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RegionalAspirations 127 There were opposition and protest riots throughout the State. Leaders of the major tribal communities wanted to separate from Assam. They My friend formed the Eastern India Tribal Union which later transformed into a Chon said that more comprehensive All Party Hill Leaders Conference in 1960. They people in Delhi know more about the map of demanded a tribal State to be carved out of Assam. Finally instead of Europe than about the one tribal State, several States got carved out of Assam. At different North-East in our country. points of time the Central Government had to create Meghalaya, I think she is right at least Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh out of Assam. Tripura and Manipur about my schoolmates. were upgraded into States too. The reorganisation of the North-East was completed by 1972. But this was not the end of autonomy demands in this region. In Assam, for example, communities like the Bodos, Karbis and Dimasas wanted separate States. They worked for this demand by mobilising public opinion and popular movement as well as through insurgency. Often the same area was claimed by more than one community. It was not possible to go on making smaller and yet smaller States. Therefore, some other provisions of our federal set up were used to satisfy their autonomy demands while remaining in Assam. Karbis and Dimasas have been granted autonomy under District Councils while Bodos were recently granted Autonomous Council. Secessionist movements Demands for autonomy were easier to respond to, for these involved using the various provisions in the Constitution for accommodation of diversities. It was much more difficult when some groups demanded Laldenga a separate country, not in momentary anger but consistently as a principled position. The country’s leadership faced this problem for a (1937-1990): very long time in at least two States in the North-East. A comparison Founder and of these two cases offers us a lesson in democratic politics. leader of the Mizo National Afterindependence, the Mizo Hills area was made an autonomous Front; turned into district within Assam. Some Mizos believed that they were never a a rebel after the part of British India and therefore did not belong to the Indian union. experience of the But the movement for secession gained popular support after the famine in 1959; Assam government failed to respond adequately to the great famine led an armed of 1959 in Mizo hills. The Mizos’ anger led to the formation of the Mizo struggle against National Front (MNF) under the leadership of Laldenga. India for two In 1966 the MNF started an armed campaign for independence. decades; reached Thus, started a two decade long battle between Mizo insurgents and a settlement the Indian army. The MNF fought a guerilla war, got support from and signed an agreement with Pakistani government and secured shelter in the then East Pakistan. Prime Minister The Indian security forces countered it with a series of repressive measures of which the common people were the victims. At one point Rajiv Gandhi in even Air Force was used. These measures caused more anger and 1986; became the alienation among the people. chiefminister of the newly created At the end of two decades of insurgency everyone was a loser. State of Mizoram. This is where maturity of the political leadership at both ends made Reprint 2026-27