Explained | What is the NSCN and where do the Naga peace talks stand now?

What is the role played by the factions of the Naga insurgent group? What are their demands and what has happened since the peace talks began in 1997?

The story so far: The annual report of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) released recently said that the Isak-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM) was involved in 44% of insurgency-related incidents in Nagaland in 2020.

One of the largest Naga groups, the NSCN-IM, which signed a formal ceasefire agreement with the Centre in 1997 when the peace talks began, is the main party to the negotiations. The Union government had signed a framework agreement with the NSCN-IM in 2015 to find a solution to the Naga political issue. The negotiations are yet to be concluded, 24 years on.

The Naga tribes are said to have migrated from southwest China to Burma (now Myanmar) and Thailand, eventually settling in North East India and North West Myanmar. The term Naga was created by the British for administrative convenience to refer to a group of tribes with similar origins but distinct cultures, dialects, and customs. The Naga tribes are accumulated in Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Myanmar.

Residing in the Naga Hills of Assam during the advent of the British and the annexation of Assam in 1820, living in isolation and wanting no interference in their cultural ways and customs, the Nagas did not consider themselves a part of British India. The British adopted a way of governance over the Nagas that involved keeping in place to a large extent, their traditional ways of life, customs, and laws while putting British administrators at the top. Finding this approach favourable, the colonial government later declared the Naga hills an “excluded area” in the Assam province in 1935.

At the time of the withdrawal of the British, insecurity grew among the Naga tribes about the future of their cultural autonomy after India’s independence, which was accompanied by the fear of the entry of ‘plains people’ or ‘outsiders’ into their territory. These gave rise to the formation of the Naga Hills District Tribal Council in 1945, which was renamed the Naga National Council (NNC) in 1946.

Amid uncertainties over the post-independence future of the Nagas, a section of the NNC, led by Naga leader A.Z. Phizo declared the independence of the Nagas on August 14, 1947, a day before India’s.

The underground insurgency began in the early 1950s when Mr. Phizo founded the Naga Federal Government (NFG) and its armed wing, the Naga Federal Army (NFA). The Central Government sent the armed forces into Naga areas to curb the insurgency and imposed the contentious Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which is still in place in parts of Nagaland.