Let Freedom Ring : Story of Naga Nationalism

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Let Freedom Ring Story of Naga Nationalism is indeed a unique book. It is the story of the Naga national movement under the leadership of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN). It is unique on many counts. First, it is based on documents and interviews of the leaders of the movement. Second, the book is a work of a Naga political scientist who has analysed the movement without sacrificing the rigours required of a scholar. This is the first book to analyse the relationships between the NSCN and various international organisations.

The book traces the history of the formation of the NSCN as an aftermath of the Shillong Accord. This peace accord, signed in the dark days of the national emergency, was hailed by the Indians as a harbinger of an era of peace. For the Nagas the Accord was a betrayal of the aspirations of their people.

It is an analytical document of the Indian State's responses to the Naga national movement, from using the security forces to crush the movement to the role of the intelligence agencies in creation of Nagaland State and the signing of the Shillong Accord. Dr. Shimray also exposes how the Church was used by the Indian intelligence agencies to undermine the credibility of the China-returned Naga nationalists.

Let Freedom Ring is an indispensable reference work for research scholars, journalists and experts who wish to understand the Naga National Movement in a total perspective.

AS. ATAI (TUIMATAI) SHIMRAY was born in Tushar Village of Ukhrul District, Manipur State in north-east India on July 13, 1957 He went to school in Imphal and graduated from Patkai Christian College in 1977 He went on to study in Delhi at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and finished his post-graduation in 1983. The following year he joined as a lecturer at Patkai Christian College, Dimapur, Nagaland. He received his Ph.D. from the North East Hill University (NEHU) in 1997 for his doctoral thesis on "Naga Nationalism and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland."

Shimray was also active as a student leader and was student's union advisor at college and became president of the Tangkhul Student's Union. He was an ardent Naga nationalist.

He passed away on July 23, 2002, leaving behind his wife Tiakhala and three children.

It was in Atai's home that I first met a member of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN). He was tall and handsome, wearing trousers and shirt on that hot day in June. A revolver peeped out from under his shirt. He was sitting in Atai's garden holding a bulb of an orchid in his hand. He patted some mud and cow dung in his palm and carefully grafted the orchid on to a leafy tree.

My NSCN friend was an officer in the Naga Army with experience of ambushing Indian army convoys. However, they never touched ordinary civilian population. That could not be said for the Indian armed forces that had been guilty of large scale human rights violations in Naga areas over several decades. I learnt that he had been awarded for bravery even as a child and taken down the Rajpath on an elephant on Republic Day Parade in Delhi. I could never find out what was the act that earned him that award.

Later, much later I learnt that the state that once awarded him for his bravery imprisoned him for six years and kept him shackled for most of the time. He was never given a chargesheet or given a trial. He was kept in a jail far from home without any visitors and access to books. What were the inner resources he drew upon to keep himself alive, to preserve his humanity?

I watched him graft the orchid. We chatted and he told me the story of his first raid of a bank in Shillong. He was ready, arms hidden under a large coat but minutes before he was to enter the bank a friend came across.