Nagaland

Nagaland lies along India’s eastern border with Myanmar, in the hills north of Manipur and east of Assam. The capital is Kohima. The state became the 16th Indian state in 1963, the first to be created on the basis of language and ethnicity in the north-east.

The state is home to more than a dozen major Naga groups and many sub-groups, each with its own language, and English is the official language because no single Naga language is dominant. Village land is largely held communally, and the village council and traditional village authorities retain real authority alongside the state administration. Livelihoods rest on shifting cultivation, terrace rice farming in the Angami and Chakhesang areas, and horticulture; the state also holds modest coal and oil reserves.

Nagaland’s modern history is defined by the Naga nationalist movement, which has sought sovereignty or a greater Nagaland uniting Naga areas across state and national boundaries since the 1950s. A framework agreement was signed with one major group in 2015, but a final settlement has not been reached, and the unresolved question of Naga-inhabited areas in neighbouring Manipur and Assam remains politically sensitive. The Hornbill Festival, held each December, brings the state’s groups together for a week of performances and craft displays.