Kohima: Naga Club
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A backgrounder
1918- 2023
Tora Agarwala, June 9, 2023: The Indian Express
The office of the iconic century-old Naga Club, which was “revived” in 2017, was vandalised and partly demolished on May 27. The destruction of the colonial-era heritage building — located in the heart of Nagaland’s capital Kohima — led to widespread condemnation and the constitution of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the matter. Three people were promptly arrested.
Only for it to later turn out that the members who revived the club were behind the midnight demolition operation – because they could not get the incumbent occupants to move out. But this is no ordinary civil dispute. Linked to it is the claim to the legacy of the Naga Club, known to have planted the first seeds of Naga nationalism.
The Naga Club 1918: the ground for Naga nationalism
Often described as the first Naga organisation with representation from all the sub-tribes of the community, the Naga Club was formed in 1918 with the objective to “unite all Nagas”.
The accounts of its genesis vary. Some say the club was formed when a group of men from different Naga sub-tribes — part of the Labour Corps during World War I — returned home from France. They felt the need for a common platform to “unite” different Naga tribes and thus, formed the Naga Club. Yet others say that it was formed by the staff of the British Deputy Commissioner in Kohima to provide free accommodation for Nagas who came from remote areas.
Either way, the consensus is that the Naga Club paved the path for the Naga struggle for self-determination. This is rooted in an incident in 1929, when the Simon Commission was visiting India. The club members submitted a memorandum to the Commission, asking them to leave the Nagas out of the “reformed scheme of administration” that the British were planning to introduce for India.
Many describe this request to “leave the Nagas alone” as the first recorded articulation of Naga political aspirations on which stands the Naga quest for self-determination. In the 1950s, the Naga National Council, founded by the legendary Angami Z Phizo, gave Naga nationalism a more defined objective: a sovereign homeland. An armed struggle — independent India’s longest running insurgency — ensued. Several Naga groups are currently in talks with the Union government, but resolution remains elusive.
Decline and a ‘revival’
Post Independence, the Naga Club became largely dormant or, as some say, went through a “hiatus”, courtesy the political turbulence in the state.
That meant the Naga Club’s offices — a bungalow built in the 1930s — was taken over by the state forest department. Then, in 1983, it became the office of the Naga Students’ Federation (NSF), the apex student body in Nagaland. Later, part of the building also housed the offices of the All Nagaland College Students’ Union, the Kohima press club, and other commercial shops. In 2017, a group of people, who claimed to be descendants of the original founders of the Naga Club, came together to “revive” it, and celebrate its hundredth year anniversary in 2018.
An incident of vandalism
The revival, however, was contentious, with the NSF also staking its claim to the club. The conflict dramatically culminated in the wee hours of May 27, when a part of the Naga Club building was demolished. The NSF, the current occupants of the building, filed an FIR against “unknown miscreants”. The complaint was registered at the North Kohima Police Station under various sections including trespassing, breaking in, criminal conspiracy, among others.
As condemnation poured in, the government quickly formed an SIT. Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio said, “Respect for private and public properties is fundamental in a civilized society. I appeal to all right-thinking citizens to maintain peace and harmony.”
The NSCN-IM, the largest and most influential of Naga armed groups, called the vandalism “an act of insanity”, which was an “insult to the identity of the Naga freedom movement”.
The twist
A day after the demolition, the office-bearers of the reconstituted Naga Club claimed responsibility. They reasoned that they were, in fact, the “bona fide owners of the land and building”.
The club’s president, Kuolachalie Seyie, filed for anticipatory bail and petitioned the Kohima Bench of the Gauhati High Court to quash the NSF’s FIR. The publicity cell of the reconstituted club also issued a statement calling NSF’s FIR “vexatious” and “baseless”. The court, on Monday, disposed of the case, granting Seyie “absolute pre-arrest bail”, subject to some conditions, including appearing before the investigating officer as and when summoned.
A civil dispute
According to new club members, the building was let out to the student body on April 7, 1983 by the Naga Club on the former’s request. However, as tenants, the NSF had defaulted on paying its Rs 500 monthly rent (barring the first month in 1983), the club members alleged. They said they had sent several eviction notices to the NSF, in the last few years, but the latter had not responded. “It is NSF that is in unlawful and forced occupation of the Naga Club,” they said in a letter to the police.
The club members also alleged that they had tried to reach out to the NSF for discussions, but the latter had refused. “The building was dilapidated and we needed to rebuild it…our tenant was not talking to us, ignoring the eviction notices…that is why we were compelled to demolish the building… since there was no room for dialogue,” said Seyie. In a press note, the Club said the step was not to claim the building as “property for personal gain” but to rebuild the club into “a monumental multi-storey befitting the priceless legacy of the Nagas.”
The NSF, on the other hand, said that the Naga Club’s members had in 1983 sought its help to reclaim the building from the forest department. In return, the youth body became the Naga Club’s “tenant” based on “good consent of mutual understanding”. The application for rent, they say, was just for “legal evidence” that the Naga Club members were the original owners of the building.
The NSF argues that it has since become not only the “custodian” of the property, but also one that carried the legacy of the club forward. The newly constituted club, the NSF says, is not legitimate. “How does NSF pay rent from May 1983 till whatever date to an organisation when it was only formed in 2017/18?” it said in a statement.
In 2018, the NSF celebrated 100 years of the Naga Club — in a ceremony separate from the celebrations of the reconstituted Naga Club.
The student body’s President Kegwayhun Tep had said in a statement that the new Naga Club was “formed suddenly” to “hijack” their celebrations. It added: “The NSF is the humble caretaker of the Naga club building. It took the responsibility to reclaim the Club from the government – it was in itself a political statement…[The NSF has] steadfastly protected, promoted and safeguarded some of the symbolic things they left behind.”
