Explained: Why Nagaland celebrates its ‘Independence Day’ on August 14
Explained: Why Nagaland celebrates its ‘Independence Day’ on August 14. August 14th is a day of pride and celebration of independence for Nagaland like any other independent country. Naga people celebrate on this day with pride, joy and promises to serve the country with loyalty and purity.
Background
On 14th August 1947, Thuingaleng Muivah the founder of National Socialist Council of Nagaland and his followers declared the independence of Nagaland. later on officially the 99.9% of the Nagas had voted in favor of a sovereign nation during a plebiscite in 1951.The day before India gained independence from British rule, the Nagas were the first ethnic nation from the northeast to declare their territory an independent country.
Reason Of Partition
Nagas were never considered as the part of Indian citizens. There is not any single similarity between naga’s and Indians. Both have different life style, both have different language, both have different ethnic, both have different religion and many other aspects that can be consider. From the British rule, naga people were directly engaged with British rulers but not with any Indian political party. British government has allotted different recognizance to nagaland unlike Indian territory, constitution was different for them, law was different for them unlike India. Indians were considered to be outsider if they had to visit Naga territory and they would have to get Inner Line Permit (ILP) to enter into Nagaland for tour, trade or any other case. Naga’s do believe in two nation theory as two different nations with different ethnics can not live together without any inequality and injustice. After the exclusion of Britishers, Naga’s announced their independence that was obvious as they were never part of India. Likewise Nagaland, Manipur has also declared the independence day because of same reasons.
Current Situation
From 1947 to now, naga’s celebrate independence day on 14th August and 15th August as black day each year. Citizens held rallies from Nagaland to Manipur at occasion of independence day and Nagaland Government perform Flag Ceremony by hoisting the Naga national flag led by Naga Student Federation. Anyhow Indian government does not accept the voting of plebiscite in 1951. Or we can they took the U-turn for their interest. Neither Indian government accept Nagaland as independent country nor they give states fund and any other beneficiary to nagaland unlike other Indian states.
When it comes to give the equal rights to north east specially Nagaland, Indian government just close their eyes. Assam flood situation is a present example of ignorance and the response of Indian government behavior towards that is heart wrenching. Indian armed forces killed 30 innocent Naga citizens in December 2019 and named that incident as mistake. The murderer of innocent citizens of Nagaland are still fleeing freely on the streets of India.This clearly shows the attitude and intentions of Indian government towards Naga’s.
