During the British Rule of India the Mokokchung area was part of the Naga Hills District of Assam. The Mokokchung subdivision of Naga Hills District was created in 1889, and it remained so following India independence in 1947. Naga Hills District remained as a district of Assam until 1957, when it and Tuensang Frontier Division of the North-East Frontier Agency (now Arunachal Pradesh) were joined to form the centrally governed Naga Hills Tuensang Area. At that point Mokokchung sub-division became a district, one of three alongside Kohima and Tuensang districts. February 1961 saw the renaming of Naga Hills Tuensang Area to “Nagaland”, and in December 1963 Nagaland became the 16th state of India. Finally December 1973 saw the new districts of Zunheboto and Wokha carved out of Mokokchung, leaving the borders of Mokokchung district as they stand today.