Although the Naga areas in the present state of Manipur was arbitrarily sliced off and annexed by the British in 1891 to Manipur, which was then only the Imphal valley, the Britishers, recognizing the distinctiveness and separateness of the Nagas, administered the Nagas and their lands through the Crown’s political department. After India’s independence, Naga areas were arbitrarily transferred to the Maharaja of Manipur without the consent of the Nagas, through acts of subterfuge and deception.
The story of the Nagas in Manipur has since then been one of marginalization, victimization, discrimination and domination under the communal Government of Manipur. The Nagas in Manipur have suffered loss of rights and privileges, loss of due share in economic development, and most materially loss of their honor, dignity and identity.
While this was the situation of the Nagas in Manipur, a war was waged upon the innocent and unarmed Naga citizens at Mao on the 6th May, 2010 by the Government of Manipur(GoM), wherein 2 promising students were shot dead and hundreds, mostly womenfolk were wounded. Thus the Naga Hoho on the 8th of May, 2010 declared that “…henceforth, we derecognize any artificial boundary lines drawn across our ancestral lands in the so called Manipur State”.
The Nagas in Manipur then declared the severance of political ties with the GoM on the 1st July, 2010 due to unmistakable facts that it is impossible to protect our right to life, land, time-honored institutions, customary practices and values under the administration of the dominant and communal GoM and demanded the intervention of the GoI with an alternative arrangement.
This declaration was endorsed and confirmed by the Naga Hoho in the 3rd Federal Assembly of the Naga Hoho, dated Mokokchung, 16th July, 2010.
Consequently the Government of India(GoI) initiated the process of tripartite talk of the GoI, GoM and the United Naga Council(UNC) to address the demand for an alternative arrangement outside the GoM, pending settlement of the Indo-Naga issue. In the 7th tripartite talk held on 6th February, 2014 it was agreed that a high powered committee would be instituted by the GoI to translate the demand of alternative arrangement into a political reality.
Pending settlement of the Indo-Naga issue, the rights and identity, land and resources, time-honored institutions, customary practices and values of the Nagas in Manipur had to be protected and defended from deprivation, de-recognition, obliteration and distortion with an Alternative Arrangement. It is with this clear conviction that the Nagas in Manipur have embarked upon the mission to secure an alternative political and administrative arrangement independent of domination and subjugation.
The Nagas in Manipur have upheld the Indo-Naga peace process in their prayers and spirit all through the 17 long years of cease-fire and political talks. It is only in the indivisible common destiny that the history, identity and honor of the entire Naga people would be safe.
The demand for alternative arrangement is for an interim and emergency intervention to change the unbearable and intolerable conditions under which the Nagas in Manipur have been made to subsist on, so that we may live as a people with our dignity, identity and fundamental rights protected and cannot undercut and upstage the larger Naga national issue and the legitimate political aspiration of the entire Naga family. It is not a centrifugal movement but intrinsically centripetal in letter and spirit. In pursuing this intervention, we represent our situation and circumstances alone and not anybody named or unnamed.
Publicity Wing
United Naga Council.