INDIA & BANGLADESH 2014: 7 From Mokokchung to Imphal, India

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Mokokchung is the second largest city in Nagaland with a population of around 42,000. The temperature is comfortably cool due to its 1,400 meter (4,592 ft) altitude.

Breakfast was served in a sunny spot on the lawn in the courtyard. We passed a major military base on the way out of town, and would pass many more. We are back in territory where roads are looked after by BRO – the Border Roads Organization, and the army, as we are not for from Burma. The road started in good shape.

We stopped in an Ao tribe village to watch ladies do weaving in their house, and to have a look at their mopong, or meeting house, originally built in 1690. Mopongs were once manned continually by young male villagers against attack, and have huge hollowed logs for sending drum messages to other villages. The villages, and even Nagaland Cities, do not seem to have beggars.

We got a flat tire well out in the jungle, giving an opportunity to listen to the jungle sounds of hundreds of birds, insects and a roaring river unseen in the bottom of the valley below. The tire was repaired in the City of Wokha, the third largest in Nagaland. The city has few paved roads. The highway deteriorated into potholes, landslides and broken pavement once we were underway, so it was a long next four hours. We could see our destination, Kohima, on a far hill about an hour before we finally reached it.

I got off at the superb Hotel Vivor while Samir and Kemal took Marilynn into the centre of town in search of someone to make another pair of glasses – she lost the ones made in Shimla. They located a place, but the eye doctor had gone. Dinner in the hotel restaurant was good. Marilynn took wine down in a glass, as there is a total prohibition on alcohol in Nagaland. We had a lesson at dinner – mutton is not sheep, it is goat. We have seen mutton on menus everywhere, but finally had a waitress who said, "Mutton is G-O-A-T", she spelled out. The next day we confirmed with the guide – mutton in India indeed does mean goat!!

Friday, October 10, 2014

Kohima is the capital of Nagaland, and with about 95,000 people its largest city. It is 1,261 m (4,137 ft) high so has a nice cool climate. It definitely has hill city traffic, caused by the narrow streets that climb the various hills.

Breakfast was served outside in an open air dining room where we enjoyed the bright sunshine. In the local paper was an account of civilians being killed on both sides during an outbreak of mortar and gunfire on the India/Pakistan border near Jammu, where we stayed. I was surprised to see that there were two stories side by side, giving the position of both countries. It would seem in both cases that the leaders were not pleased it happened, and both were down playing getting everyone worked up, Prime Minister Modi even encouraged politicians involved in local political campaigns to not use it in their speeches. It seems the military are testing their civilian masters.

We all went to a glasses shop first thing where the eye doctor gave Marilynn an hour long eye exam for less than $US 3. The glasses shop then made the glasses in half an hour. They are working, but Marilynn says not as well as the ones she lost.

The Naga tribe of people have had their own army in Nagaland ever since the British left. It is currently attached to the Indian Army, but serves only in this state. We walked through Khonoma Village, a pleasant hilltop village where a large Baptist Church sat on the highest point. A wedding was underway, to which we were promptly invited but didn't feel well enough dressed to attend. The choir sang beautifully. When we walked to the mopong (meeting house) we were made welcome. The square was comprised of various buildings serving multiple purposes including the village council house. It is a friendly, tidy village.

In Kohima we stopped at the very well kept WWII cemetery built on the scene of an epic battle. Although I studied WWII as a teenager and have many reference books, I had never heard of the Battle of Kohima/Imphal from March 20 to June 22, 1944, which the British Army Museum voted the "most important" battle in British history. The cemetery is kept manicured by Commonwealth Graves Commission and includes the infamous tennis court clearly marked out. There are 1,420 grave markers and hundreds more names carved into memorial monuments of Indian and Sikh troops who were cremated, plus a large memorial with the words "When you go home, tell them of us and say, For your tomorrow, we gave our today". The visit was very emotional.

In March 1944 the British general in charge of the area heard through the jungle telegraph that Japanese were advancing on Imphal, but he did not believe a large military force could move through the dense, mountainous jungle. The Japanese attacked on a 60 mile (97 km) wide front with 85,000 troops, tanks and artillery. Most of the Kohima/Imphal Road was captured and Imphal was besieged, but the key was Kohima Ridge, which controlled access to the road to Imphal as well as the road to Dimapur, 30 mi (48 km) away, and its 11 mile long, 1 mile wide supply dump.

The bungalow of the district commander, his terraced gardens and tennis court, were on the hill, which was initially defended by only 2,500 men, 1,000 of whom were non-combatants. The Japanese advance was stopped at the tennis court, where both sides dug in on opposite sides, within easy hurling range of hand grenades. The battle raged from April 3 to 18, with the defenders enduring nightly assaults and hand to hand fighting. When relief troops arrived on April 18, 1,000 of the defenders were dead and the rest beyond exhaustion, but the only success the Japanese had was to capture the district commander's bungalow.

