The first prime minister of Free India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, wrote to Assam Chief Minister B.R. Medhi on 13 May 1956: "We know that the Nagas are tough people and are very disciplined" (Sanjoy Hazarika. 1994. STRANGERS OF THE MIST. New Delhi: Viking, p. 360). Commending on the Nagas, Mr. D.R. Mankekar says: "Hard-working, proud, self-reliant, traditionally war-like, independent in spirit and once reputed as head-hunters, the Nagas as a race are also gay and cheerful, gifted with a fine sense of humor. They have an eye for color and design, and rhythm is in their bones, and they love song" (On the Slippery Slope in Nagaland. 1967. Bombay: Manaklalas, p. 23). But, above all, they are much averse to any alien domination over them. And this is what one British writer has to say while referring to the nations of the Himalayan sub-continent: "Traditionally the Nagas are a warrior people. In colonial times the Pathans of the northwest frontier and the Nagas of the northeast were the only two groups that the British failed to subdue militarily" (THE NAGAS: RIGHT TO SURVIVAL. London, p. 5). And this is what British Field Marshal Viscount Slim has to say about the gallant Nagas who refused all payment for the help extended to the Allied forces during the Second World War: "Many a British and Indian soldier owes his life to the Nagas, and no soldier of the Fourteenth Army who met them will ever think of them but with admiration and affection" (DEFEAT INTO VICTORY. Indian Edition 1981. Dehra Dun: Natraj Publishers, pp. 334-335).