Gangsters or guerrillas? Mobilizing Naga violence-workers after global war in the India–Myanmar borderlands, 1945–1975

During the Second World War (WWII), in 1944–45, the British mobilized Nagas in India’s eastern borderlands. This service fuelled Naga self-determination demands, challenging Indian nation-building after decolonization using imperial military loyalties and identities. Civil disobedience evolved into violent secessionism in 1954 when the secessionist armed faction of the Naga National Council (NNC) declared a ‘Republic’, sparking conflict and Indian counterinsurgency measures. I argue that the NNC’s political resistance intensified violent state-making by mobilizing ex-combatants, by focusing on the politics of legitimacy and loyalty through distinct periods of the Naga movement. Remobilized ‘violence-workers’ utilized wartime experiences, identities and transnational networks for political support, arms, refuge and training in the 1950s–1960s. Armed workers shaped conflict and peace by navigating contested sovereignties, with states labelling them ‘gangsters’ and ‘hostiles’ to delegitimize them. Indian counterinsurgency, fuelled factionalism within Naga society, creating armed militias and shadow governance and producing shifting political alignments, blurring civilian and combatant distinctions. Naga armed workers leveraged their guerrilla skills and identities in negotiating with states. The first Indo–Naga ceasefire in 1964, influenced by the 1962 Sino–Indian conflict, initiated the ‘ceasefire capitalism’ era, defining Naga citizenship today. Extensive archival research in the United Kingdom and India reveals that prolonged military labour contestations and co-optation for postcolonial nation-building militarized Naga society, creating a market for violence-workers. This historical examination of military workers and their shifting identities from 1945 to 1975 rethinks the impact of WWII and the relationships between rebel and shadow governance, state-making, and military labour in peace and conflict studies.