RANI GAIDINLIU - ( Manipur / Nagaland ) * excerpt from newspaper article . full link in first comment / --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rani Gaidinliu does not appear in Indian history textbooks. In the pantheon of Indian freedom fighters, revolutionaries and liberators her name remains unfamiliar. She is unknown to most Indians, a fading memory and myth to her own people. Rani Gaidinliu was a spiritual leader, a reformer, a guerrilla warrior and a freedom fighter who served 14 years, making her one of India’s longest incarcerated political prisoner. Gaidinliu was born on January 26, 1915 at Nungkhao, a Rongmei village in Manipur. She was 16 when she became the leader of the Heraka movement after its charismatic leader Jadonang was executed by the British. While the Heraka movement was long aware of the civil disobedience movement in British India, it was Gaidinliu who first used Gandhiji’s name and identified her peoples’ struggle against oppression and self-determination with the larger national movement gaining ground in India. Through armed resistance, she quickly transformed a religious-indigenous rebellion into a revolutionary movement for independence. In a note recorded in June 1932, C.P. Mills, Deputy Commissioner, Naga Hills, stated that, “The real danger of the movement is the spirit of defiance.” The Empire fearing the spirt of defiance launched a manhunt for the 16-year-old rebel leader. The Assam Governor-in-Council authorised the overwhelming force of the 3rd and 4th Assam Rifles and the entire Manipur Police force. After a year long search and capture operations, Gaidinliu was arrested on October 17, 1932. She was tried and convicted on a charge of murder, waging war against the British crown and sentenced to life imprisonment. When Nehru met Gaidinliu, she had already been imprisoned for five years. Nehru’s efforts and subsequent failure to secure Gaidinliu’s release from the British is well documented. She would remain a prisoner for another decade, before being released from Tura Jail on October 14, 1947, after India became independent. The newly independent Indian State quickly recognised Gaidinliu’s potential as a symbol of Naga separatism. Upon her release the Indian government imposed severe restrictions on her movement and she was not permitted to return home to her people till 1957. The Naga National Council (NNC) leaders found her ideology, vocal opposition to the insurgency and Christian missionary presence an obstacle to the Naga separatist struggle. With the growing NNC threat against her life she went underground once again in 1960. She was honoured as a freedom fighter and awarded a Padma Bhushan, but toward the end of her life she became a neglected figure. Rani Gaidinliu died alone and disillusioned in 1993.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 12:39:26 +0000