Tripura is a
land-locked state with Mizoram in East, Assam
in Northeast and 800 K.M. of porous
international border with Bangladesh in North,
West and South. With an area of 10,486 square
kilometers covered by two third forest and one
third of river valleys it is predominantly a
hilly and often inaccessible area. It was
traditionally the abode of about twenty
tribes, who had their distinct traditions,
customs and dialects. KOK-BARAK has been the
main dialect for inter-tribe communication. It
is spoken by about 80% of tribal population.
Prominent tribes include Tripuris, who
constitute majority followed by Reang, Noatia,
Jamatya and smaller groups like Chakma, Mizo
and Garos. In pre-Independence era it was a
tribal dominated state but its aboriginal
population got submerged in the growing waves
of migration from erstwhile East Pakistan,
which became Bangladesh in 1971. The
immigrants now constitute over sixty eight
percent of state population and their mother
tongue Bengali is the official state language
against KOK-BARAK, which enjoys the status of
second language.
If we look into the growth of population
during last one hundred years in Tripura since
1901 shown below, the figure has increased
about thirty times whereas the area of
cultivable land, which is the only source of
livelihood, remained the same:
1901- 1, 73, 325
1951- 6, 39, 029
1971- 15, 56, 342
1981- 20, 60, 169
2001- 31, 91, 168
The Indian Government ignored the demographic
complexity while rehabilitating the
unrestricted flow of non-tribal Bengali
refugees in this smallest state of northeast.
Transformed from a predominantly tribal State
to a non-tribal majority state the population
of the tribes was reduced from 64% in 1864 to
52% in 1901, 37 % in 1951 and 29% in
1971(Encyclopedia of North-East India, Volume
VIII, -H.M. Bareh). By the end of twentieth
century their population was reduced to 28%.
The tragedy of partition therefore, not only
disturbed the demographic balance but the
progressive increase in state population and
steady decline in the proportion of the
natives also caused economic, sociological and
political upheaval and turned it into a battle
ground of ethnic turbulence.
Historically, Tripura was a princely state,
which joined the Indian Union on 15th October
1949 as a 'C' State. It got the status of
Union Territory in 1956 and full statehood in
January 1972. In early twentieth century a
sizeable number of non-tribal Hindu Bengali
peasantry from East Bengal had migrated to
this State at the instance of its ruler, who
with a view to augment the revenue offered
settlement of cultivable land in the valley at
low rent. The king also employed the educated
Bengalese in state administration and over the
years, they accepted Tripura as their
homeland. However, the natives always regarded
them as aliens although the relation between
the two was relatively stable till the former
was in majority. The trouble started in 1940s
with anti-Hindu riots in East Bengal followed
by the turmoil of partition forcing the scared
and hapless Hindu Bengalese to cross over to
Tripura.
Since the days of Independence extreme
tribalism has been the main focus of politics
in all the tribal dominated regions of the
country. In Tripura too organizations like
Paharia Union and Tripura Rajya Adivasi Sangh
came up in early nineteen fifties for
championing the cause of the tribals. The
ethnic diversity and personality clashes among
the different tribes and sub-tribes were
however, the greatest hurdle for political
unity among them. Their disunity helped the
mainstream political parties like Congress and
Communist to play deceitful and scandalous
politics and accordingly they ignored the
demographic complexity in the rehabilitation
of the large scale influx of non-tribal
Bengali refugees in this prominently tribal
State. Indian Parliament enacted Tripura Land
Revenue and Land Reforms Act 1960 and put
restriction on transfer of tribal land to
non-tribals. But due to political power in the
hand of Bengalis the Act remained in paper
only as the immigrants manipulated the
registration of tribal lands fraudulently.
By and large the tribes of Tripura were under
the political hegemony of the Communists and
the Congress. But when their rising discontent
against the dubious politics of these parties
reached beyond tolerance, they developed a
feeling of alienation. Agitation for creation
of new tribal states in Assam, and Mizo revolt
in 1966 encouraged them to think
independently. Rehabilitation of the Chakma
tribe squeezed out of Chittagong Hills of
Bangladesh in the tribal area added fuel to
the fire and one Anant Riang, formed an
underground militant group known as "SENGKRAK"
(Clenched fist). Slogan that Bengalese should
quit Tripura by 25th November 1967 or face
death - was the first reflection of the
secessionist mind of the aboriginal
inhabitants.
Formation of an umbrella organization namely
'Tripura Upjatiya Juba Samiti' (TUJS) in June
1967 as an independent political party for
championing the cause of the natives was a new
chapter in the political history of Tripura.
