Summary: The Naga political issue has been one of Asia’s longest unsettled political issues, with the Naga Club submission of the Naga National Political Memorandum to the Simon Commission of the British Parliament on January 10, 1929. With the departure of the British from the region, the international frontier arbitrarily divides the Nagas, even though the Naga nationalist recognizes neither India nor Myanmar’s sovereignty over the Naga country. In 1997, India, represented by the Government of India (GoI) and the Nagas, represented by the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN), initiated a fresh attempt through political dialogue to end the political issue. Subsequently, in the year 2015, they signed the historic Framework Agreement (FA). This Framework Agreement rested on the Shared Sovereignty solution whereby GoI and NSCN agreed on the agreement as an honourable solution that will endure an inclusive new relationship of peaceful co-existence between the two entities. Since then, the shared sovereignty solution has been the paradigm shift for resolving the Indo-Naga issue. However, over the last few years, the GoI and the NSCN have not reached any final agreements to implement the Framework Agreement through negotiation. Against this backdrop, the shared sovereignty solution, which has become a point of contention between the Nagas, and India, appears to be a viable option. As a result, the purpose of this paper will be to present the reasons for the recent emergence of the shared sovereignty solution as an alternative to the Indo-Naga political issue. The article will also assess the situation following the signing of the Framework Agreement in 2015.
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