The Assam Mizoram conflict points to the need of maturity on part of union govt. to defuse the situation urgently.
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Assam-Mizoram border dispute 2021 - An explainer
- The story: Six people (including five policemen) were killed in a 'border fight' between the police forces of Assam and Mizoram states of India, in the Mizo border town of Variengte, in July 2021.
- The situation: The 'disputed border' lies between Assam's Cachar district and Mizoram's Kolasib district, where residents were in struggle since October 2020, and now the police got involved. Clearly, the constitutional machinery that should have defused the situation, failed; nor did the paramilitary presence help at all (strange!). Both states are run by the same party (BJP), and its ally (Mizo National Front), and are part of the North-East Democratic Alliance and Assam CM (Himanta Sarma) is the convenor. This political alignment should have helped both CMs to let fact-finding teams help maintain peace, but both are fighting on Twitter, asking for Home Minister to intervene (using videos to prove their individual points!). It was also just days after both met Amit Shah (home minister) for resolve the inter-state border dispute, and now both blame each other (Sarma said he'd appoint 4000 commandos to guard Assam's borders).
- Historical angle: This violence highlights the long-standing inter-state boundary issues in the Northeast, particularly between Assam and the states that were carved out of it.
- Mizoram borders Assam’s Barak Valley, and both states border Bangladesh. That the status quo should be maintained in no man’s land in the border area, was the understanding in the agreement between governments of Assam and Mizoram some years ago.
- But people from Lailapur, Assam broke the status quo and allegedly constructed some temporary huts. Mizoram people went and set fire to those, while officials say that the contested land belongs to Assam as per the state’s records. Mizoram officials claim the land claimed by Assam has been cultivated for a long time by Mizos. Mizoram’s civil society groups blame “illegal Bangladeshis” (alleged migrants from Bangladesh) on the Assam side for the disturbances.
- The boundary between present-day Assam and Mizoram is 165 km long. In the colonial era, Mizoram was known as Lushai Hills, a district of Assam. A notification of 1875 differentiated the Lushai Hills from the plains of Cachar, as per the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation (BEFR) Act, 1873.
- Another notification of 1933 demarcates a boundary between the Lushai Hills and Manipur. The Mizo society was not consulted prior to the 1933 notification. So, Mizoram believes the boundary should be demarcated on the basis of the 1875 notification, but the Assam government follows the 1933 demarcation. This is the conflict!
- Differing notifications: The British tea plantations surfaced in the Cachar plains during the mid-19th century. It covers the Barak Valley - now comprising the districts of Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj. Their expansion led to problems with the Mizos whose home was the Lushai Hills. In August 1875, the southern boundary of Cachar district was issued in the Assam Gazette. The Mizos say this was the fifth time the British had drawn the boundary between the Lushai Hills and the Cachar plains, but this was the only time when it was done in consultation with Mizo chiefs. This demarcation also became the basis for the Inner Line Reserve Forest demarcation in the Gazette two years later. But in 1933, the boundary between Lushai Hills and the then princely state of Manipur was demarcated. This notification said the Manipur boundary began from the trijunction of Lushai Hills, Cachar district of Assam and Manipur state.
- The Mizos do not accept this demarcation, and point to the 1875 boundary which was drawn in consultation with their chiefs.
- In the decades after Independence, many states and UTs were carved out of Assam: Nagaland (1963), Arunachal Pradesh (UT 1972, formerly NEFA), Meghalaya (UT 1972), and Mizoram (UT 1972).
- With different interpretations of the border question, clashes erupt often. The earlier one was in October 2020.
- Summary: There are historic tensions in North-east, born of sectarian tribalism, and aided by underdevelopment. There's no urgent, immediate solution to such border disputes, except with a spirit of give and take. Oneupmanship by chief ministers won't help at all, and first all violence has to be condemned totally. For Home Ministry, the urgent task is to bring the situation under control, and prior to the Oct 2020 status quo.
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