Different takes on the man from Somdal From jungles to PM level
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In the winter of his life and whatever one’s position is on what is dubbed as the ‘Naga issue,’ it stands that Th Muivah has been able to bring the said issue to the level of the Prime Minister and accordingly the ongoing dialogue is held at this level. This much is true and while the turnout at Ukhrul was mammoth to receive what many have dubbed as the ‘home coming’ of Muivah to his birthplace after a gap of more than 50 years, with the United Naga Council putting it at 61 years, one question, for which there is no answer as yet is, how history will judge the man from Somdal. Giving a definitive political colour to a bush war which he waged under the banner of first the Naga National Council under AZ Phizo, then under the NSCN which later split into the NSCN (IM) and the NSCN (K), is a description that may sit on his name in the decades to come. Yet at the same time, there will be many who will hold the view that in pursuing an ethnic centric approach to an issue, Muivah is central to sowing the seeds of division where people are identified and tagged as either a Naga or a Meitei or Kuki. This is true in so far as Manipur is concerned. To many who share this line of thought, Muivah will be viewed as the man responsible for holding Manipur and her people to ransom on numerous occasions and this line of observation comes from the countless number of times Manipur has reeled under the scourge of economic blockades as well as the extortions carried out on the National Highways. It is also not without reason why the man from Somdal will be understood and viewed as someone who painted Manipur and her people, particularly the Meiteis, as the nemesis to be neutralised while championing the cause of the people identified as the Nagas. A point which becomes clear from the manner in which India, against which the NNC then NSCN first took up the guns, suddenly and gradually became an ally while Manipur and the Meiteis became the adversary to be ‘defeated or neutralised.’ These are some of the views that people may hold, but what cannot be denied is the manner in which a certain sense of awakening amongst the people identified as the Nagas was implanted and which seems to have spurred the young Naga boys and girls to take pride in anything associated with what is called Naga. If one cares to look back at the recent and not so recent past, long before the call for a Lim or Nagalim started gaining traction, not a single Naga boy or girl from Manipur identified themselves with Manipur students organisations based in any of the cities which drew a large number of students from Manipur for their higher studies. Instead, their allegiance was with student bodies which came under the Naga tag. This is where one can see the seeds being sown for the call of Greater Lim, long before the ceasefire was signed between the NSCN (IM) and New Delhi in 1997.
Nagalim for Christ is the slogan under which the NSCN of Muivah and the late Isak Swu operated and this is where one can take note of the astuteness of the man in recognising the immense role that religion or the Church can play in taking forward the political agenda of the rebel group. Recognising the immense role that religion can play and effectively taking it forward to meld into the political agenda of the NSCN and Th Muivah saw this decades back and this is where one should acknowledge the vision of the man, whether one agrees with his stand or not. However for all his political astuteness and far sightedness it stands that the NSCN has not been able to take all the Nagas along with their stand, best exemplified by the NNPGs and their loyalists. It also stands that the NSCN has seen splits after splits down the decades and the stand of the Nagas of Nagaland and the Nagas of Manipur may stand opposite to each other. All these points taken together and many more of which have been left untouched here, will decide how the future treats him but what cannot be refuted is the fact that one simply cannot remain indifferent to the man from Somdal. And there must be reasons why the NSCN is widely held as the mother of all insurgencies in North East India.
Nagalim for Christ is the slogan under which the NSCN of Muivah and the late Isak Swu operated and this is where one can take note of the astuteness of the man in recognising the immense role that religion or the Church can play in taking forward the political agenda of the rebel group. Recognising the immense role that religion can play and effectively taking it forward to meld into the political agenda of the NSCN and Th Muivah saw this decades back and this is where one should acknowledge the vision of the man, whether one agrees with his stand or not. However for all his political astuteness and far sightedness it stands that the NSCN has not been able to take all the Nagas along with their stand, best exemplified by the NNPGs and their loyalists. It also stands that the NSCN has seen splits after splits down the decades and the stand of the Nagas of Nagaland and the Nagas of Manipur may stand opposite to each other. All these points taken together and many more of which have been left untouched here, will decide how the future treats him but what cannot be refuted is the fact that one simply cannot remain indifferent to the man from Somdal. And there must be reasons why the NSCN is widely held as the mother of all insurgencies in North East India.