Its students' front namely Tripura Students
Federation emerged as an effective force in
mobilizing the youths. The main focus of the
TUJS centered round the demand for Autonomy,
language and land that were:
Autonomous District Council under Sixth
schedule of Indian Constitution
Extension of inner-line permits system for
Tripura
Introduction of Koroborak in Roman script as
medium of instructions for the tribal students
Restoration of the ownership over traditional
land to the tribals.
Initially the CPM tried to adopt the TUJS as
its tribal front but failed to convince its
leaders. Thus the new political outfit was the
beginning of the politics of tribal extremism,
which furthered the widening divide between
the tribals and non-tribals. Anant Reang got
killed in an army operation but one Bijoy
Harankhwal, a leader of TUJS contacted the
hard core cadres of "SENGKRAK" and formed
another militant organization 'Tripura Sena'
to fight against the Bengali immigrants.
Creation of Bangladesh reopened the floodgates
for exodus of Bengali refugees, which further
increased the population load on Tripura. A
large number of refugees, who had taken
shelter in Tripura during Indo-Pak war in 1970
stayed back and thus turned the situation from
bad to worse.
Tripura got full-fledged statehood in January
1972 after the enactment of North -Eastern
Areas (Reorganization) Act, 1971. The number
of Assembly seats was increased from 30 to 60
with 17 seats reserved for scheduled Tribe and
7 for Schedule Caste. However, the change from
Union territory to full statehood hardly made
any difference in the socio-economic condition
of the natives. Progressively losing control
over their traditional land and witnessing the
visible signs of relatively better prosperity
to the immigrants made them more and more
restive.
In 1972 Assembly election the Congress won 41
seats in the house of 60. This comfortable
majority could be possible due to wide range
of support from the immigrants and therefore,
the party was under political compulsion to
safeguard their interest. In 1974 the
Government amended Tripura Land Revenue and
Land Reforms Act 1960, which made a provision
for regularization of the illegal transfer of
tribal lands to the non-tribals till 1968. In
stead of restoring the traditional lands to
the native claimants, the Government gave
another blow to them. Enraged with this
callous attitude of the political rulers, the
TUJS gave Tripura Bandh call against the
amendment.
In 1977 Assembly election, while the Congress
was completely washed out, the TUJS emerged as
a third political force in the state by
winning four seats. The Left Front led by CPM
came to power with a thumping majority. While
justifying the demand for Tribal Area
Autonomous District Council (TAADC), the CPM
Government initiated a move for its creation.
Reacting against this pro tribal gesture of
the CPM, the Bengali immigrants settled in
hills formed a militant organization called 'Amra
Bengali' in September 1978 and launched an
agitation to counter the demands of the TUJS.
Caught in the whirlpool of political
chauvinism of the Congress, the Communists and
'Amra Bengali, the restive militant cadres of
Tripura Sena led by Bijoy Harankhwal, the then
Assistant General Secretary of the TUJS formed
Tripura National Volunteers (TNV) alias
Tripura National Volunteer Force (TNVF) in
December 1978. It was an organized beginning
of insurgency in the State. It declared
liberation of Tripura from Indian Union.
Meanwhile Tripura Legislative Assembly passed
Tripura Autonomous District Council Act 1979
for the tribal areas, which cover 68% of the
total state area. Although, the Act provided
opportunity to the 3o % of state population
for a self -government under 5th Schedule of
the Constitution, it failed to calm down the
rising tide of insurgency in the state.
The TUJS expelled Harankhwal from the party
though it was simply an eyewash. In fact it
too adopted a resolution in March 1980 for
expulsion of foreigners (meaning Bengali
immigrants) who came to Tripura after 1949.
With ideological inspiration from Assam
agitation against the Bangladeshi foreigners,
full support from the natives and logistic
support from Mizo National Front for training
its cadres in the Chittagong hill tract of
Bangladesh the TNV targeted the security
forces. They killed two Border Security Force
personnel in an encounter and emerged as a
violent force. Killing over a thousand Bengali
immigrants, torching nearly 20000 of their
houses, looting properties, the insurgents
served 'Quit Tripura' notice to them.
Traumatized Tripura witnessed the worst ethnic
riots in 1980.
The Government banned the TNV and arrested
Harankhwal in early eighties but it is said
that due to his comfortable relation with the
then CPM Government, he managed his release on
bail and dissolved the TNV. But some of the
militant cadres did not like this
opportunistic move of Harankhwal and formed
another insurgent group namely Army of Tripura
Peoples Liberation Organization (ATPLO) in
December 1980. The CPM leaders however won
over its cadres and made the organization
defunct.
