ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter we learned why the Naga hills were partially conquered and how they were administered. In this chapter the aim will be to delineate the consequences British colonial rule had for the populations of the Naga hills in respect of their socio-political identity formation. It is often argued that the post-independence Indo-Naga war is a child of British colonialism, the result of their devious divide-and-rule policy. The line of argument runs roughly like this: before the British arrival, the Nagas originally did not exist as a distinct people and entertained cordial relations with the plains population. Through British categorisation and the drawing of administrative boundaries the people of the hills became the Nagas, now separated from the people of the plains. In short, the British and missionaries then made the Nagas into Christian nationalists and implanted in them their hatred for the Indians.1 It is striking that European agency and its rudimentary rule is ascribed the power to have created radical new political identities.
