The Naga Students Federation (NSF) is all set to celebrate the centenary of Naga Club at Naga Solidarity Park in Kohima on Wednesday on the theme “celebrating the legacy”.
The programme will begin with the unveiling of a commemorative monolith and “a heralding call and invoking of traditional blessing”.
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The centenary celebration of the Naga Club sparked controversy with the NSF and the erstwhile Naga Club members deciding to celebrate it separately.
The Kohima Village Council said the act of commemorating 100 years of Naga Club by erecting two monoliths would make a mockery of the vision of the Naga Club and also diminish the solemnity of the occasion.
The council decided not to take part in either of the celebratory programmes.
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However, the NSF, in a recent statement, made it clear that by celebrating the event, it by no means claims ownership of the Naga Club.
It said the formation of the Naga Club was epoch-making for the Nagas towards realisation of their identity and raising social and political consciousness, thereby starting the Journey of collectively responding to changes of time and envisioning a shared future.
“The NSF feels the Naga people should celebrate this glorious legacy and take time to retrospect and introspect and thus find inspirations to continue our journey with renewed vigour,” the federation stated.
United Nations consultant for Peace Building and Dialogue Philippus Petrus Visser will attend the celebration as an honoured guest while former secretary general of South Asia Programmme for Human Rights Tapan Bose will share his ‘journey with the Nagas’ in the event. They arrived in Kohima on Monday.
The NSF officials told media persons on Monday that around 3000 delegates form the entire Naga-inhabited areas of Nagaland, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur in India and from Myanmar were expected to attend the event.
They said the commemorative programme will be an occasion to reaffirm the pledge of our ancestors.
The Naga Club was formed by the Nagas in Kohima in 1918 for protecting the Naga identity, rights, land, Naga village sovereign system and for self-determination.
The Naga Club submitted a memorandum to the Simon Commission in 1929 expressing the desire of the Nagas to restore their independent country as before.