Dinesh Singh Committee Report on Tripura
violence submitted in 1980 stated:
"Prolonged agitation in Assam on foreigners
issue had its fall out in Tripura.
Representatives of TUJS participated in the
North-eastern Regional Students Union held at
Dibrugarh and in the session of the executive
council of the forum of the Hill Regional
Parties of the North-eastern Region at
Shillong earlier this year. They started a
demand for deportation of foreigners who had
come to Tripura after 1949 when Tripura joined
the Indian Union" (Tribal Insurgency in
Tripura - S.R.Bhattacharjee, Inter India
Publication, New Delhi 1989, Page 151).
Some reports suggest that the Christian
Missionaries with the help of underground Mizo
evangelical teachers of Baptist Missions
exploited this growing unrest and converted
some of the boys and girls with a move to
politicize their culture and make them
indifferent from the mainstream of national
life. "All the top leaders of insurgency
initiated either by ATPLO or TNV in Tripura
are committed to Christianity" (Tribal
Insurgency in Tripura - S.R.Bhattacharjee,
Inter India Publication, New Delhi 1989, Page
151). "According to official sources the
insurgents ranks included a large number of
young boys and girls who had been converted to
Christianity, although, they were of Hindu
parenthood by underground Mizo rebels working
in Baptist missions as evangelical teachers"
(Ibid. Page 152-Quote from The Statesman dated
June 20, 1980).
In 1982 Bijoy Harankhwal revived the TNV and
its violent activities. He wrote to then Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi in 1983, "if question
of immigration is not resolved then ethnic
violence will continue to lay waste to
Tripura" (Rites of Passage by Sajoy Hazarika,
Penguin Books, 2000, Page 177-78).
After a long period of intermittent racial and
ethnic riots and pressure from the security
forces, Bijoy Harankhwal sent feelers in 1987
to the then Union Home Minister Buta Singh for
an 'honorable settlement'. The Home Minister
reportedly said, "unless a Congress led
Government was in power in the State, such a
solution could not be implemented"(Survey of
Conflicts and Resolution in India's Northeast,
12.2. 2004). The TNV then increased its bloody
campaign till 1988 when it signed a Tripartite
Accord with the Union and the State
governments. In 1988 Assembly election,
Congress-TUJS coalition came to power. Against
26 seats won by the CPM, the Congress secured
25 and its alliance partner TUJS got 8 seats.
Even though the accord was hailed by all the
political parties in general and the people of
the state in particular, normalcy did not last
for long. Some of the hardcore militants whose
personal ambitions were not fulfilled after
the accord formed faction-ridden rebel groups.
While Dhananjoy Reang, a disgruntled leader
from the TNV formed National Liberation Force
of Tripura (NLFT), another dissenting TNV
leader, Ranjit Debbarma, formed All Tripura
Tribal Force (ATTF) in July 1990, which was
later named as All Tripura Tiger Force. Both
the groups are alleged to be having the
patronage of the Congress and the CPM. "The
ATTF is alleged to be the underground outfit
of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and
was set up with the aim of removing all tribal
political outfits from the area" (Executive
Intelligence Review, October 13, 1995). The
NLFT on the other hand is known to be having
link with Congress leaders. Both the groups
are responsible for many of the worst terror
campaigns in Tripura.
While targeting the TUJS as well as the
Congress and establishing links with other
insurgent outfits in Northeast like NSCN in
Nagaland and ULFA in Assam, ATTF indulged in
murder, rampage, kidnapping people with
impunity and emerged as the most dreaded
insurgent group in Tripura. With a view to
counter the attack of the ATTF, National
Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) was set up
allegedly with the support of the TUJS and
Congress combine. The Mizo rebels associated
with Baptist missionaries also gave them
support. "The NLFT has a strong Christian
fundamentalist orientation and there have been
some reports of forced conversion by the
organization". Both the insurgent groups with
their hideouts in Bangladesh and support of
the ISI of Pakistan are causing turmoil in
their own land.
