ABSTRACT
Every known civilisation had evolved from the beginning, but the speed of change varies due to the irregular dynamics of social change. The author spent her childhood in the cradle of A.Z. Phizo’s legend and fantasised on Naga sovereignty. Her father, Nosel Thapo of Viswema village, a civilian, was jailed for voluntarily aiding Naga Nationalist Council cadres in varied ways, particularly basic food rations, while her mother was threatened to be hung upside down for refusing to reveal the whereabouts of her husband and other male relatives. As a child of the early 1970s, she witnessed fallen soldiers being carried by the Indian Army in the manner one carries a hunted wild game from the deep forests with hands and legs tied to hold bamboo poles used for carrying fresh corpses with blood drops lining up after the trail. Sentimental attachment to the erstwhile Naga movement and frustration at the long-drawn inconclusive predicament created amongst Nagas vis-à-vis with the Government of India (GoI). The genesis of the Naga movement is often neglected in understanding the Nagas which often results in criminalisation and marginalisation of the indigenous group.
