Naga People - Geography

Geography

The Naga tribes live in the Indian states of Nagaland, Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh and the northwestern hill tracts of Burma such as the Naga Self-Administered Zone formerly in Sagaing Division. The Nagas, though they have no common language, speak many varieties that belong to the Tibeto-Burman language group of the Sino-Tibetan language family. A language known as Nagamese creole is commonly spoken in Nagaland, and adjacent Indian states. It is a language based on Assamese and does not truly reflect the various languages and dialects spoken by the different Naga tribes in Nagaland and acts as a binding force to the different tribes of Nagaland. However, the present official language of the Nagaland state is 'English' with which a majority of the urban people are fluent but rarely spoken in the rural areas where Nagamese is popularly used to communicate between villagers of different tribal districts. The Nagas of Manipur mostly interact with each other in Meitei language. They have been demanding to join Nagaland. In fact, there has been no mass organized gathering in Nagaland specifically for the tribal people of Manipur. There are regular tension and conflicts between the tribes of Nagaland and the tribes of Manipur.