Guwahati: The NSCN (IM) has renewed its call for Naga unity across the India-Myanmar border, asserting that Nagas on both sides are “one people” belonging to a single homeland, as reunification talks with the Myanmar-based Ang Mai-led NSCN-K faction continue in Sagaing.“We uphold the destined reality that Nagas are one people and that we belong to one another, wherever we may be. Thus, there is neither Eastern Nagalim (Naga areas in Myanmar) nor Western Nagalim (the Naga areas in India); there is only Nagalim,” the NSCN (IM) stated.Nagalim is the NSCN’s name for a unified Naga homeland that spans Naga-inhabited areas in several Indian states — Nagaland, Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh — as well as Myanmar’s Sagaing Region, including the Naga Self-Administered Zone.Saying Nagas “are one people” irrespective of where they live, the outfit blamed “adversarial forces” for the arbitrary partition of ancestral Naga territories between India and Myanmar in 1953.The stand of NSCN (IM) was that in 1953, then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his Burmese (then) counterpart U Nu agreed on a process to demarcate the boundary between the two countries through Naga-inhabited land without Naga consent.The group said the Naga national struggle was aimed at restoring the sovereignty of Nagalim and establishing “Nagalim for Christ” and asserted that unity and reconciliation among Naga groups were essential for the future of the Naga people.It also targeted forces within the community that, it alleged, opposed unity, reconciliation and a political solution based on historical and political rights, describing them as aligned with the “common enemy”.The group called upon the Naga people and “comrades in arms”, irrespective of “imaginary boundaries”, to come together as “one family, one people, and one nation”.India treats the India-Myanmar border as an international boundary and holds that its Naga peace process concerns Indian territory and Indian citizens. Myanmar likewise treats the Naga Self-Administered Zone and surrounding Naga areas as part of its sovereign territory.The reconciliation process is enveloped inside the broader Naga peace process, both in India and Myanmar. The dialogue between the Centre and NSCN (IM) has been a long one, beginning with the ceasefire declaration in 1997 and leading to the Framework Agreement signed in 2015. NSCN (IM) is also holding simultaneous talks with the Myanmar govt.On the other hand, NSCN-K, then led by its founder SS Khaplang, signed a five-point state-level ceasefire agreement with Myanmar in 2012. It had also signed a ceasefire pact with the Centre in 2001, which was abrogated unilaterally by Khaplang in 2015, after which the government declared it a banned outfit.Since then, NSCN-K split several times, and those having Indian origin joined the peace process with New Delhi. The Myanmar-facing NSCN-K split again into two in 2023, one led by Yung Aung and the other by Ang Mai.
