By Pratyush Pran Sarma
Introduction
For any civilization or a group of people to develop, the importance of being located in geographically superior plains has always been the reason of immigration of other communities in search of a more civilized lifestyle. This puts into contrast the hilly areas or the deserts, and the people inhabiting in those areas. This contrast is especially observable in a region like the North-eastern (NE) region of India where the Assamese plains are surrounded by hills on all sides. The NE region of 7 States1(out of 8) (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura) were acquired by the British after the Treaty of Yandaboo in 1826 with the Burmese king Bagyidaw. The entire region as a commissionership was formed in 1874 under the name “Assam”.
The presence of colonial powers in post-1826 and post-1874 eras started taking a toll on the already existing way of life of these diverse groups of people. The immigration of people from all over British India to use the barren plants of the northeast, the interference in the governance of hill tribes, the introduction of land settlement rights to the groups of people who lived on their production from jhum cultivation were sources of animosity for the colonial rulers. While several policies of the British colonial governance disrupted the livelihood of people, others created a hill-plain divide between the inhabitants. The introduction of an Inner Line in 1873 with the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation (BEFR) was drawn along the foothills of Assam to separate the ‘ungovernable’ hilly regions from the plains.
Colonial border-making has seen many issues not just in NE India or Asia, but also in its African colonies. Faults in drawing border has created ethnic minorities in states that seem to have given rise to conflicts, and at times very violent ones like the Rwandan Genocide. Coming back to NE India, the colonial process of border-making has been a long path of several steps of segregation since the time it was acquired.
The generation and documentation of demarcation started creating confusion within the different ethnicities and along with it the alienation of what was previously a hill-plain interdependent lifestyle. The present-day border disputes in NE India have stemmed out from this segregation of the geographically dissimilar regions and its inhabitants that have co-existed peacefully before the lines were drawn.
These border disputes, especially the Assam-Nagaland border dispute and Assam-Mizoram border disputes, have resulted in violent conflicts with multiple casualties. The most recent incident took place on July 26, 2021 between two squads of police on either side of Assam and Mizoram in the border area between Lailapur of the Cachar district of Assam and Vairengte, a town in Mizoram leaving seven dead and 60 injured. This is only a recent addition to a series of violent conflicts of the Assam-Mizoram border dispute.
The article aims to understand the Assam-Mizoram Border dispute from a historical perspective divided into two parts, pre-1972 and post-1972, to further understand colonial policymaking and Indian Government policymaking, their differences and similarities.
Understanding the Assam-Mizoram Border Dispute
History of the Dispute
Assam, as a newly formed commissionership in 1874, included a number of areas viz. “…..Goalpara, Kamrup, Nowgong, Sibsagar, Lakhimpur, parts of Naga Hills, and the district of Cachar and Garo Hills including the adjacent Eastern Duars – which was under Bhutanese influence…..”2. After the incorporation of Lushai Hills, present-day Mizoram, in British India, it was made a district of Assam. Soon, the Regulation 5 of the BEFR, 1873 introduced the policy of providing protection to the way of life of these ‘ungovernable’ groups. However, the real reason for the British to pass BEFR was to put an end to the occasional raids on British tea and rubber plantations by people of these tribes. A line was drawn across the foothills of Assam which was named as the “Inner Line” beyond which the inhabitants were left to manage their own political affairs with minimum disruption from the rulers, occasional suggestions and advices to maintain a healthy relationship between the heads and chiefs of the groups and tribes.
With the establishment of the Inner Line in NE, the South Frontier of the district of Cachar followed by the Lushai Hills district were declared as protected territories under the BEFR. Special permission from the Superintendent of Lushai Hills was necessary for non indigenous people to go beyond the Inner Line. The 1875 inner line between Cachar and Lushai Hills constituted the area which is the present-day Inner Line Reserved Forest. During this time, Cachar was given this definite boundary by the colonial masters which was acceptable to the Sailo chiefs of Lushai Hills.
