The Naga peace talks began 10 years ago with the signing of a ceasefire that came into effect on August 1, 1997. These longwinded talks finally came home to Dimapur this week. Through it all, a peaceful solution, acceptable to all, has eluded the vexed issue. Many despair that the ritualistic extension of ceasefire — on Tuesday both sides agreed to extend the ceasefire “indefinitely” — has failed to ensure a lasting settlement. So what is at stake? And how did it all begin? Samudra Gupta Kashyap pieces together the story

• What is the genesis of the problem?

The Naga tribes inhabiting the Naga Hills that now comprise the state of Nagaland, were living on their own. They shared a friendly relationship with the Assamese, until they discovered they were being gradually brought under British rule. The British constituted the district of Naga Hills in 1866 but it took almost five decades to consolidate their effective control over the Nagas. British occupation of the Naga Hills, however, was marked by several incidents of violent resistance, forcing the British to keep the Naga Hills — then geographically clubbed under Assam — outside the purview of the Assam Provincial Assembly.

In 1929, the Naga Club submitted a memorandum to the Simon Commission saying the Nagas would not join India when the British departed, and that they should be left to live on their own, “independent of others, as they were before the colonisation.” In 1935, the British declared the Naga Hills as an “Excluded Area.” As the British prepared to leave India, the Naga National Council (NNC) proposed an interim government in the Naga Hills with India as a “guardian power” for ten years.

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