Qualla: Naga Army

Naga Army: Introduction

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Xufanc, CC0. In 1966, a column of Naga guerrillas led by Thuingaleng Muivah left their homeland in northeastern India and trekked for three months across the mountainous Sagaing Division of Burma to reach China. In Tengchong, Yunnan, over 130 fighters were trained and armed with brand-new Chinese rifles and rocket launchers before making the long march home. Two more expeditions followed within a year. This was not the beginning of the Naga insurgency -- that had started 14 years earlier -- but it was the moment that transformed a local rebellion into an internationalized conflict. The Naga Army, founded by Reivilie Angami in 1952, has been fighting ever since, making the Naga people's struggle for self-determination one of the longest-running insurgencies in the world.

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Naga Army: A People Divided by Borders

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Xufanc, CC0. The Naga people inhabit a mountainous region that straddles the India-Myanmar border, their homeland carved up by colonial boundaries drawn without their consent. When India gained independence in 1947, the Nagas declared their own sovereignty -- a claim that New Delhi rejected. ...

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Naga Army: The Shillong Accord and Its Fracture

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Xufanc, CC0. The 1975 Shillong Accord was supposed to end the fighting. A key group of the underground Naga political organization accepted military defeat and agreed to surrender arms. Around 1,400 Naga soldiers laid down their weapons. Over 600 prisoners of war were released from Indian jai...

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Naga Army: Ceasefire Without Resolution

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Xufanc, CC0. In 1997, after years of fractricidal fighting between rival Naga factions -- the NSCN (IM) led by Muivah and the NSCN (K) led by S.S. Khaplang -- the Indian government brokered a ceasefire with the NSCN (IM). Eleven ground rules were established: no killing, kidnapping, or extort...

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Naga Army: Reconciliation's Long Road

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Xufanc, CC0. The Naga insurgency has outlasted the Cold War, survived multiple ceasefire agreements, and defied every attempt at permanent resolution. What began as a straightforward independence movement has fragmented into rival armed factions, each claiming to represent the Naga people. Th...

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Image: Xufanc | CC0