Understanding ethnicity-based autonomy movements in India's northeastern region

Abstract

Soon after independence, India's northeastern region was swamped in a series of conflicts starting with the Naga secessionist movement in the 1950s, followed by others in the 1960s. The conflicts intensified and engulfed the entire region in the 1970s and 1980s. However, in the 1990s, following reclamation of ethnic identities amid gnawing scarcities, the conflicts slowly turned into internal feuds. Consequently, alliance and re-alliance among the ethnic groups transpired. In the 2000s, it finally led to the balkanization of ethnicity-based autonomy movements in the region. Unfortunately, the state's ad-hoc measures failed to contain protected conflicts and, instead, compounded the situation and swelled hybrid ethnic identities.

Keywords:

• autonomy
• ethnicity
• NER
• state response

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank two anonymous reviewers of this journal and Dr. M. Amarjeet Singh, Jamia Milia Islamia, New Delhi, for their insightful comments on my previous draft. My special thanks also go to Peter Rutland, Editor in Chief, Nationalities Papers, for his encouragement.

Notes

1 The NER consists of eight states – Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura. In fact, Sikkim was grouped in the NER only in 2002. In 1971, the North Eastern Council was formed and it acts as an agency for development of the region. To strengthen the council, a separate ministry called the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region was set up in September 2001.

2 Agitators wanted 1950 as a cut-off year for immigration while the minority students' union/Muslims preferred it to be fixed at 1971.

3 During presidential rule, the state legislature is suspended and administered directly from Delhi.

4 The Sixth Schedule relates to administration of tribal areas of NER where there have been traditional tribal councils and its provision was not extended to Nagaland though it was constituted primarily for them.

5 The first Bodo accord was signed in February 1993 and that led to the formation of a Bodo Autonomous Council. However, due to the non-inclusion of all Bodo areas, the accord triggered violence and finally had to be scrapped.

6 The ADC is the administrative and judicial powers provided to a particular tribal community under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution.

7 As per India’s 2001 population census, the Thadou was the largest with a population of 180,000 representing 24.6% of the state's total ST population (34.4% of ST population), followed by Tangkhul (19.7%), Kabui (11.1%), Paite (6.6%), and Hmar (5.8%).

8 The Greater Nagaland mission is to integrate the Nagas of the neighboring states: Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, and Manipur with the present Nagaland. However, the objective of the NSCN-IM is to slice off Southern Nagaland into four hill districts, Manipur-Senapati, Ukhrul, Tamenglong, and Chandel, to form a separate state for them.

9 The Satellite Autonomous Council can be formed in contiguous revenue villages each having more than 50% of a particular community's population.

10 According to a Bengali scholar Suniti Kumar Chatterjee, the Bishnupruyas are the low-caste Bengalis, living closely with the Bengalis. They were taken by the Meitei/Manipuri king for supplying grass for the royal stables. This is the only association that they had with the Meiteis/Manipuris; otherwise, they are different from the Meitei linguistically, socially, and culturally. Most of the Bishnupriyas are now concentrated in Assam and Tripura. In Assam, Manipuris are categorized as Other Backward Classes. Bishnupriya also got this opportunity after rechristening as Manipuri, but it was vehemently opposed by the latter.

11 As of now, in Assam, 19 DCs have been granted support for all-round development of the minority communities. The DC does not involve territorial issues unlike ADC.

12 Assam Assessment 2016, http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/states/assam/index.html.