In August, 1930, the inner line was re-prescribed in the Lushai Hills with defined Northern and Western boundaries. However, at the same time, the inner line in the Cachar district was abolished and was thus assimilated into the frontier province of British India – Assam. On 9th March, 1933, the boundary of Lushai Hills as protected by the inner line was given its definite shape, a boundary that is supported by the present-day Assam State Government and the Indian Government. On 13th March, the Government of the Assam province extended section 35 of the Chin Hills Regulation, 1896 (Regulation V of 1896) with the help of section 5 and 5A of the Scheduled Districts Act, 1874 (Act XIV of 1874) which allowed the British to collect tax (land revenue, toll, duty, etc.) from people from a list of areas that included the Lushai Hills District and the North Cachar Hills (in the Cachar District).3
In the mid-1930s, the atmosphere in the Lushai Hills started changing as the Commoners formed the Mizo Commoner’s Union (MCU) in the hopes of a new democratic system. Their resentment towards the chiefs for the powers they enjoy gained the support of the commoner masses. The MCU later renamed themselves to the Mizo Union (MU) to incorporate not just the commoners but every Mizo in their political mobilization against the chiefs. The MU abolished the chieftainship in 1954 after it came to power and stayed in power until the rise of the Mizo National Front (MNF).4
The MNF gained popularity as a voice raised by the traditional elites and chiefs who have been completely excluded by MU from the governance of the Mizo District Council (MDC) (previously Lushai Hills District Council, LHDC). While the two political parties battled for power for the MDC, the MNF found itself cornered by the MU and its policies because of which MNF retaliated with an armed rebellion in 1966. The famines of 1959 also helped gather popular support for the MNF as it provided the people with a chance to question the governance under MU and grab the opportunity to administer their region on their own terms and overcome their economic frustrations from the famine.
While Mizoram was fighting for its Statehood, Assam saw a massive rebellion based on making the Assamese language a regional standard, known as the Assam Movement from 1979-1985. This movement brought, with it, insurgency in the State with the formation of the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) that launched a series of violent attacks, extortion and smuggling of weapons in the later part of its revolution. The early stages of ULFA’s fight for secession to preserve the Assamese identity from the immigrants enjoyed popularity among the Assamese masses.
The Centre’s Approach
The policymakers at the Centre responded to the secessionist insurgencies by MNF and ULFA first through acts of force to weaken the groups and then through negotiations to reach peace agreements and accords. The Central Government’s operations with ULFA, especially the Operation Rhino (by an Indian Special Operations force along with the Royal Bhutanese Army) and the secret killings during the AGP Government of Prafulla Kumar Mahanta led to peace-talks among the Centre, the State and ULFA that has resulted in the surrender of some high-ranking leaders. However, the commander-in-chief of ULFA-Independent (ULFA-I), Paresh Barua, is still in hiding, not willing to negotiate.
On the other hand, the armed struggle of MNF ended with the surrender of the group and the realisation of their secessionist agenda with Mizoram receiving its Statehood in 1987 (became a Union Territory earlier in 1972) after signing the Mizo Peace Accord (June 3, 1986). The incorporation of MNF insurgents in the government-making process remains an exceptional case of Indian policymaking where non-state actors who questioned the state’s authority were allowed to participate in its democratic processes.
While the Central Government was finding out its way around the insurgencies in Assam and Mizoram, the negotiations for the border disputes reached a stalemate. The 165 km long border shared by the two states shows disputes in the Inner Line Reserved Forest which Mizoram claims as its own based on the 1875 demarcation and formation of the Inner Line. However, the formation of the Mizo State by the Indian Government is based on the 1933 demarcation by the British after the Inner Line for Cachar was abolished. This 1933 border is supported by Assam, and this difference in opinions and inconclusiveness on the part of Indian policymakers has made way for inter-State border conflicts.
The Assam-Mizoram Clash of July, 2021
From the beginning of June, 2021, the Mizo people residing in the disputed areas have filed complaints against Assam Police who were allegedly destroying their areca nut plantation and Mizo local palm oil processing project.5 Earlier, in October 2020, Assam Police officers allegedly made threats about blockading the interstate highway, which was later done by some individuals from the Lailapur area. In November, the Upper Phainuam Lower Primary School in Mizoram met with bomb blasts.6 The history of violent clashes between the inhabitants of Lailapur (Cachar district) and Vairengte (Mizoram), and Karimganj district and Mamit district (Mizoram) saw its peak when the disputed hilly area borders Lailapur and Vairengte saw the Assam-Mizoram border clash on 26th July, 2021. A group of around 200 Assam Police personnel alongside the District Commissioner, Superintendent of Police and District Forest Officer travelled to Vairengte to talk to their Mizo counterparts. Assam claims that the agreements of the 1987 border (based on 1933 demarcation) and status quo have been breached after Mizoram started the construction of a road towards Rengti Basti in Assam.7 The talk intended soon turned into a violent clash where vehicles were torched and shots were fired. Even though the clash took the lives of seven Assamese policemen and left 60 injured on either side, the answer to who shot first still remains unknown. The internet raged with slogans and hashtags of ‘Assam Shot First’ by the Mizo netizens. The online debate started when the Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma raged a Twitter battle with the Mizo CM Zoramthanga without any immediate response from the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The Neutral Zone
To maintain the status quo ante, a meeting between delegations of both States and the Director General of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) reached an agreement to create a no man’s land – a neutral zone administered by a neutral Central Paramilitary Force along the National Highway – 306 on the Lailapur-Vairengte border until a permanent solution is obtained.
