Downing the Daos

The most warlike Baptists in the world can probably be found among the Naga tribesmen in the northeastern corner of India. From the protective cover of their primeval forests and rocky hills, the Nagas have fought a twelve-year guerrilla war and withstood air raids by Indian planes and ground attacks by about 40,000 Indian troops. Though they started out armed only with some old Japanese rifles and their traditional dao, a long knife shaped like a meat ax, the estimated 5,000 rebels now have relatively modern weapons, some captured from the Indians, but most supplied by India's subcontinental rival, Pakistan. Last week, with the Baptist Church serving as mediator, the Naga rebels agreed to lay down their daos for a month-long armistice and an official peace conference.

The quarrel dates back to 1947, when the Nagas expected to get their independence at the same time as India. Instead, the 370,000 Nagas were incorporated into the Indian state of Assam. Fighting began in 1952, when the Assam Rifles tried to enforce Indian rule. Under the British raj, the Nagas were left more or less alone. Their chief contact with the outside world came through U.S. and British Baptist missionaries, who built schools and clinics and tried to put clothes on the Naga, which in Sanskrit means "naked." A vigorous and intelligent people, thought to be distantly related to the Indonesians, the Nagas are avid for education, skilled at terrace farming, and use dogs for eating as well as hunting. Naga men, like Americans, always turn to look at the back of a girl's leg--a well-shaped calf is the epitome of beauty in Nagaland.

India has always felt somewhat guilty about its Naga war, especially since Gandhi himself had promised the hill people independence if they wanted it. Last year Nehru gave in to the extent of creating Nagaland state, with its capital at Kohima. In February, a Baptist convention proposed that a three-man committee consisting of two Indians and Britain's champion of the underdog, the Rev. Michael Scott, explore the prospects of talks with the rebels. The Naga leader, Angami Zapu Phizo, who is known to his followers as "The One," and who lives in exile in London, was promised immunity if he returned to India.

In New Delhi last week the Indian government confirmed that the Naga armistice will begin on July 26. During that period the Indian government will suspend military operations, reconnaissance flights, imposition of fines on villages that misbehave, and restrict patrolling to a thousand yards from the perimeters of army defense posts. For their part, the Naga rebels will suspend ambushes, sniping, kidnaping of hostages and attacking army posts and administrative centers.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.