S. S. Khaplang
| S. S. Khaplang | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Shangwang Shangyung Khaplang April 1940 Waktham, Myanmar |
| Died | 9 June 2017 (aged 77) Taga, Kachin, Myanmar |
| Nationality | Burmese |
| Movement | Naga nationalism |
Shangwang Shangyung Khaplang (April 1940 – 9 June 2017) was a Burmese leader of National Socialist Council of Nagaland, an insurgent group that operates to establish Greater Nagaland (or Nagalim), a sovereign state bringing all Naga-inhabited areas of Myanmar and India under one administrative setup.
Khaplang was born in Waktham in April 1940, a village east of Myanmar's Pangsau Pass as the youngest of ten children. Born into Hemi Naga tribe that lived predominantly in Myanmar, his early childhood was shaped by the opening up of isolated Naga communities by the World War II. During the War, the Western Allies built the 1,726 kilometres (1,072 mi) long Stilwell Road connecting Ledo in India's Assam to China's Kunming to carry supplies against the Japanese Army, that passed through Waktham. This was said to have "sowed the seeds of insurgency in Khaplang." Khaplang claimed that he first attended a school in Margherita, a town in Assam before joining Baptist Mission School in Myitkyina in Myanmar's Kachin State in 1959, and in 1961 to another missionary school in Kalay before he eventually dropping out.
Allegedly influenced by the events of the War during his childhood, Khaplang founded the Naga Defence Force (NDF) in 1964 to operate towards a separate sovereign state for the Naga people. In 1965, he co-founded Eastern Naga Revolutionary Council (ENRC) that he later became the vice-chairman and then the chairman of. The two organizations helped Naga nationalist leader Angami Zapu Phizo's Naga National Council (NNC) to travel to China for weapons and training young recruits. Later, the two merged with the NNC and Khaplang became its chairman in 1974. During one of these visits, he met Thuingaleng Muivah, involved then with the NNC. They, along with another leader Isak Chishi Swu subsequently formed a partnership in revolting against the NNC for signing the Shillong Accord of 1975 that accepted the supremacy of the Indian Constitution. They broke away and formed the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) in 1980. The NSCN became very powerful and by 1985, it was running a parallel government in Nagaland, also extending its influence to adjoining districts of the neighbouring Indian States of Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh. It was being called the 'mother of all insurgencies'.
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