indigenousnagaland #3 - Indigenous Contributions In The First and Second World Wars

truthtellerhere (59)in #history • 7 years ago (edited)

Grave of Late Putanleng in France. Photo - Rajeshwor Yumnam.jpg
Putanleng (Tangkhul Naga, from Manipur) is buried in st. sever cemetery extension in Rouen, France.

Grave of Akhill Pukhini.jpg
The Grave of Akhill Pukhini is also located in France in the Barly French Military Cemetery.

Yumnam Rajeshwor Singh writes,

Almost all of the hospitals at Rouen remained there for practically the whole of the war. They included eight general, five stationary, one British Red Cross, one labour hospital, and No. 2 Convalescent Depot. A number of the dead from these hospitals were buried in other cemeteries, but the great majority were taken to the city cemetery of St. Sever. So it can be concluded that Putanleng died in a hospital due to illness or by a wound from a battle. There is a possibility of Putanleng’s death in one of the above Hospitals after a battle injury. The German offensive had started one month before he died.

He continues,

Another laborer’s grave picture was also handed over to his grandson, Mr Lohro from Mao, Manipur. The Grave of Akhill Pukhini is also located in France in the Barly French Military Cemetery. Barly is a village and commune in the Department of the Pas-de-Calais, some 25 kilometres south-west of Arras. Pukhini did not die in Barly. His remains were brought from isolated burials in France along with eight other Indians after the end of 1st world war to be reburied in this Cemetery.

FIRST WORLD WAR

The First World War (1914-1918) or the Great War for Civilization, as it was known at the time, was a watershed event in modern world history. The events of that conflict changed the social and political map of the world forever. Its repercussions reverberate through time and many contemporary conflicts trace their roots directly to the fallout of that war.

The British Government sent more than 3,200 Nagas to World War 1, which came as the first opportunity for Nagas to come into contact with the outside world. They were deployed in Europe, mostly in France. In the foreign soil, Nagas felt alienated from the other British troops. They, after they return to their homeland, agreed to work towards unity and friendship among the various Naga tribes. This turned out to be the beginning of Naga Revolution.

These Naga pioneers eventually formed the Naga Club in 1918, which would later metamorphose into today's Naga National Council. They, with their eyes opened by the war experience, began to discuss about their inalienable rights to sovereignty.

The Naga Club - apart from providing the socio-political foundation for the Naga nationalist movement - submitted a memorandum to the Simon Commission, in January 1929, at Kohima, stating that Nagas would not join the Indian Union because they were not Indians, thus laying the seeds of their long struggle for self-determination.

This was also a transitional phase of time when the old and the new religions collided head on, between the traditional religion and Christianity. The unparalleled stories of great visions and miracles of this phase of time are recorded in many thelogical texts. The birth of the Naga nation was indeed a new birth spiritually, socially and politically. The Naga indigenous people ended up becoming politically more advanced and sophisticated than the "historically advanced communities" of the region. Some dubbed it as a "thousand year journey within a generation".

Most of the Manipur Labour Corps (MLC) are Nagas - not Manipuris. It's sad that the war was fought by one ethnic group while the credit is given to a whole another group. R.S.Ruichumhao (Tangkhul Naga) led the 1200 strong Tangkhul contingent out of the total 2000 MLCs. A different set of other 2000 Nagas ("Naga Labour Corps", as opposed to "Manipur Labour Corps") was from Nagaland. They all were engaged in non-combat duty - digging trenches, cleaning military camps, transporting arms and ammunition, construction of military camps and running errands. All personnel were trained in digging trenches and shifting the injured and the dead.

Many of them died in the war and never came back home again.

SECOND WORLD WAR

The Second World War - unlike the First World War that was fought in Europe - was fought in their indigenous territory, between the British and the Japanese forces.

Nagaland's capital, Kohima, was picked over the more celebrated battles of D-Day and Waterloo in a 2013 contest organised by the National Army Museum, as Britain’s greatest battle.

The winner was something of a surprise given the enduring prominence of Waterloo and D-Day/Normandy in Britain. Indeed, the troops who fought in India and Burma in World War II called themselves “The Forgotten Army”.

The battle is often referred to as the "Stalingrad of the East". Earl Mountbatten described the battles of Kohima as "probably one of the greatest battles in history". The British said, had the attitude of the Nagas been different the battle might have prolonged, the defeat of the Japanese might have been delayed and the casualties of the British might have been higher or the battle might have taken a different turn.

Reasons for Naga support to the British

For anthropologist C.V. Furer Haimendorf (2004), the reason for the loyalty of the Nagas was the popularity of the British officers. He states that though Professor Hutton and Mr.Mills are no longer in the Naga Hills, the tradition of friendship they maintained with the Nagas saved many soldiers in the battle.

The British though they destroyed their paddy or house, they were able to replace it or provide relief to the Nagas when they needed it, which the Japanese were unable to do. The personal and the material damages which the Nagas suffered in the military operation were much greater than they had suffered at the hands of the Japanese. However, the loyalty of the Nagas to the British at no time was in question.

Asoso Yonuo says, “Nagas put extraordinary labour, showed spontaneous loyalty to the British and helped them in different forms in the hope that the British would not fail to do something for the good of their future” (Yonuo 1992: 147).

For Murkot Ramunny (1988), Charles Pawsey was one of the reasons why the Nagas remained loyal to the British. The belief of Murkot Ramunny is also shared by Arthur Swinson. Swinson was of the opinion that the part played by Charles Pawsey, both directly through his courage and indirectly through his influences, was important and should never be forgotten.