As allied reinforcements poured in the Japanese were gradually driven back, but clung tenaciously to their position at the tennis court. The stalemate was finally broken on May 13 when a Lee tank was winched and pulled up the muddy hillside well above the tennis court, driven over the upper retaining wall, where it dropped, right side up fortunately, on top of the Japanese trenches. At a range of 20 meters a withering wall of machine gun fire erupted from within the tank, clearing the trenches and defence positions and ending the Battle of Kohima Ridge. What was left was a rat and fly infested wilderness with part buried human remains everywhere. Troops were then able to fight their way down the road toward Imphal to help lift the siege.

It has proved impossible to get either alcohol or cold drinks in restaurants. Everyone drinks soft drinks, water, juice, or other beverages warm. Samir got us a couple of bottles of bootleg wine through a nearby bakery after a big lunch at nearly 4 PM, so back at the hotel we skipped dinner.

Saturday, October 11, 2014

After leaving the hotel we visited the cantilevered, amphitheatre shaped Catholic church, and then stopped at heritage village where the Hornbill Festival is held. Each of the 17 tribes in Eastern India have meeting houses built in the tradition of that tribe. They meet here for joint festivals and competitions. One was held today, including climbing greased bamboo poles. Unfortunately we couldn't wait for the events to start.

The road had its share of nasty patches as we crossed mountains to the border of Manipur Pradesh. Many border states want independence from India, and have signs posted proclaiming they do not accept Indian laws. The army is not well thought of - they are considered an occupying force. At the border we had pages of documentation to present, and had our passports stamped plus temperatures taken in a Ebola check.

When climbing a sloping log to an office, my right knee gave out and I did a dive, much to the amusement of the official who sat beside me pointing his stubby finger at places to fill in. He would burst into uncontrollable laughter over the fall I took, which made it difficult to resist an urge to turn quickly and accidentally drive my elbow into his nose. In the end I turned the form filling over to Marilynn and left.

There is a huge army presence throughout the state, and convoys move with manned roof mounted machine guns on the troop trucks.

The road was good from the border to Imphal. The population is 225,000 and altitude only 780 m (2,580 ft). The city is in a broad, flat valley where we had our first straight roads in awhile! After check in and lunch at the Classic Hotel we visited the war cemetery. A lot of Canadian and British airmen are buried here, as Imphal was kept alive by airlift during the siege using two permanent and three temporary airstrips. Soldiers hailed from all over the Commonwealth, including many from British Africa. There are 1,600 allied graves and a monument to the 820 Indian troops who were cremated

Imphal was first attacked by the Japanese on March 20, when they encountered the 50th Indian Parachute brigade who held them at bay for 6 critical days in spite of a shortage of drinking water. When finally ordered to retreat they had lost 600 men, but bought vital time for defences to be set up. The city remained under siege until troops from Kohima and Imphal met on June 22 at mile 109 on the Kohima road.

This was the greatest defeat in Japanese history to date. Of the 85,000 troops attacking, only 20,000 were left standing, many having been killed by disease, exhaustion and starvation – they optimistically had brought rations for only 13 days. It crippled Japanese divisions, cost them 30,000 cattle used for pack animals and 12,000 pack horses and mules, critically damaging their ability to deliver supplies when the Battle for Burma began. It ensured the opening of the Burma Road to supply the Chinese, who were tying down 3 million Japanese troops. The allied commander in chief, Lord Louis Mountbatten, said this battle was actually the Battle for Burma, and was fought with naked, unparalleled heroism.

We later visited the woman's market, where some 3,000 women sell everything from food items to cloth in three huge market buildings. We had an excellent dinner at the hotel and were in bed when health officials showed up for another Ebola check. They were sent away by hotel staff.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Keibul Lamjao National Park on Lokatk Lake, which claims to be the only floating national park in the world, was about an hours drive. We met a group of students on a school outing. At the request of the teacher we joined them for group photos, then rented a long-tail motor boat to tour around, getting a close look at net, rod and trap fishermen. Lunch was at a good view restaurant, part of the Classic Hotel chain.

I visited the India National Army museum. INA was founded by Subhas Chandra Bose, who in the 1920s and 30s was a radical fighter for Indian independence. He fell out with Ghandi, who didn't approve of his violent methods, escaped from capture and went to Germany in April 1941, where he met with Adolf Hitler. When Germany could not promise an invasion of India he was transported to Madagascar in a German submarine, transferred to a Japanese sub that took him to Sumatra where the Japanese financed formation of the Indian provisional government & INA, the latter largely from captured Indian troops from the Malasia campaign.

He lived in the Andaman Islands & Singapore, was hosted in Tokyo by Tojo and is photographed with many top Japanese leaders and generals. His INA was tested at the Battle of Imphal, where half his troops were killed. He died in a plane crash in Taiwan after what was left of the INA surrendered in Singapore. He is considered a hero of the independence struggle against the British.

We walked around the 1814 fort, temple and palace of King Marsit of Manipar. Neither museum people nor our local guide could give me much information, including the date it was built.

Back at the hotel we had a superb dinner accompanied by wine smuggled into the restaurant in a Sprite bottle.