Today, our family celebrates a remarkable milestone – the 50th year of my father’s service for the cause of Nagas. This celebration is not just about the years in service but about the grace of God over his life and the purpose and relentless pursuit of freedom that have defined his life. Today, we want to share a small story from his vast and aberrant life—one of someone who has never experienced the comfort of a home but has worked tirelessly to protect and provide a home for us all. This story reflects what his life has truly meant to us.
Growing up, we didn’t spend much time with our father, and this distance grew when he moved to China in 2010. What remained were fond memories of him tickling us with his beard, giving us big bear hugs, and his habit of buying yucky candies simply because they looked appealing. As we grew older, this relationship transitioned to brief phone calls. To us, he was a father who always shared his wisdom and ensured to teach us to live by God’s will, even if it was only through these short sporadic phone conversations. We never truly knew him as a person or understood what he did. Many stories about him remained untold and unknown to us.
It was only after 2018, when I spent my summer vacation with him, that I began to feel a closer connection with my father. He would ask me numerous questions about my life—my friends, college, life in Delhi, and my siblings. I talked a lot, sharing many stories, and he would listen attentively to everything I said, perhaps as a way to understand who we had become during his years of absence. He seemed to relate to us by seeing reflections of himself in us: his boldness and candor in me, his ambition and occasional brusqueness in dealing with people in my sister, his deep thinking and honesty in my younger brother, and his likability and openness in my older brother.
I never asked my father about him or his work, nor did he share much when we were younger. In fact I found it hard to find resonance with it. I believed he was waiting for the right moment for us to to see what he understood. It wasn’t until 2023, when I stayed with him in the jungles and asked him to recount his life story while recording it, that I began to understand him more. There was so much to know and learn from his life, and it has profoundly impacted all of us. He always spoke with great wisdom, which reflected his frequent self-reflection: he considered himself the most illiterate but believed that God had chosen him, a weak and sinful man, to fulfill His purpose. True wisdom doesn’t come solely from worldly knowledge; it is the quality of acting upon and living according to what God has taught us, that’s how he often defined wisdom. That has shaped the father we know now—a man who is relentless in living by God’s will.
Hearing my father’s story, I felt a deep pain and longing in my heart. I had been living foolishly and selfishly, chasing after worldly knowledge and experiences while living in cities and completely ignorant of Nagas and their struggle. What I didn’t realize was that the most valuable things were found at home—in my father’s words, in the land of our ancestors with its clear, sweet water, fresh air, lush hills, and flavorful meals and in the faith driven lives of Naga people. While we were living our own lives, he was living his for God and fulfilling his calling. His conviction and vision gradually became ours.
This is an excerpt from my conversations with my father:
“I began my journey with a quest that was not mine but has since sacrificed everything for it. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the God who created the heavens and the earth. He is the creator of all creations; everything happens according to His supreme will. ‘Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will happen.’ Isaiah 14: 24. God chose Abraham, promising to make him into a great nation and to bless him; He assured Abraham that He will make his name great and that he would be a blessing, even while he was still childless and his wife barren. Abraham believed that God would deliver what He promised, and he left his country, people, and his father’s household for the promised land as commanded. The reason God chose Abraham was to show the whole world that He is the true God of the heavens and the earth. Through the faith of Moses, Joshua, David, and other prophets, God’s existence is proven and His name is glorified. Their lives are a testament to God’s greatness and power. God’s ultimate will is to make us holy and good just like Him, but since we are unable to reach His level of holiness, Jesus Christ, His son, was sent to us so that sinners like us may become holy. Just as the people in the Old Testament were chosen to reveal God’s existence and greatness, we are now chosen and used by God to reveal to others the truth that Jesus Christ is the son of God who was sent to save us through grace and love. The Nagas lived as head hunters and were driven by greed and conquest. They celebrated and feasted for killing people and were not very different from animals who would leave their children to die if they were not wanted or deformed. Of all the people in this world, God chose the Nagas, the most immoral and savage people, to believe in Jesus so that through us, His name is glorified. It is my belief that the will of God for the Nagas is to serve Him by letting the whole world know about the gospel of the kingdom of God. I pray and hope that my life will be understood through this prism.
When I was younger, I was the kind of person who was a disappointment to my parents. I didn’t listen to them and would come home to eat only when others had left to work in the fields or when everyone was sleeping. I spent my days indulging in bad behaviour – stealing, drinking, and living sinfully. During this time of my youth, I was called to join the Naga army three times and I declined three times.
However, on the 13th of August, 1974, I finally accepted, and it happened to be the exact time they were to leave for China for training. We met in the fields between Phalee and Somdal, and set out towards the direction of the Theiva-Ngari village. From then on, we crossed through the lands of the Maos, Poumeis, and Chakesangs, and after reaching the Sema area, we were tirelessly hunted down by the Indian army as they heard about the news of us leaving for China. The next three months – August, September, and October of 1974 – we lived like animals in the jungle foraging for food without ever stepping foot on any village. The journey that usually took only a day turned into a week. We walked through the jungle for 42 days in horrible conditions without proper food and were infested with lice. When we reached the China border, the Indian army got the whole border heavily patrolled and guarded. Therefore, we had to wait and hide out for two more weeks. During this time, I contracted typhoid and couldn’t eat any food nor had the strength to defecate myself without the help of others. Seeing my condition, the others with me decided to leave me behind and told me they would come back for me after my health got better. But I told them that I would walk even though I might not make it and die on the way. In the midst of all the pain and suffering, I got to experience the deepest distress, sorrow and shame while I reflected on my past life. I cried and repented to God for my sins and received miraculous healing and strength, and was able to not only cross the border but walk all day and night. It was during this time of my life that I decided to seek God and live a life that is pleasing to God.
Having initially had no desire to join the army and declining several times, I can only attribute my eventual acceptance to the work of the Holy Spirit, who led me to accept the call to join the Naga army just as they were preparing to depart for China. I truly believe that I was called by God to serve in the Naga army and fight for freedom. Throughout my journey, I was time and again protected and saved by God. Instances include rain and fog obscuring the enemy’s vision, walking past the army just after they decided to take a break from patrolling, and numerous other miraculous escapes from death during wartime. It is with this conviction that I have tried to live in full obedience. If it is God’s will, it will be in his time and in his way.”
There is a whole lot of story in a little amount of time. While there are many stories of his heroic moments that send a tingle down my spine, I hear in them God’s grace, love, and purpose in his life and the favor God has for the Nagas. I hope that my father’s story will deepen your love for God, our land, and our people, just as it did for me. I wanted people to hear a few of his words and see for themselves as he continues to serve as a vessel through which God’s holiness and greatness are revealed, not only as a leader but as a humble servant of God, demonstrating His will for the world through us as a nation. His life is a testament to how God’s presence and purpose are made known through us and encourages us to hold the same.
Kuknalim.
(A daughter recounts her father’s journey with Pride. Pashelee Ramshan is the youngest daughter of Hanshi Ramshan)
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