Zeme Olympics and the historical pathways of Naga sovereignty in checkered borderlands

This article, highlighting the Naga self-determination movement, shifts borderland studies’ emphasis from international borders to internally contested boundaries. The Naga approach, demanding a sovereign state since the mid-1940s decolonisation era, privileges the Westphalian territorial sovereignty template. However, various Naga lobbies have explored other models that transcend borders – territorial, Indigenous, divine and food sovereignty. We revisit these and present the Zeme Naga case. Divided by state, district and economic barriers, this ethnic group has recently pioneered a de-territorialised, cross-border and grassroots solidarity experiment – the Zeme Olympics, demonstrating how local communities use relational politics to assert agency, rethink sovereignty and challenge borders.