It was on a sunny afternoon in the fields of Tuophema
village that Khatsümvü and a friend were planning on drinking their rice beer
after a hard day’s work when word came around that the Naga army was in dire
need of soldiers. Some villagers from Kohima village had been captured by the
Indian Army in Gariphema which had created further clashes in their area. A
young Khatsümvü, who had desperately been wanting to join the struggle then,
took the opportunity and voluntarily joined the day itself, a decision he has
never regretted.
Khatsümvü was a part of the ten Naga Army groups who were
trained in East Pakistan in between 1962 to 1968. They travelled from Burma to
East Pakistan through boats for around 15 days. Although he cannot recollect
the year he went to East Pakistan, one thing he remembers is that the trip
would be the first time he laid his hands on foreign guns. On their way back to
Nagaland, they carried weapons and amenities provided which weighed more than
30 kgs. The situation had gotten worse on their return home and he will soon be
jailed and tortured for one month in Chiechama village. He was soon bailed out
with the help of his wife who had been pleading him to give up the struggle.
Yet, he went underground again. After some months he would soon come overground
for good for the sake of his family.
Hunger, according to Khatsümvü, was the hardest part of
being in the struggle who like the rest of the Naga armies starved for days on
end. The Indian Army would often capture and destroy villages which put an end
to their ration supply. He also recalls their stays in Burma where they would
dry and ground coffee beans and drink them since there was no tea.
But one of the most lonesome days was the time when he would
see the ripe paddy fields and he would think of his family and friends and how
he’d wished he was also working with them in the fields and harvesting the
crops. Soon after coming overground, he took up his old profession of farming
to take care of his family. His biggest regret is illiteracy, he says, and more
so because he could not write down his days in the Naga Freedom struggle.
The passion, as he narrates his story, is inevitable.
Khatsümvü does not know how old he is now neither does he have any idea which
year he joined the movement, but he would always remember that sunny afternoon
in the fields of Tuophema when he and a friend had planned to drink rice beer
but instead joined the Naga struggle for freedom.
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