The relation between Nagas with Indian has been long way back during the British colonialism in India,when the British Empire
advance to Far East of Asia. Before British leaves India, during the period between 1935 and 1945, the British divided the Nagas into two parts, 1/3 of the Naga territory was placed under the administration of Burma, now Myanmar and 2/3 of the Naga areas were given to
Government of India (GOI).
Right after the division of Naga territory by British, the Nagas formed a full fledged political organ called Naga National Council (NNC0 in 1946 and began to negotiate with the British in order to protect the interest of the Nags. Before India got her independent, NNC member, lead by its Chairman A.Z Phizo met Mahatma Gandhi on July 19, 1947 that Nagas do not wish to join the Indian Union; Gandhi said “Nagas have every right to be independent. If you do not wish to join the union of India, nobody will force you do that and the congress government will not do that”. Hence NNC subsequently declared the independence of the Nagas on 14 August 1947-a day before India declared its independence.
The Nagas insurgent groups were the first and the oldest to revolt against India. On May 1957, the NNC informed GOI and the United Nation that the Nagas do not recognize the Indian constitution and 99.9% votes for a sovereign independent Naga state. However, the GOI, under the leadership of Pandit Nehru, refused to honors the feeling of the Nagas people. When NNC boycotted the first general election of independent India, the Indian Armed Forces began to pour and by the end of 1953, the Naga areas become embattled. In 1956, A.Z Phizo chairman of NNC formed a parallel government called the Federal Government of Nagaland (FGN) and Naga Home Guard. Since Indian military continue to crackdown in the erstwhile Naga hill, Phizo sneaked into London till his death in 1990.
As the fighting intensified between the Indian security forces and the Nag rebel continue, the suspension of operation Agreement, popularly known as cease fire agreement, was signed between GOI and NNC on September 6, 1964 through the initiative of the Naga peace mission consisting of Jaya Prakash Narayan and Rev. Michael Scott. The peace mission met the Naga Federal parliament where seven rounds of discussion with Indian political leadership including the Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi, spreading over eighteen months, did not yield any results; hence the cease-fire agreement was broke down.
Indian troops again launched a massive anti-insurgency operation in Nagaland and for the first time, surrenders by the rebels took place. As many Naga rebels were surrender, an apart from surrender, the army operation forces the NNC to talk peace with the Indian government and the Shillong Accord was signed on November 11, 1975 with the Naga rebels led by Kevi Yally, the younger brother of Phizo, accepting the Indian constitution.
But some prominent leader within the NNC opposed the Shillong Accord that it was a complete sell out to Indian and formed National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN) in 1980 by Isak Swu, S. Khaplang and T Muivah. Muivah was then NNC general secretary, Isak Swu a senior minister and Khaplang, a Burmese Naga was president of the Eastern Nagaland Revolutionary Council, a wing of the NNC formed to protect Naga interest in Burma (Myanmar). The NSCN emerged as the most powerful and radical army in Nagaland, sidelining the NNC.
The NSCN led insurgency become bloody over the years. But soon the NSCN was mired in internal problems and the NSCN spit in 1988 with Khaplang forming a parallel NSCN (K), Isak and Muivah lead the other as NSCN (IM).
By lates eighties, the problems and issues of ‘indigenous peoples’ came to the focus internationally, with the UN initiating a process of establishing the UN working Group on Indigenous people in 1993. NSCN (IM) began to participate in various UN organs, such as the Un Working Group on Indigenous Population, UN commission on Human Rights and the Sub-commission on prevention of Discrimination and protection of Minorities, raising issues of gross human right violation, discrimination etc. the Naga issue began to be aired in these forums. On January 23, 1993 NSCN (IM) was admitted as representative of the Nagas to the Unrepresented Nation and Peoples’ Organization (UNPO), based in Netherlands, with the national flags being hoisted at the UNPO office.
On July 24, 1997, the GOI and NSCN (IM) entered into cease-fire agreement for the first time and continuing on till date, which came into effects on August 1, 1997. after GOI and NSCN (IM) enter into cease-fire agreement to paved way for the vexed Indo-Naga issues, more than 50 rounds of peace talks have been held between NSCN(IM) and GOI in Switzerland, France, Italy, Netherlands, Thailand, Japan and Malaysia. Even after decades of negotiation, the Indo-Naga problem, so far, has not brought any positive results to the Naga rebels group and to the Nagas in general.