Life of a legendary rebel

Rani Gaidinliu was kept in Gauhati Jail for one year after the pronouncement of the life imprisonment sentence at Imphal in the Court of the Political Agent. Young Gaidinliu was barely 18 years old then. She did not know the local language, found Gauhati hot and humid, and she did not have suitable clothing either. She felt crushed, but her belief in God kept up her hope that she would be free one day despite the life imprisonment sentence. On her request, she was transferred to Shillong Jail after one year. In Shillong, she spent six years. From her later accounts it is apparent that she was treated well by the other Khasi prison mates. She could also establish contact with some of the tribesmen of the Naga Hills and North Cachar Hills. Khonoma men, and even Mokokchung Naga dobhasis, out of love, met her and gave her presents.

As narrated earlier, Pandit Nehru heard of her and later met her in Shillong Jail. She learnt to drape the all-white Assamese sari, learnt Khasi and the Assamese languages. She became quite popular inside the jail. Her fight with the British became well known. From Shillong she was transferred to Aijal (Aizawl) Jail for another six years. There she learnt the Mizo language. At the time of the Japanese invasion, Rani Gaidinliu was transferred again to Tura Jail. Nehru ensured that she was a popular prisoner by applying repeated pressure for her release and describing her as 'Rani'.

After the Second World War, one Mrs Phillips Jones of Oxfordshire, England made a frantic attempt to locate Rani Gaidinliu whose fight against the British was discussed in the British House of Commons. She approached the secretary of state for India to get her released. The India Office in London referred the matter to the viceroy and ultimately to the governor of Assam. Nari Rustomji, advisor to the governor of Assam, refused to take a sympathetic view of Rani Gaidinliu.

In 1947 when Jawaharlal Nehru became the interim prime minister of India, the local state government of Assam was under pressure to release Rani Gaidinliu. This led to her eventual release from Tura Jail. Mrs Phillips Jones's persistence and the intervention by the prime minister did the job, overruling the bureaucrats in Shillong and Imphal. One condition was put forward by the government of Manipur: she would not be allowed to return to her native state Manipur for five years. Hence, she was settled at a Naga village of Yimrap near Mokokchung along with her brother Khiusinnang in erstwhile Naga Hills district of Assam with many restrictions imposed on her movement. During her stay in Yimrap village in Mokokchung area, her brother married a Chang Naga girl and settled there. She was granted a section of armed guards from the Nagaland police, a government accommodation and freedom fighter pension of Rs 15 per month from the Manipur and Nagaland governments. She made some lifelong friends among the local Aos and Chang elders, especially Mr Sashimeren Aier, a young student leader who took up her case. An eyewitness account by Captain Maharaj Priya Brata Singh, the younger brother of Maharaj Bodhichandra Singh, who was in the 1st Bn. Assam Regiment and met her at Yimrap is as follows,

… many years later, when I was in the army, I had the occasion to tour then Naga Hills. Near Mokokchung, one of my porters told me that at Yimrap village a 'Kacha Nagani' was staying. The word struck me and I wanted to meet her. Myself, the porter and my orderly, one Rupunanleng went to the house of the 'Nagani'. A slim and tall lady, all in white, perhaps a sari, asked me what I wanted. I spoke in Manipuri, and she also knew Manipuri, I said, 'Who are you?' She replied, 'Gaidinliu'. I suddenly remembered the girl whom the British tried to arrest and put in jail long ago. I asked her what she was doing. She told me that the Government put her in Yimrap and did not allow her to return to Manipur. She was given a monthly pension of Rs 15/; she was with her brother. But she was living in that village as a native.

Priya Brata Singh also recounted his meeting with Gaidinliu's mother in her native village of Longkao (also known as Nungkao). He writes,

Still later when I became the Chief Minister of Manipur, I happened to visit Nungkao village in Tamenglong. It was an orderly Pagin, a Kuki who with a certain fear told me that Nungkao was village of Rani Gaidinliu. The whole village took interest in me. I was accompanied by Rashid Ali, Commandant of 4th Assam Rifles. Bob Khathing, the Hill Minister had gone ahead for shooting monkeys, so Rashid and myself went to Nungkao. I met the mother of Gaidinliu who wept and requested me to return her daughter. I told her that I had met Gaidinliu long ago in Yimrap. The villagers showed me the site of the temple built by Gaidinliu long ago. I saw the charred remains of the wooden posts.

After five years she was allowed to enter Manipur in 1952 when restriction on her movement was lifted. She also met Prime Minister Nehru during his visit to Imphal the same year. She settled down in Tamenglong headquarter in quest of a peaceful life. She met Prime Minister Nehru and her daughter Indira Gandhi in 1958 in Delhi.

