ABSTRACT
The 1940s and 50s were among the most turbulent and decisive periods in the modern history of the Nagas. Pushed into the throes of the Second World War and the forceful accession of a new nation-state in the making, they had come to face death, destruction and suffering on a scale that had never been experienced before. It is under such conditions, as this chapter illustrates, that their resolve to carve out a sovereign national identity as well as convert to Baptist Christianity gained momentum. This was a process wherein they strove to become ‘modern’ and resist the ‘primitivism’ imposed on them by the British and Indian administrators as well as find sanctuary and garner the necessary spiritual and moral resources to keep their humanity intact in the face of large-scale assaults and destruction of their lives and property.
