The Naga Story
First Armed Struggle in India
H.C. Chandola
2013, Hb, 428pp., Col. Plates, Plates, Col. Illus., Maps, Index
ISBN: 9788192072265
Price:  Rs 850  Rs 723 (Outside India: US $42.95)
Price: Rs 850 (Outside India: US $42.95)

The Book:

This book tells the story of the Naga people who live in the northeast corner of India. Some of them, under the leadership of Mr. Zapuphizo had in early 1950’s launched an armed movement to form an independent country.

The book relates the various stages through which the Naga struggle has passed, from mobilizing political consciousness among the people, organizing a guerilla force, a period of bitter fighting and bloodshed, getting weapons from abroad, a failed period of negotiations, to fighting again and a second ceasefire.

Many people suffered and several got killed in this fighting. This was the first armed struggle in India. It gave rise to many other such struggles in the northeast. The Naga movement is the mother of armed struggle in India.

The book describes the long history from the birth of the State of Nagaland to the current movement led by the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN) for the unification of Naga inhabited areas of Nagaland, Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh under one administration. It deals with the Indo-Naga peace talks and the possibility of political resolutions through negotiations.


The Author:

HARISH CHANOLA has been a journalist for 60 years with a vast experience of covering conflicts and wars in Africa and Asia.

He began his career in journalism with a series of articles written on his experiences of travels inside Tibet in 1950 and 1954. He went into Tibet from his native Garhwal on foot since there were no roads and was detained by the Chinese for three months.

In 1955 he was posted to Shillong as the Northeast Correspondent for The Times of India. That was the beginning of his long and intimate association with the region, especially with the Naga national movement which had just launched its armed struggle.

In the 1960s he was posted to Cairo from where he covered the Algerian War of Independence; and was witness to the setting up of the Organization of African Unity (OAU).

In 1964 Chandola returned to India. On the request of Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri he assisted the peace mission trying to broker peace between the Nagas and the Indian Government.

Thereafter Harish Chandola was posted to Singapore and was a correspondent for several Indian and British papers. He covered the wars in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and later the events in Malaysia and Indonesia. From Southeast Asia he once again found himself in the Middle East where he covered the Iran-Iraq war, The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the US led Gulf War. He returned to India in 1993.

Chandola lives in Joshimath, Uttrakhand where he continues to write for the local newspapers, and grows apples and potatoes.