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NSF to celebrate Naga Club centenary today

By Correspondent

DIMAPUR, Oct 30 - The Naga Students� Federation is all set to celebrate the 100th year of the Naga Club at the Naga Solidarity Park in Kohima tomorrow.

The centenary programme will begin with the unveiling of a commemorative monolith and �a heralding call and invoking of traditional blessing�.

However, the NSF and erstwhile Naga Club members have decided to celebrate the occasion separately.

Meanwhile, the Kohima Village Council said the act of commemorating 100 years of the Naga Club by erecting two monoliths would make a mockery of the vision of the Naga Club and also diminish the solemnity of the occasion. The council has decided not to take part in either of the celebratory programmes.

The NSF, in a recent statement, made it clear that by celebrating the event, it does not ownership of the Naga Club. It said the formation of the Naga Club was epoch-making for the Nagas towards realisation of their identity and raising social and political consciousness.

�The NSF feels the Naga people should celebrate this glorious legacy and take time to retrospect and introspect and thus find inspirations to continue our journey with renewed vigour,� the federation stated.

United Nations consultant for peace building and dialogue Philippus Petrus Visser will attend the celebration, while former secretary general of South Asia Programme for Human Rights Tapan Bose will share his �journey with the Nagas� in the event. They arrived in Kohima on Monday.

NSF officials told media persons on Monday that around 3,000 delegates from Naga-inhabited areas of Nagaland, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur in India and from Myanmar were expected to attend the event.

The Naga Club was formed by the Nagas in Kohima in 1918 for protecting the Naga identity, rights, land, Naga village sovereign system and for self-determination. It brought all Naga tribes into a common platform at one point of time. The formation of the club became the turning point of the Naga national movement.

The Naga Club submitted a memorandum to the Simon Commission in 1929, expressing the desire of the Nagas to restore their independent status as before.

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