Rani Gaidinliu continued to work for the social and economic development of her people in the area of Manipur, Nagaland and North Cachar Hills of Assam. She worked tirelessly for the unity and ethnic consolidation of the cognate tribes namely, Zemei, Liangmei and Rongmei including Puimei or Inpuimei, into one ethnic group known as the Zeliangrong. This evolution and consolidation of the kindred tribes had started when Gaidinliu was in prison. In 1947, at the initiative of Namgaheing Iheilung, a policeman of Assam police, and K. Kakhangai of Kakhulong, Imphal formed the Zeliangrong Union by performing the Chuksu Garoumei ceremony or 'traditional oath-taking ceremony' to stay together in unity come what may, based on common history, culture and way of life. The idea of a common Zeliangrong association took root in earlier bodies such as Kabui Chingsang (1925), Kabui Samiti (1935), and Kabui Naga Association (1947). Though the Zeliangrong elites started the process of consolidation of the kindred tribes into a common platform, it was the culmination and reflection of the vision of Jadonang and Gaidinliu. According to Prof. Gangmumei Kamei, the creation of the Zeliangrong fraternity was the greatest achievement of the Zeliangrong people in the 20th century. The feeling of oneness had persisted despite the differences in political perception and objectives, the mainstream Indian democratic process, ethnic nationalism or ethnic regionalism of the Zeliangrong people. Religious diversity (Christianity and indigenous religious faith), inter-cognate group self-identity assertion, lack of common language and administration are not necessarily barriers to the evolution of the common Zeliangrong identity.

After the departure of the British, the political development in the Zeliangrong country was conditioned by the political processes unfolding in the Naga Hills district (now Nagaland), state of Manipur and North Cachar Hills district of Assam. The Zeliangrong people were drawn into the Naga independence movement initiated by the Naga National Council (NNC) started by Zappuh Phizo. They participated in Phizo's political activities and joined the Naga rebellion. In Manipur, the Zeliangrong people participated in the democratic process of the state initiated by the Maharaja and the liberal leaders who were influenced by mainstream Indian nationalism, though there were regional and Meitei nationalists who believed in the autonomy and regionalism of the state. The North Cachar Hills did not have a separate political identity like the Eastern India Tribal Union, based in Shillong, where leaders like Rev. Nichols Roy participated in the Constitution drafting process and pleaded for autonomy of the hill areas of Assam culminating in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. Manipur's participation in the Indian Republic after her merger was dominated by 23 years of Central rule, people's dissatisfaction and movement for statehood. There was also an extension of the Naga insurgency in the Zeliangrong area which can be explained as a reaction against Indian rule represented by the unpopular governments of Manipur and Assam. The Zeliangrong people also extensively pushed for 'Homeland movement' under the leadership of Rani Gaidinliu. According to Prof. Kamei, this was a reflection of the three trends of the Zeliangrong political perceptions: participation in the Indian political process was necessary for social and economic development; the homeland was necessary for the strengthening of the Zeliangrong identity and Zeliangrong regionalism; and participation in Naga insurgency was the identification of the Zeliangrong with the greater pan-Naga identity. Moreover, it can be argued that it was the Zeliangrong people who started the 'Naga Raj' movement under Jadonang and Gaidinliu.

The Naga Nationalist Movement Under NNC

In Nagaland, the Naga National Council (NNC) completely dominated the political scene from 1947 onwards. Post-Independence, the NNC did not accept the Constitution of India being drafted by the Constituent Assembly. The advisory committee on autonomy for the hill tribes of Assam appointed by the Constituent Assembly persuaded A.Z. Phizo, president of the NNC, to accept the autonomy based on the nine-point agreement which was ultimately written into the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. However, the moderates were overwhelmed by the extremist Naga nationalists in the NNC and they took a firm stand of complete independence for the Nagas. The NNC organised a 'Naga Voluntary Plebiscite' on 16 May 1951. The people put their thumb impressions on the declaration of the NNC that the Nagas were an independent nation and they wanted to remain so.

The NNC's talks with the governor-general of India, C. Rajagopalachari, and later with Prime Minister Nehru did not produce any result. The open standoff came to the fore during Nehru's visit to Kohima in 1953, accompanied by the then Burmese (Myanmar) Prime Minister U Nu, which was boycotted by the Nagas. A fierce conflict started between the Indian Army and the Naga Home Guards.

This was a result of the two different perceptions in post-Independent India. The Indian government's understanding was that after the British departure, the British-Indian provinces including Assam were automatically transferred to the dominion of India which became a republic in 1950.

(Excerpted with permission from Som Kamei's 'Rani Gaidinliu'; published by Niyogi Books)