naga religious leaders' who believe in "the

illusion that constitutional sanction of India would safeguard the

freedom of their faith" , the manifesto says: "Preachers of all ranks

are gone after the blessings and the `award' of Indian bosses.

Spiritual uprightness is pushed into the background, pliable

demagogues are out, dressed in "dhoti" with that queer red mark of

foreign goddess in their broad foreheads, preaching reverence for

cows — half absorbed, full devil! O Nagalim, whither goeth

thou!...

 

"Furthermore, the abundant amenities of life accorded to them are

only sinister seeds of dissension being sown in the Naga family.

Whatever it may be and wherever they may be, Nagas are Nagas and we

shall prove the evil of this policy before long. India's `Ahimsa',

`All Roads Lead to Rome' and `No Religion has the monopoly of

righteousness' are no doubt, masterpieces of philosophy, but the way

to eternal life is not philosophy. The time has come for you and for

us either to shrink back or prove through. God wants us right now to

stand for him. Now is the time to hold firm our ground with Christ

and face the stick and carrot policy.... O men of God, lead us to

Saviour Christ for He alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life that

leads to God, the Father. Our Saviour taught us saying, `and thou

shalt be hated of all nations for My name's sake'. Truly it is time

and we hold the Moses' question — Who is on the Lord's side? Come

for

Christ, come for the Nagalim's freedom... There is no third way,

because `he who is not with me is against me and he who does not

gather with me scatters'."

 

Leaving aside the irony of the NSCN (Isaac-Muivah) leaders with their

strong commitment as much to the idea of `Nagaland for Christ' as to

their firm rejection, with unconcealed and ill-informed contempt, of

the symbols and substance of what they see as `Hinduism' holding

talks with the leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government,

what comes through in the passage and in the manifesto as a whole is

the passionate commitment to the realisation of an ideal Nagalim, the

unqualified territorial nationalism anchored in land, the land of the

Naga people transcending the boundaries of the present State of

Nagaland, inhabited by one people, the Naga, following one faith,

Christianity, and committed to one ideology, `national socialism' or,

more accurately, Naga socialism. Central to this vision is the

conviction that the Naga people, never defeated or conquered even by

the British colonial rulers, are not `seeking independence' since

they declared themselves independent a day before India attained its

Independence, and Nagaland (Nagalim) has therefore been an

`independent nation' since then. The real issue in Nagalim is to

secure the removal of Indians, the armed forces as well as others,

who constitute another colonial occupying force; and simultaneously

also secure the integration of all Naga-inhabited areas, currently

under the occupation of India and Myanmar, thus finally realising the

vision of a sovereign and independent Nagalim....."

 

 

You can see the site

at:http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2003/stories/20030214001504900.htm