Revolt in the Hills

Among the tribes that jealously rule the steep hills flanking the Assam Valley on India's strategic northeast frontier, none are so colorfully and fiercely independent as the Nagas. Nearly half a century of British law and the influence of U.S. Baptist missionaries have moderated their fondness for lopping off neighbors' heads, but the Nagas have never swerved from their desire to be King of the Mountains. After the British pulled out of India, the Indian government offered the Nagas tribal autonomy under New Delhi. Replied a Naga spokesman: "White man was never king over us. Now black men come with guns and threaten they going to king over us. But nobody on this big earth will ever king over Nagas."

With that manifesto the Nagas launched a Mau Mau-like war of terrorism against villages and Indian government posts, wielding their razor-sharp daos (axlike knives) or shooting off Japanese and British arms pilfered from World War II caches. They were led by one A. Z. Phizo (who, lacking a Christian name, took the first and last letters of the alphabet). Phizo, 56, a mission-educated Naga, guided his warriors on ruthless raids in which they slaughtered hundreds of villagers and Indians, then retreated into the jungles and pathless mountain terrain.

Afraid that the Naga revolt may spread to other tribes and give Red China an opening to step in on the disputed Indo-Tibet border, Prime Minister Nehru last week called on the Indian army to join Assam's armed police in an offensive operation against the rebels. Next day Naga terrorists kidnaped seven pro-government villagers in broad daylight, beheaded four of them. In the Assam hills warriors scornfully tore from their colorful costumes the dyed goat hair that they had substituted for human hair. Into its place, once more, went the real thing.

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