Formation of Tripura Tribal Autonomous
District Council (TTDAC) in 1988 under 6th
schedule of the Constitution with reservation
of 28 seats in 30 member Council had adversely
affected the interest of the non-tribal
Bengalese and they gradually got alienated
from the Congress-TUJS coalition. In 1993
assembly election they supported the CPM, when
the latter secured 44 seats against 10 won by
Congress and TUJS only one seat. Coming back
to power with thumping majority the CPM led
Left Front managed the surrender of some ATTF
militants through a negotiated bipartite
settlement. But most of the hard core cadres
remained unresponsive and were rigid on their
under mentioned pre-conditions for any
negotiation:
The immigrants who came to Tripura after 1949
and whose names are not listed in the voters'
list of 1951 must be declared foreigners.
Negotiation should be held in any third
country under UN meditation.
Sovereignty of Tripura is not negotiable.
These pre-conditions were not acceptable to
the government and the ATTF continued its
menace in the state. In 1999 United Bengali
Liberation Front (UBLF) was formed with an
objective to counter the attack of tribal
insurgents. They allegedly got the support of
Anand Marg.
Defection, dissolution and emergence of new
outfits created a chaotic situation. Some
lumpen elements among the various tribes
either joined ATTF or NLFT or formed separate
groups like Borok National Council of Tripura
(BNCT), Nayanbasi Jamatiya and Biswamohan
factions of the NLFT, Bru National Liberation
Front (BNLF) and Tripura National Security
Force (TNSF). Indigenous Peoples Front of
Tripura (IPFT) and Indigenous National Party
of Tripura (INPT) also came up as political
fronts of the insurgent groups.
Gradually with land and identity as the focus
point of their ideology, common acrimony
against the non-tribals particularly the
Bengalese and inter-ethnic rivalry led to the
formation of over 30 insurgent outfits at
different levels, though NLFT and ATTF
remained the most active groups and continue
their supremacy till today. They are mostly
involved in criminal activities like
smuggling, kidnapping, extortion, looting,
rape and drug trafficking. Of late some of the
insurgent groups have also taken up the
business of pornography to raise funds and now
insurgency more or less has become a business
for them. The leaders of the mainstream
political parties and other vested interests
on the other hand use them for their
self-seeking interest.
The central leadership always tried to handle
the situation in a routine manner and allowed
the insurgency to persist. Whenever the
security forces put pressure, some of the
Militants offered peace negotiation and
surrendered but again they joined one or other
group or floated new groups.
Of the various insurgent groups ATTF and NLFT
are logistically better equipped. Majority of
the NLFT members is devoutly Christians, who
at the instance of their supporting Mizo
rebels associated with some Christian
missionaries are also known to be engaged in
forceful conversion. This led to split in NLFT,
when its members belonging to Jamatiya tribe
revolted under the leadership of Nayanbasi
Jamatiya and formed an independent faction of
NLFT. The factional fight and intra-tribe feud
further aggravated the ethnic turbulence.
Personal ambitions of the rebels and material
comforts, which they are enjoying by
sustaining militancy in the State, are the
main obstacles for a long-term political
solution to the problem. On the other hand
both the CPM and the Congress leaders being
political rivals continue their interests for
their vote bank politics. While the CPM
activists and supporters are the targets of
the NLFT, the focus of attack of the ATTF is
the supporters of the political outfits of its
rival. Though, both the rebel groups are
banned since late nineties, their spate of
attacks on each other pushed the State to a
stage of anarchy.
According to some newspaper report Agartala
(Capital of Tripura) District Court awarded
death sentence to Ashok Debbarma, an insurgent
belonging to NLFT. He was an accused in 1997
massacre of 16 Bengali immigrants living in a
village at a distance of about 12 kilometers.
This is perhaps the fist instance since
Independence when an insurgent in entire
Northeast has been given a death sentence.
Tripura tribes, who were debarred from sharing
political power befitting to their prominence
before Independence, are now under
apprehension that they would gradually lose
their cultural identity. The Government on the
other hand failed to remove such an
apprehension as their increasing hate-Bengali
sentiments compelled them to take up arms
against the Government in general and
Bengalese in particular. During last
twenty-five years, thousands of people
including the civilians, insurgents and
security personnel lost their lives in
insurgency related violence and Tripura is now
the most ethnic violence-prone state of India.
For over half a century Tripura is bleeding in
the crossfire of vote bank politics and
virulent ethnic conflict. It is a rude
reminder of the criminal misdeeds of
Bangladesh, and scandalous approach of both
the communists and the Congress, which allow
the insurgency to flourish as a business. The
chemistry of electoral politics does not
permit the political rulers to undo the
historical injustice and wrongs meted to the
aboriginal Tripurites. Our social scientists
have been organizing seminars, workshops and
intellectual meets for conflict resolutions
but they have failed to tame the rising tide
of hate-Bengali sentiments among the tribal
people.
