Tribal Autonomy in Assam: Problems and Prospects
By M. AMARJEET SINGH

Northeast India, with its diverse ethnic communities, has been witnessing struggles ranging from demands for various forms of autonomy to separation from the Indian Union. Assam, geographically the second largest and the most populous state in the region, faces several demands by ethnic communities in the state for various forms of autonomy. Partly because of these demands and also partly because of a perception by many guardians of the then ‘new India’ of differential levels of development of the Assamese ethnic-scape, formation of special constitutional provisions like the Sixth Schedule looked almost inevitable. Unfortunately, the special provision was not given a fair trial, and many of the problems, which this provision was to tackle, could not be attended to. Meanwhile, new issues have cropped up in due course of time. Notwithstanding claims about having ushered in peace and stability in the region, the provision has not succeeded in its avowed objective, and has only added to the discontent. Assam has since then been divided into five states. The paper discusses the proliferation of a particular kind of political mobilization in Assam by various communities to demarcate a separate territory and political space for themselves to the exclusion of the others living in that space.

A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

The province of Assam was a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-racial entity. During the British colonial rule, a number of laws governed the administration of the hill areas of Assam. The Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulations of 1873 prohibited the entry of all British subjects in the area within the Inner Line without a permit issued by the competent authority.(1) Again, a considerable part of Assam was declared ‘backward’ areas under the Government of India Act, 1919. Further, from 1937, under the Government of India Act 1935, certain tribal areas of Assam were termed as ‘excluded’ and ‘partially excluded’ areas(2), placing them outside the purview of the provincial administration and bringing them directly under the Governor of Assam. As a result, the tribals of the hill districts were encouraged to distance themselves from the plainsmen and developed a special kind of identity that had remained crucial for subsequent political developments. The British indirectly ruled over the hill districts that were left to the management of the traditional authorities who would be easily manipulated. It was a simple paternalistic British rule in the hills unlike the plain districts. Moreover, the Christian missionaries were licensed to operate in the hill areas and convert the tribals into Christianity. As part of this operation, they also published Bible in many tribal languages. Before they left Assam, a proposal was floated to carve a tribal crown colony from Garo Hills to upper Burma. Many of the tribes were encouraged to ask for independence away from India. This was the background in which the Constitution Drafting Committee of free India set up a sub-committee (North East Frontier Tribal and Excluded Areas Committee) with Gopinath Bordoloi, then Premier of Assam, as its Chairman. The sub-committee recommended autonomous districts and regional councils to safeguard the hill tribes of Assam in respect of their land, social customs and usages, language and culture.(3) These special provisions were listed under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India for the administration of hill tribal areas. While reporting to the Constituent Assembly, Gopinath Bordoloi reminded the members on the ethnic background of Assam Hills:

It is not unknown to you that the rule of the British Government and the activities of the foreign Missionaries always went together.… During the war, the then rulers and officers developed in the minds of these tribal people a sense of separation and isolation and gave them assurances that at the end of the war they will be independent states managing their affairs in their own way. They were made to believe that the entire hills would be constituted into a province and put under some irresponsible government. You might possibly have read in the papers that plans were hatched in England in which the ex-Governors of Assam evidently took part, to create a sort of kingdom over there.(4)

The Sixth Schedule classified two sets of tribal areas of (undivided) Assam using the administrative categories that were then in effect: (i) the United Khasi-Jaintia Hills District (excluding Shillong), the Garo Hills, the Lushai (Mizo) Hills, the Mikir Hills (now Karbi Anglong), the Naga Hills and the North Cachar Hills; and (ii) the North Frontier Tracts and the Naga Tribal Area.(5) The Sixth Schedule provides for autonomous district and autonomous regions within those districts with elected councils which enjoy powers to levy taxes, to constitute courts for the administration of justice involving tribals and law-making powers on subjects including land allotment, occupation or use of land, regulation of jhum or other forms of shifting cultivation, establishment and administration of village and town committees, appointment or succession of chiefs, inheritance of property, marriage and social customs.

Initially, the Sixth Schedule was not intended to protect all the tribes (now Scheduled Tribes) of Northeast India. Only those who were considered to be relatively backward in the former ‘excluded’ and ‘partially excluded’ areas were termed ‘tribal areas’ and these came under the purview of the Sixth Schedule. The special needs of the plains tribes of Assam, e.g. the Bodos, Misings, Lalung, Sonowal, Deori and Tiwas, were the responsibility of the Minority Rights Sub-Committee of the Advisory Committee of the Constituent Assembly.

Since 1952, district councils were formed in the United Khasi-Jaintia Hills District, Garo Hills District, Lushai (Mizo) Hills District, Mikir Hills District (now Karbi Anglong District), and North Cachar Hills District. The Nagas were not impressed with such arrangement and rejected it outright and took to insurgency. Incidentally, the most backward tribal area of the region (present Arunachal Pradesh) continued to be under the special dispensation of the governor of the province, who was guided by a tribal advisor in his administrative duties.