Although the CRPF has been able to create a more stable atmosphere at the border, residents on either side are still tensed because of the distrust and animosity they share between themselves.8
The question of Illegal Immigrants
While illegal immigration has always been a flagbearer in the lists of grievances of the insurgents, the Mizo population believes that certain contested areas at their border with Assam suffer from the illegal immigration from neighbouring Bangladesh, who are illegally occupying the disputed forest areas, protected as vote bank by the Assam Government. However, these allegations have been dismissed by the State Government of Assam.
Role of Colonial Border Policy Making
After the acquisition of an undivided Assam – the present-day North-East region, the British started ruling its newfound frontier in the same way they did to the rest of India. Several officers of the British Empire visited stretches of barren land to survey their new NE frontier. This initiated the first colonial policies towards this land. Waves of people were brought in to fill up the vacancies in their offices and tea plantations. Land settlement rights were passed and taxation was started. This caused a threat to all the original inhabitants of these lands and their distinct ways of living.
The process of border-making of the colonial rulers remained flawed because of the exclusion of the parties who have had a historical say in the matter. The 1875 border made by the Inner Line for the Lushai Hills was drawn in agreement to the Sailo chiefs who ruled the various villages in Lushai Hills (Mizoram). However, the 1933 demarcation by the colonial rulers was claimed to have done without the agreement of the chiefs. The failure to draw borders based on the identification of the ethnicities in this region thus remains a major characteristic and failure of British colonial border-making.
Indian Government Border Policy Making vs Colonial Border Policy Making
After India became an independent state, it received the Lushai Hills as a district of Assam, guarded by the Inner Line. The policymakers at the centre continued the Inner Line System to keep these areas protected from the outside world. It was after the formation of MU and MNF and several military and political confrontations, Mizoram’s request was met. This segregation of Mizoram was done according to the 1933 demarcation, which the Mizo Government and the population did not agree to. The Central Government border-making policies showed flaws not just with Mizoram, but also the borders between Assam and Nagaland, Assam and Meghalaya, and Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. The Centre failed to run its own survey of identification and create a platform where the border disputes could be treated as matters of urgency.
Thus, it can be said that while the colonial border policymaking gave birth to the border disputes in NE India in the first place, they were facilitated by the Indian Government Border Policymaking. However, with the ever-changing ripples of democracy, the Central Government’s approach to the border disputes is bound to change with time.
Conclusion
What happened on 26th July 2021 between Assam and Mizoram is a part of a series of clashes over a decades-long dispute. Even though colonialism came to an end after the country’s independence, the border disputes in NE India are remnants of that colonialism. The confusion among the two State’s officials and the Centre has been a product of policies driven by greed and asserting authority on the part of the British. After understanding the historical claims of these disputed regions, the Indian Government policymakers can engage in the settlement of these border disputes. The creation of an all-inclusive platform for the recognition of these issues can be the first little step on the path to achieve permanent peace.
References:
1. The word State (capitalised) is used to mean the federation of states in the Indian Union. Non-capitalised ‘state’ will be used to mean nation state.
2. Baruah, Sanjib; India Against Itself: Assam and the Politics of Nationality; page no. 24-25; 1999; University of Pennsylvania
3. Data complited from the Assam Gazette issues from July 3, 1875, July 10, 1875, July 6, 1878, July 13, 1878, September 3, 1930 and March 15, 1933 collected from Assam Archives.
4. Hassan, M. Sajjad; The Mizo Exception: State-Society Cohesion and Institutional Capability; Beyond Counter-insurgency: Breaking the Impasse in Northeast India (edited by Sanjib Baruah), 2009
5. BBC; Assam-Mizoram clash: ‘It was like a war between two countries’; 9th August, 2021 Online: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-58066768
6. Deb, Debraj; Indian Express; Explained: Why did a 150-year-old Assam-Mizoram dispute get violent now? Online: https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/the assam-mizoram-dispute-violence-policemen-dead-7425600/
7. Singh, Bikash; Tripathi Rahul; The Economic Times; Assam-Mizoram Border Clashes: Here’s why it happened and everything else you need to know; July 31, 2021; Online: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/et-explains/assam mizoram-border-dispute-heres-what-led-to-the-clashes-and-everything-else-you-need to-know/articleshow/84920326.cms
8. Goswami, BB; Times of India; Assam-Mizoram border areas peaceful: CRPF DIG; March 13, 2022; Online: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/guwahati/assam mizoram-border-areas-peaceful-crpf-dig/articleshow/90177760.cms
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