Nagaland is among the least known, least traveled regions in India. It is peculiar not only for its preservation of ancient ways in local culture and social life, but also for being the place of the longest insurgency in the world, fighting first the British and later the Indian masters to achieve independence. Over 200,000 Nagas and tens of thousands of mostly Sikh soldiers of the Indian army have died in this fight since 1947. Attempts to reach peace have culminated after the 1997 ceasefire into the Journey of Conscience, a public dialogue attempting Naga – Indian reconciliation. The Naga National Reconciliation Ceremony in 2001 launched a grassroots peace movement, that brought forth a generation of new leaders, seeking a peaceful solution to the Naga political issue.

The ICfC first established contact with Naga leaders through the initiation of the U.S. Department of State in August 2004. ICfC President Hillel Levine led some introductory conflict resolution and prevention workshops, bringing together some divided Naga factions for the first time in many years. The ICfC maintained, and continues to maintain, contacts with the leading Naga organizations, and cooperates closely with our partner, the Morung Foundation, in the city of Kohima. Projects in 2005 involved a series of meetings in Kolkata in February and an intensive three-day training in August, delivered by four trained ICfC mediators (Dagmar Kusa, David Baharvar, Jasmine Marwaha and Hillel Levine). The participants in the training were young leaders (AIDS activists, founders and editors of newspapers, Naga missionaries, social scientists, and leaders of NGOs) identified and selected by our local partner organization. The subject of the training was how to deal with disputed histories: specifically, how to establish priorities in their choices, both personal and political, for the future of Nagaland, given the history of bloodshed, current cease-fire, the uncertainty of negotiations, and the tenuous relationship between the Government of India and Nagaland's competing underground resistance forces.

Aside from training young, future leaders in India's Northeastern territories, the Center has also provided confidential consultation services to both sides at the "Track One" level of negotiations between the Government of India and the NSCN-IM, who are the principal negotiators of the cease-fire and a potential peace agreement for the future of Nagaland.

2. Current Projects

Because our trainings in Nagaland were a huge success, the Center is exploring the possibility of acting as a host for young Naga leaders as well as leaders of other Northeast Indian territories (some of whom will probably be participants from previous trainings) as they visit the United States to do research. These will then work as a team and offer trainings in conflict resolution and mediation within Nagaland, as well as serve as facilitators and advisors in the ongoing Indo-Naga and other Northeast Indian peace dialogues.

At the same time, the ICfC is seeking patners in the World Bank and other international agencies and NGOs to explore the potential for accelerated economic development of Nagaland and the Northeastern Territories. The new political circumstances, particularly the very recent announcement made by the Indian and Chinese Prime Ministers that the long and violent contestation of the protracted border that their countries shares was over and that this border would be made stable and peaceful warrant a new look at the potential for acceleratied economic development. This planning will be implementable particularly because of other strategic resources, including an educated and motivated labor pool. More open borders with India, enterprise and industrial zones on the border with China and the general renewed interest around the world in the history and the culture of the "Silk Road“ will benefit from and encourage the enduring peace that the ICfC is working toward in this heretofore violent region.

Aside from the Morung Foundation in Nagaland, with whom the ICfC has partnered for over a year, the ICfC has forged a partnership with the Henry Martyn Institute, based in Hyderabad, which conducts trainings with a "Peace Core Team" of Naga, Kukis and Meites (members of different tribes) in and around Nagaland.