Guwahati: – A group of students belonging to 12 Naga tribes came together recently to celebrate the golden jubilee of the Naga Students’ Union of Guwahati (NSUG) and assert their identity.

“We met together with a great sense of rebuilding and reclaiming our significant identity as Nagas,” said Phungreiso Varu, who coordinated the October 31 event at Shilpagram, a suburb of Guwahati, the commercial capital of Assam state.

The organizers chose “NagaMorphosis – Have the Courage to Fly” as the golden jubilee theme.

“Our strength and relationship and most importantly, trust and commitment to the future generation of Naga [students living] in Guwahati and beyond is through the process of re-Nagaization,” Varu added.

The NSUG plays a major role in helping freshers each year to start off life in Guwahati and strive for cooperation and peaceful existence with all the communities.

More than 1,000 Naga students, families and their friends from the neighboring north-eastern states participated in the daylong celebration along with many distinguished dignitaries, honored guests, donors and well-wishers, members of the Naga as well as other students’ union attended in the presence of Guest of honor.

A group of Naga warriors from the Zeliangrong Students’ Union, Guwahati, and NSUG General Secretary Manikho Lazio, escorted guest of honor Member of Legislative Assembly of Arunachal Pradesh Laisam Simai to the celebrations.

Varu and NSUG President Limasashi Ao along with many other distinguished dignitaries and elders welcomed the guest of honor.

Laisam Simai, MLA opened the jubilee celebrations in the presence of Y. Chuba Ao, first president of NSUG 1965, and Peter Thong, Pastor, Naga Christian Fellowship, Guwahati led the assembly in prayer.

The NSUG president recalled the long and exciting journey of the union and urged the members to work for greater unity and action.

Former NSUG executives, various Naga student’s bodies and friends and Naga elders from Arunachal, Assam, Manipur and Nagaland joined the deliberations on “time to rebuild and reclaim identity as Nagas and Christians.”

Professor Kedelizo Kikhi, Head of the Sociology Department, Tezpur University (Academics) and Konyak Konya, director, International of Beyond Borders Initiative (Spirituality) directed the discussions on two topics “Relevance of re-Nagaization in the era of neo-liberalism” and “Re-claiming Christian Identity in the era of post-modernism.”

The celebrations ended with candle lighting and lantern lift off by federal unit leaders and lowering of the Jubilee flag.