An immensely valuable and revealing book about the decades-long Naga national movement, containing interviews with leaders, ideologues and soldiers that have never been published before. This first-of-its-kind book tells the story of the Naga national movement from the inside. Based on extensive interviews of the Naga nationalists, conducted in the late 1990s in Bangkok, Kathmandu, Dimapur and Delhi, it explains why the Indo-Naga conflict has lasted more than seven decades, and why successive prime ministers of India, from Jawaharlal Nehru to Narendra Modi, have personally met the Naga leaders and tried to resolve the conflict. In Kuknalim, leaders and members of ten Naga tribes spread across India and Myanmar speak directly to the reader about their childhood experiences, reasons for joining the armed struggle, and their personal triumphs and tragedies. They recount their journeys from small impoverished mountain villages through the jungles of Myanmar to China--from where they carried back arms to fight for an independent Nagaland--and finally the journey to the negotiating table. These stories relate to the period of the Naga movement from World War II to 1997, when Naga nationalists under the NSCN (IM) entered into a ceasefire agreement with the Indian state and began peace talks. And in the introduction to the book and the different sections in it, the authors also write about subsequent events, besides providing the political context for each interview. A groundbreaking work, Kuknalim offers invaluable insights into the world of Naga insurgency and its geo-political significance. Without asking the reader to agree or disagree with the people and movement it profiles, the book also examines complex questions of identity politics; the role of religion in nationalism; and the sentiments that drive men and women to take up arms and endure extreme hardship in pursuit of their dreams.

Namrata Goswami’s research on the Naga armed ethnic movement offers a compelling narrative on how conflict has affected the daily lives of the Nagas. This volume is an account of the Naga ethnic movement going on in India since 1918, covering both historical and contemporary aspects of the conflict. Based on over a decade of ethnographic work among the Naga rebels and movement zones, personal interviews, and secondary data, the author offers insights into how the Naga population perceives their meeting point with the institutions of the Indian state, especially the army and the paramilitary. The book documents what it is like, to live in a conflict zone and the restraints and thought processes that it cultivates especially among the youth. The book reveals gripping stories of tremendous courage and conviction from people who have thought about the political unrest, been born into it, taken part in it, or have been affected by it. The Naga Ethnic Movement for a Separate Homeland reflects the Nagas’ love for their land, tracing the poignant mix of nature, land, identity, emotions, culture as well as the inter-ethnic differences that exacerbate the conflict.

Law is an indispensable tool to control and maintain equilibrium in the progress of a civil society towards a healthier civilization. The object of law whether customary or statutory is to regulate, protect and deliver justice. The variance between customary laws and the contemporary statutory laws has to be balanced by recognizing and satisfying the wants, desires, and wishes of the society. The book is a legal work on the efficacy of Naga customary law in governance and judiciary. It begins with a legal investigation on the history of the Naga customary law and its Constitutional recognition. It then delves into the Naga customary administrative and judicial bodies and the legitimacy of its actions in the eye of statutory and formal laws. The present work also makes a legal examination of the customary ownership of land and its resources. Furthermore, it reflects on the contemporary social and legal issues emanating in the State of Nagaland and investigate the role of the executive, legislature and judiciary in harmonization and reconciliation. The appendix of the book contains important colonial documents on Naga history, colonial judgments & orders, pre-constitutional documents and important judgments of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India and High Court on Naga customary laws.

Ethnological study of the people of Manipur in India.

Traders, Pushers, Soldiers, Spies. A pivot for India’s Act-East policy. The gateway to a future of immense possibilities from hydrocarbons to regional trade over land and water that could create a new Silk Route. A bulwark against China. A cradle of climate change dynamics and migration. ‘Northeast’ India, the appellation with which India’s far-east is known, is all this and more. Alongside hope and aspiration, it is also home to immense ethnic and communal tension, and a decades-old Naga conflict and the high-profile peace process that involves four gateway states—Nagaland, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam—and several million people. It’s among the most militarized zones in the world. It’s a playground of corruption and engineered violence. Only real peace, and calm in both Myanmar and Bangladesh, will unlock this Eastern gate. A keen observer and frequent chronicler of the region, Sudeep Chakravarti has for several years offered exclusive insights into the Machiavellian—Chanakyan—world of the Naga and other conflicts and various attempts to resolve these. He now melds the skills of a journalist, analyst, historian and ethnographer to offer inside stories and a ringside view to the tortuous, no-holds-barred attempts at resolving conflict. Employing a ‘dispatches’ style of storytelling, and interviews with rebel leaders, politicians, bureaucrats, policymakers, security specialists and operatives, gunrunners, ‘narcos’, peace negotiators and community leaders, Chakravarti’s narrative provides a definitive guide to the transition from war to peace, even as he keeps a firm gaze on the future. The Eastern Gate is a tour de force that captures this story of our times.

An intervention in the field of dissenting writings by women political detainees in India in the 1970s, and it straddles three interlinked areas: politics, prison and writing. It focuses on writings arising out of Bengal's Naxalite movement (1967-1975) and from the pan-Indian period of Emergency (1975-1977).