We are Liangmai and not Kacha Naga

India is a democratic country, where the will of people is supreme; the people form the government through its representative to express its opinion. India chose democratic form of government to fulfill the will of its people; to redress their wounds; to bring justice to its people. As a result, Calcutta was renamed as Kolkata in 2001; the name of Madras was changed to Chennai in 1996; and Bombay was renamed as Mumbai in 1995. The justification accepted by most people without question seems to be the original Indian name and restored it.
Based on above argument, we are ‘Liangmai’ and not ‘Kacha Naga.’ The point is our name has been corrupted by the foreigners, who want to conquer our land for their commercial purposes. Although the Indian government addresses us as ‘Kacha Naga’ in its official record, like Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai, we can retain our original name as ‘Liangmai’ and Indian needs to accept it without question.
There are several documents, which will support us to call ourselves as ‘Liangmai.’ We come under Naga community, which is recognized as Scheduled Tribes in India. According to International Work Group Indigenous Affair (IWGIA) 2008, the Scheduled Tribes are considered to be India’s indigenous people. To bring justice to indigenous people around the world, the United Nations, on 13th September 2007 declared the Rights of Indigenous People. A text recognizes a wide range of basic human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people. Among these are rights to self-determination, an inalienable collective right to the ownership, use and control of lands, territories and other natural resources, rights in terms maintaining and developing their own political, religious, cultural and educational institutions, and protection of their cultural and intellectual property. To reflect the demand of international community on indigenous people’s rights, India has made several laws and provided constitutional provisions such as Sixth Scheduled for north-east India, which recognized indigenous people’s rights to land and self-governance. However, the laws aimed to protect indigenous people have numerous shortcomings and their implementation is far from satisfactory. As a result, LNC, LNBA, LBA, LNKR, LSA and LACA came into being to claim and retain our rightful identity as ‘Liangmai.’
It would be interesting to see how the word ‘Kacha Naga’ was originated. According to Manindra Konsamand and www.indianetzone.com, the word Kacha Naga derived from an Angami word ‘Ketsa’ meaning thick forest. He argued that when foreigners came to Kohima area and asked the locals, pointing towards the Liangmai and Zeme area, whether any people were living beyond the thick forest. The local people responded that some people lived beyond the ‘Ketsa.’ Thereafter, the foreigners referred the people beyond the forest as ‘Ketsa Naga’ and later on the word got corrupted into ‘Kacha Naga.’ Again, as per the information given by the Language Education in Nagaland: Sociolinguistic Dimensions, the ‘Kacha Naga’ derived from the Angami word ‘Kets’ meaning forest. According what most Angamis and Liangmais believed is that when the foreigners came to Angami village, saw some houses on the other side of the hill and asked the locals, what the name of that tribe was. The local people responded in Angami as ‘Kekri Naga’ meaning ‘Another Naga.’
To conclude, we are ‘Liangmai’ and not Kacha Naga. Firstly, it is the supreme will of our people to call ourselves as ‘Liangmai.’ Secondly, the United Nations declaration on Indigenous People’s rights empowers us to retain our originality. Finally, the derivative meaning of ‘Kacha Naga’ was misunderstood by foreigners and later corrupted recorded by the Indians.