Time is known to be a great healer, but the injustice of some wounds cannot be forgotten. The Naga people had a land of their own until 1826, when the British colonialists, through the Treaty of Yandabo, drew the Indo-Burma boundary, thus arbitrarily dividing the Naga tribes and their lands between the two countries. The Naga resistance to British subjugation began in 1832, when the British army entered their 'homeland' for the first time. The Naga Hills, then part of Assam, were classified by the Indian Home Rule Act (1919) as 'Backward Areas' that were to remain outside the purview of the Assam Provincial Assembly. In 1929, the Naga leaders sent a memorandum to the Simon commission asserting that, after the British left, the Naga people wanted to be left as they were before the advent of colonialism – independent and free. There was some hope when the Government of India Act (1935) declared the Naga Hills as 'Excluded Areas' from both British India and British Burma.
In June 1946, the first agreement was signed between the Naga National Council (NNC, the first all-Naga political organisation, formed earlier that year) and the interim government of India. The agreement stated that a protected state would be formed in 'Nagalim' under the NNC, with India as 'the guardian power' for ten years, at the end of which the agreement would be reviewed. However, on 14 August 1947, the declaration of Naga independence by the NNC led to a dramatic volte-face, and the interim government deemed the previous agreement to be invalid. Thereafter, in May 1951, a Naga-organised plebiscite in all Naga-inhabited areas resulted in an overwhelming vote in favour of Naga independence. The Indian government responded by sending the Assam Rifles to the Naga Hills.
These circumstances led the Naga to take up arms, presenting the Indian state with a rationale to silence the insurgency with brute force. Security forces were sent in large numbers, and severe repression of both the underground cadres and ordinary Naga ensued. In 1962, the state of Nagaland was officially created, following a 16-point agreement between the Indian government and Naga leaders. These leaders were actually intermediaries between the government and the underground leaders, but the latter were excluded during the crucial negotiations. The Naga people thus became Indians by deception and force. Today, the Naga tribes and lands are divided between India and Burma, wherein they have been further sub-divided into four states in the former and two in the latter.
During 1956-57, the Indian state used 'strategic hamletting', a counterinsurgency strategy first employed by the British in Malaysia and the US in Vietnam, to isolate the Naga insurgents from the people. These forced amalgamation of villages, called 'groupings', proved to be one of the most trying experiences that civilians were subjected to, as elaborated upon in the following conversations with Naga elders.