Naga history will be written by Nagas, not by an RSS ideologue

A REJOINDER TO DR. JAGDAMBA MALL: DISTORTING NAGA HISTORY TO DEFAME CHRISTIANITY
Response to the excerpt from “Dr. S.C. Jamir: The Voice of Nationalist Nagas and the Architect of Modern Nagaland.”

Dr. Jagdamba Mall’s writing is not history. It is propaganda — a textbook RSS attempt to paint the Naga political movement as a Christian conspiracy and to criminalize our faith. As a Naga, I find it both historically false and ideologically motivated. Let us set the record straight.

Christianity did not separate Nagas from India — India never ruled us.
Dr. Mall claims missionaries “separated Nagas culturally and socially from rest of Hindu society in Bharatvarsh.” This is the foundational lie of Hindutva historiography. Nagas were never part of any Hindu kingdom or Bharatvarsh empire. We were independent, sovereign village-republics.

The British first entered the Naga Hills in 1832, when Captains Jenkins and Pemberton marched across the territory with a force of 700 soldiers and 800 coolies to find a land route from Manipur to Assam but could annexed us only in 1881 through war and we resisted them.

Molungkimong is the first village in Nagaland to embrace Christianity, on December 22, 1872, when American missionary Rev. Dr. Edward Winter Clark, guided by local converts, arrived and established Nagaland’s first church and baptistery. Missionaries brought us literacy when the British gave us nothing but punitive expeditions. The first Naga to be educated was not made a slave, he was made a man who could read and write his own history. To call education and healthcare an “artifice for aggression” is an insult to every Naga mother who was saved by a mission dispensary.

The Naga Club and NNC were Naga creations, not Deputy Commissioner’s puppets.
Dr. Mall writes that Naga Club (1918) was formed by J.H. Hutton and NNC (1946) was formed by Charles Pawsey. This is a complete lie and denies Naga political agency.

Naga Club was formed by 20 Naga members, including Gaonburas, Dobashis and WW-I veterans who returned from France as part of the Labour Corps. They saw the world and understood that Nagas must speak with one voice. J. H. Hutton was merely the presiding officer as Deputy Commissioner, as per protocol.

Similarly, Naga Hills District Tribal Council was formed by Nagas themselves. In 1946, it was renamed Naga National Council (NNC) at sanis under the present Wokha dustrict by Naga leaders, not by Charles R. Pawsey in Kohima. Its founder president T. Aliba Imti and secretary T. Sakhrie were not “sons of pastors” as if that disqualifies them. They were the most educated Nagas of their time, products of the Naga awakening, not stooges.

To say NNC’s objective was to give active support to the British is absurd. The NNC in 1947 submitted a memorandum to Lord Mountbatten and to the Government of India demanding independence, and later signed the 9-Point Hydari Agreement. Does a pro-British stooge demand independence from the British?

The Plebiscite of 1951 was the most democratic exercise in Naga history.
Mall’s description of the 1951 plebiscite as “fraudulent” and guarded by “gunmen” exposes his ignorance. In 1951, there were no AK-47s in Naga Hills. AK-47s came to Nagaland only in the late 1960s from China via East Pakistan.

The Plebiscite was conducted village by village, by putting thumb impressions on paper. 99.9% voted for independence not because of fear of Phizo, but because that was the unanimous will of the Nagas at that time. Even Indian intelligence officers like B.N. Mullik admitted in his memoirs that the plebiscite was overwhelmingly supported. The people of Tuensang and Mon DID participate, records are in the NNC office. To claim only 6,000 votes were cast out of 2,05,950 is fabrication. The total population included children and voting was done by all adult Nagas.

Phizo was not a “rusticated student” — he was a Naga patriot
Dr. Mall’s personal attack on A.Z. Phizo, calling him “notorious,” “rusticated twice in class seven” shows his character assassination method. Phizo was the only Naga leader who dared to tell Nehru to his face that Nagas were not Indians. He could have become a wealthy businessman in Burma, but chose the jungle for his people. You may disagree with his politics, but calling him a fraud for winning by one vote against Vizar Angami is cheap. Naga politics has always been democratic and contested.

And the killing of T. Sakhrie in 1956 was tragic. Every Naga mourns it. But to use it to paint the entire movement as terrorist is dishonest. Indian armed forces burned more than 1,000 Naga villages between 1955-1964 under AFSPA. Who will account for that state terrorism?

The lie of conversion at gunpoint
This is the most dangerous and anti-Christian lie. No Naga was ever converted at gunpoint by NNC. Nagas accepted Christianity voluntarily over 100 years, from 1872 to 1972, because it gave us a written script, dignity, and a new worldview. In 1941, only 20% Nagas were Christian. By 1951, it was about 40%. By 1971, 80%. This was peaceful mass conversion, not by guns.

NNC and Church were not two sides of the same coin. In fact, the Church was often the mediator for peace. Rev. Michael Scott was not a scandalous missionary. He was a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, a friend of Mahatma Gandhi, who came to Nagaland to bring peace when Nehru’s army was burning our villages. The Baptist Churches sheltered not militants but civilians fleeing the Indian Army.

To compare “Praise the Lord” with “Allahu Akbar” of jihadis is communal venom. It is the RSS template to link Christians with Muslims as anti-nationals.

Conclusion:
Dr. Mall’s project is clear: to legitimize Dr. S.C. Jamir as the only “Nationalist Naga” because he signed the 16-Point Agreement and joined India, and to delegitimize the entire Naga national movement before him as a Christian-British conspiracy.

We, the Nagas, reject this. We are Christian not because Americans forced us, but because we chose Christ. We are Naga not because the British created us, but because we have always been Naga. Our political struggle is not because Jesus is an “artifice for aggression.” It is because we are a people with a distinct history, territory, and identity that predates both British India and independent India.

Naga history will be written by Nagas, not by an RSS ideologue from outside.

S. AKHO LEYRI
October 13, 2026.