Zapuphizo: Voice of the Nagas

First published in 2006. This is the first biography of Angami Zapuphizo, the great patriot leader of Nagaland in the northeastern hills of South Asia, who died in exile in England in 1990. A colourful, charismatic personality with an air of mystery about him, he was the force behind the Nagas; demand for sovereign independence in 1947, at the time that Britain transferred power to India and Pakistan. From then onwards he was a central figure in the turbulent ethnic tapestry of the region. Zapuphizo's life was the stuff of which legends are made, and to the Naga people he will always be their hero. The book focuses on Zapuphizo's life, his realism and his collaboration with the Japanese in World War II, and with the years of India's military suppressions of the nationalist Naga army, giving fresh insight into Zapuphizo's thoughts and actions as he strove to regain for his homeland the ultimate goal of sovereign independence. Although Nagaland is today a state within the Union of India, the Naga peoples have never given up their wish to be free. In the years before Britain quit the Indian subcontinent, the Nagas of the far northeast were held to exemplify an exotic and quixotic society. Radically different in culture and beliefs from the better known Hindus and Muslims of the plains, they were renowned for their spirited independence and diversity. The book also gives a history of the Naga nation and surveys its present condition and future prospects.