Rebel’s homecoming | Thuingaleng Muivah

Italian General and nationalist Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi, who played a key role in the Risorgimento or Unification of Italy in the 1860s, became known as the ‘Hero of Two Worlds’ for his revolutionary military achievements in Europe and South America. He could never afford to lose his hometown of Nice to France as the price of the French support for the Risorgimento.

For many Nagas, especially in Manipur, 91-year-old Thuingaleng Muivah is the hero of the Naga-inhabited world divided between two countries – India and Myanmar. Covering more than 57,400 km2, it also includes the 13,329 km2 Naga Self-Governing Region of Myanmar’s Sagaing Department. Mr. Muivah is based in Camp Hebron, the central headquarters of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN), the armed organization in adjoining Nagaland, but Manipur’s pre-bifurcation Ukhrul district is where his heart is, as are most other members of the Tangkhul community that dominates the region.

Ukhrul was therefore central to the NSCN’s goal of a united Naga homeland, more familiar with the world beyond as the Isak-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland, or NSCN (IM), which he had led since April 30, 1988. The Manipur government has perceived this objective, albeit subdued, since the NSCN (IM) signed the Framework Agreement with the government of India on August 3, 2015. It was a threat to the territorial integrity of the State and its entry was prohibited until recently.

Changing the scenario

Two factors facilitated Mr. Muivah’s visit to his village Somdal, 25 kilometers from Ukhrul town, on October 22, after six decades: His poor health and the changing political scenario since the ethnic conflict that broke out in Manipur in May 2023 recalibrated the equations between the state’s three major communities – Kuki-Zo, Meitei and Naga. But these factors were of secondary importance to the Nagas of Manipur, who viewed Mr. Muivah as Avakharar, meaning ‘greatest father’ or godfather in the Tangkhul language. Understandably, emotions ran high when he landed in Somdal in a helicopter; Almost the entire village of approximately 4,500 people was eager to see their “eldest son” up close, if not to touch him.

The fourth of five siblings, Mr. Muivah was born on March 3, 1934, five years after the Naga Club, the first Naga political organisation, submitted a memorandum to the Simon Commission stating that the Nagas “should be left alone to decide for ourselves as in ancient times”. In 1946, the Naga Club evolved into the Naga National Council (NNC), which later fought for the independence of Naga-inhabited areas from India. Mr. Muivah bid farewell to his village to join the NNC in 1964, two years after completing his master’s degree in political science from Assam Gauhati University.

The closest he came to visiting his village was in 2010, when the Center allowed the trip. Bowing to sentiments in the mostly non-Naga Imphal Valley, Manipur’s Congress government put its foot down and banned his entry; ultimately resulting in a crackdown that left two people dead. Mr Muivah’s convoy could not proceed beyond Viswema in Nagaland, about 120 km northwest of Somdal.

His return home has sparked hopes of an honorable conclusion to the Naga peace process, which began on August 1, 1997, when the NSCN (IM) and the Center agreed to end the armed conflict. His followers pray that Naga homeland with a “separate Naga Flag and a Naga Constitution or Yehzabo” becomes a reality for the man who left the NNC by signing the “conciliatory” Shillong Accord in 1975. He later founded the NSCN in 1980 and later the NSCN (IM) in 1988 with Isak Chishi Swu after disagreements with his fellow Myanmar-based SS. Khaplang. “Generations come and go, but the nation remains,” Mr. Muivah said in Somdal on October 22. “The issue we are fighting for is bigger and older than most of us gathered here today at Tangkhul Naga Long ground.”