The founding philosophy of all the insurgent
groups suggests independence of all the tribal
areas in Tripura and expulsion of Bengali
immigrants who entered Tripura after 1949.They
however, suffer from intra-organizational
feuds between the factions led by the leaders
of different tribes. All of them claim to be
the real espousers for the cause of the
indigenous tribal people and are fighting
against the transformation of Tripura from a
tribal Majority State into a non-tribal
Majority State. Their hate-Bengali philosophy
is primarily due to rehabilitation of
large-scale Bengali refugees from Bangladesh.
They however, don't understand that the
Government of India was under moral obligation
to rehabilitate the Bengali Hindus of East
Bengal, who were against the partition of the
country and became the victims of persecution
for none of their faults. Had Bangladesh or
its preceding Government of Pakistan not
persecuted its hapless Hindu citizens, the
latter would not have crossed over to Tripura
as refugees by leaving their motherland. The
successive political establishments in India
however cannot escape the error of judgment.
In stead of dividing the burden of huge
population in various states in the country,
they continuously increased the load on
Tripura, which caused demographic imbalance
and transformed it into a non-tribal Majority
State.
With Bangladesh as the main rendezvous of
almost all the insurgent groups operating in
Northeastern states it is now an open secret
that all of them enjoy the patronage of the
ISI of Pakistan. Some news paper reports also
suggest that the corridor linking Tripura with
Chittagong hills of Bangladesh is used by the
international gangs of arm-smugglers under the
patronage of the powerful political leaders of
this country. They utilize the services of the
Tripura insurgents as couriers for supplies of
arms from one place to other.
The political wrongs of the successive
leadership in ignoring the demographic
imbalance, which is the root cause of the
ongoing conflict, could be righted only
through a strong political and administrative
will. Strong political will is a scare
commodity in India. The historical injustice
meted to the people of Tripura needs to be
resolved only through an honest political
dialogue without ignoring the humanitarian
consideration. Ironically, the political
masters have legitimized the game of their
divisive and deceitful politics in the name of
containing insurgency and subjected the
aboriginal masters of this land to political
and economic humiliation.
Reacting over the earlier paper of this writer
on Muslim infiltration, a Tripuri living
outside Tripura for last fifteen years
expressed his anguish that the media has
failed to highlight the real problem of the
aboriginal natives of this State. He is
aggrieved to say that the media men and
writers only discuss the Muslim immigrants and
infiltrators from Bangladesh to Assam and
other parts of India. "They never imagine that
the Bengalis from Tripura are from Bangladesh
instead they think that the tribes of Tripura
don't belong to India. The terrorists were
born because the Bengalis in Tripura tried to
suppress them both physically and morally". He
is afraid that if the corrective measures are
not taken “the beautiful tribes of the small
beautiful state may not exist in next 20
years".
The remedy of the problem therefore, primarily
lies in the hands of our political rulers. But
since the emergence of TUJS in 1967 as a
regional party, both the Congress and the CPM
which are the major political parties in
Tripura tried to win over its leaders for
their respective political games. Their nexus
with the militant cadres in pursuance of their
deceitful and divisive politics for respective
political hegemony in the State made the
situation from bad to worse. They often blame
each other for not looking into security
requirements of the State. The CPM leaders
even put such blame on the NDA, which hardly
had any visible stake in Tripura. "The centre
(NDA) appears to be firm on not fulfilling
Tripura's security requirements simply for
political reasons" (Quote from a senior CPM
leader in Frontline, June 23, 2000). Both the
major political players in Tripura, are now
constituents of the ruling UPA at centre since
2004. But none of them is ready to think
beyond their respective political interest in
this State. They never took up any tough stand
in fighting against the squeezing out Hindu
policy of erstwhile East Pakistan and the most
ungrateful neighbor Bangladesh, which is
sheltering the insurgents.
Territorial extension contiguous to Tripura
across the border, re-organization of
rehabilitation of refugees and stoppage of
further migration to this State could be a
viable solution. Since Bangladesh is the main
villain of peace, both the tribals and
non-tribals need a united mindset on this
problem. Unfortunately, in stead of
cooperating with their own Government to deal
with the problem and to fight for their cause
against Bangladesh, the insurgents are
fighting against the refugee immigrants,
security forces and their own leaders seeking
the help of their real enemy. They must
understand that only ethnic harmony can bring
peace and prosperity in Tripura.
*** The author can be reached at
ramashray60@rediffmail.com
*** The
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