As Naga leader Muivah visits his village after decades, what is the future of the insurgency?

The significance of 91-year-old Thuingaleng Muivah’s week-long visit to the Manipur village in which he was born has as much to do with the trajectory of the Naga national movement as it has to do with the stature of the man himself. The visit, starting Wednesday, was the first time in more than five decades that the Naga leader had returned to his birthplace of Somdal.

Who is Muivah. What is his story? And what does his visit reflect about the state of the Naga campaign for a homeland?

It was in 1997 that my husband and I met him and interviewed him over a month in Thailand. This was shortly after the ceasefire and beginning of the Indo-Naga talks. It was our belief, my husband and mine, that if we could tell the story of the Naga national movement, it would create an awareness of the Nagas and facilitate the talks. Unfortunately, we could not publish the interviews in a book until 2019.

The book presents the story of the Naga national movement as the participants see it. It was during that time I learnt of Muivah’s story.

NSCN (IM) General Secretary Thuingaleng Muivah arrived in #Manipur after over 50 years, who headed to his native village,...

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