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GO FOR IT IN NAGALAND

THE STATE HUMAN Development Report 2004 for Nagaland, the first for the State, is revealing in many respects. According to conventional wisdom, the decades-long insurgency, which has claimed thousands of lives, should have pulled the State down in every way. Quite to the contrary, Nagaland scores higher than the national average in several important areas, including life expectancy at birth, adult literacy, and per capita income. These are the three indicators that go into the computation of the Human Development Index, a concept formulated by Amartya Sen and Mahbub-ul-Haque in 1990 for a comprehensive measurement of development. The HDI for Nagaland is 0.62, which is significantly higher than India's 0.472. The State also scores better on the Gender Disparity Index, which compares human development between the sexes. These are commendable achievements and speak to the determination of the Naga people to overcome the political and development constraints that the insurgency placed on the State, on top of the challenge of geographical remoteness from the rest of the country. The report credits these strides in development to the "social capital" stemming out of traditional village institutions and the unique framework of gender relations among the Naga people. The survival of these institutions and practices in the midst of conflict is by itself a matter for celebration.

On the basis of its HDI, Nagaland ranks 11 among all Indian States. But there are several gaps in its development, most notably in the areas of infrastructure and industrial growth. The report also makes the point that notwithstanding the high literacy rate, the quality of education has declined. Of serious concern is the high rate of unemployment among educated youth. Rightly, the report places emphasis on lasting peace as an essential requirement for the future development of the State. Released at the end of January, the report could not have come at a better time. Over the past two months, the peace process between the Centre and the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah), the group at the forefront of the insurgency, has reached a significant stage. The two sides have conducted several rounds of talks since mid-January in New Delhi in an attempt to make a breakthrough in the peace process that began with the declaration of a ceasefire in 1997. The truce with the NSCN (I-M) and the ceasefire agreement signed subsequently with the Kaplang faction in 2001, did not just silence the guns in the State. They have created a yearning for a permanent peace through a negotiated political settlement of all the issues at stake in Nagaland.

These positive developments should strengthen the hands of the NSCN (I-M) leadership and the Central Government as they continue their negotiations. Although very little concrete information is available on the progress made in these talks, it is clear that both sides are serious about the process; neither wants a slide back into bloodshed. The recent two-month visit by Isak Chishi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah to Nagaland — their first after three decades of self-exile abroad — during which they interacted with all sections of the Naga people, is of considerable importance. It is also significant that a declaration issued at the end of a consultation between various Naga representatives and the NSCN (I-M) leadership expressed support for "an honourable solution to the Indo-Naga political issue on the basis of the uniqueness of Naga history and situation," but did not mention sovereignty, one of their two key demands. Although it projected the other demand — the integration of all Naga areas in other parts of the North-East — as "non-negotiable," the current atmosphere presents the best possible opportunity ever for finding a just and honourable solution. The Naga leadership and the Central Government must put their best foot forward to seize the opportunity.

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