Swinson further says, “It is doubtful, however, if the Nagas would have undertaken any of this difficult and dangerous work if it had not been for the extraordinary character of Charles Pawsey the Deputy Commissioner of Kohima” (Swinson 1956: 145). He also adds that Charles Pawsey considered Nagas as his children and in return the Nagas also considered him as their father.

The Nagas trusted him completely; they knew that in no circumtances whatsoever his word would be broken. “So, when Mutaguchi’s thrust against Kohima began, Nagas remained loyal to the British cause, despite the loss of their homes and territory, despite danger and death” (ibid 146). Another reason for the loyalty of the Nagas was the cautious policy of the British with which they governed the Naga Hills.

Moreover, “The Deputy Commissioner of the Naga Hills and the political agent of Manipur state were always available to the humblest Naga and patiently listened to their ‘most involved’ and ‘longwinded complaint’” (File no. 497, 1944: Nagaland State Archive). Thus, it was because of “this patience, tolerances and also because the entire tribal dispute are settled by tribal custom that the extra-ordinarily close relation between the administrative head and the people was maintained” (ibid).

Naga contribution to the British cause

“British troops were certainly taken at once for friends and allies, but not so Indian troops. Nagas continued to regard Indian troops with suspicion, as Indians in the I.N.A. [Indian National Army] were operating with the Japanese and it was almost impossible for them to distinguish between friend and foe where the Indians were concerned. Nagas disliked the I.N.A. more than the Japanese though they said the Japanese were not human beings and must be another kind of animal. Sixty-five Japanese were killed by the Nagas one of whom was an officer and twenty-nine Japanese were also captured by them (File no. 497, 1944: Nagaland State Archive). They also captured "Fifty-seven I.N.A, Jiffs or enemy agent invariably referred to by the Nagas as Congress Wallahs" (ibid). They at one time had the distinction of having captured more Japanese prisoners than the whole of the Fourteenth British Army. Most of the ill-treatments which the Nagas suffered were from the hands of the "renegade Indian who had accompanied the Japanese and they did not try to hide their political faith and all their acts were carried out in the name of one of the leading political bodies in India, which the Nagas invariably referred to them as ‘Congress’” (ibid). John Colvin also pointed out that, “the members of the Indian National Army, the Jiffs (Japanese Indian fighting forces) behaved more disgracefully than the Japanese themselves. All cases of rape reported were found to have been committed by this rabble and not by the Japanese” (Colvin 1994: 35).

Almost all the Nagas remained loyal to the British, except for few like Zhapu Phizo and his brother Keviyalie as the Japanese promised that “they would recognise Nagaland as an independent Sovereign State” (Bendangangshi 1993: 49).

John Colvin also says, “Irrespective of the tribe or sub-tribe, the record of the Nagas during the Japanese occupation was one of extraordinary loyalty to the British” (Colvin 1944: 35).

Ursula Graham Bowers, an anthropologist who works for the Pitts-Rivers Museum in Oxford, was in the Naga Hills to study the Nagas in 1939. She stated that during the time of the battle her personal Naga staff asked for leave. Even though Ursula knew them well, she believed that they were unlikely to return. “But they did so, twenty four-hours later, having gone home, made their wills arranged for their families, given their heirloom necklace to their sons, left beads for burial and came back to die if necessary, with their English friend” (Colvin 1994: 35).

According to E. T. D. Lambert, “Naga loyalty, particularly of our old enemy Khonoma, had to be seen to be believed” (Lambert 1946: 144). In one instance, Angamis from Kigwema village came and told the British that there were many Japanese in some building few steps away from the village on the other side of the road. The British artillery quickly got the range through an observation plan, but due to inaccuracy in briefing the spotter in the plane, the village was shelled for half an hour instead of Japanese lines. “Fourteen villagers were killed and as many injured, but men of that village continued to come to our lines and give us targets in the area” (ibid).

Frederick Weedman writes,

"A Naga Headman was flogged into unconsciousness, revived, and then made to watch his wife being flogged, because he would not divulge the location of the British troops. He held firm and so did his wife. They guided our columns, collected information about Japanese movements, carried our supplies, carried stretchers and brought in our wounded under the heaviest of fire... . No people were more faithful to the Allied Cause, or have deserved better of it, than the Nagas."

“How many lives were owed to the courage and skill of these remarkable hillmen will never be known; but the figure must certainly run into thousands” (Swinson 1956: 213). Arthur Swinson further commented that the Nagas evacuated the wounded soldiers down the slippery hills with great courage and endurance. “If it weren’t for them, hundreds of men must have died; no European could possibly have taken stretchers over that country. All the troops knew, when they first encountered the Nagas, was that they were head-hunters... But soon they were struck not only by their cheeriness and eagerness to help but by their intelligence”.

Field-Marshal Sir William Slim (Viscount Slim), the commander of Britain's 14th Army, acknowledged the assistance rendered by the Nagas in his book, Defeat Into Victory, in which he spoke of "the gallant Nagas whose loyalty, even in the most depressing times of the invasion, never faltered. Despite floggings, torture, executions and even the burning of their villages, they refused to aid the Japanese in any war or to betray our troops. Their active help to us was beyond value or praise ... and no soldier of the 14th Army who met them will ever think of them but with admiration and affection".

Conclusion

The Naga contribution to the British did much to bring the Japanese invaders to a halt. Hence, the British said that, had the attitude of the Nagas been different the battle might have prolonged, the defeat of the Japanese might have been delayed and the casualties of the British might have been higher or the battle might have taken a different turn.

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