Discuss the nature of tribal movements in Post Independent India.

Tribal Movements in the North-East: The charters of tribal movement of North-East have been quite different from the tribal movements of other states. In other states, the tribal movements during British period were directed towards the exploitation and oppression by the Zamindars, contractors, Mahajan etc. In North-East region tribal movement’s were directed towards ethnicity and racial conflict. The important movements in the north -East regions are Naga movement, Mizo Movement, khasi movement, Bodoland movement and zeliangrong movement. These movements had more or less similar background factors.

1. North East region of India forms international borders many of these tribal communities have trade relation with other communities accros the border. Thus they play the role of bridge between the two nations. 
2. The British ruler acquired the tribal land and taxes were imposed on tribal lands. Their lands were acquired to expand railway, road, establishing administrative towns and offices. The exploitative and oppressive behaviour of British rulers forced the tribals to organize themselves for launching agitation. 
3. In order to weaken freedom struggle, Britisher tried hard to keep the tribals isolated and regulated those areas very strictly. Thus those areas remain unaffected by the outside political turmoils and they developed separate identify 
4. As a result of spread of the Christianity and missionary as a result of education the tribals developed a sense of distinctive identify. 
5. After independence of India the political consciousness of these people were heightened. 
6. Unrestricted interaction between outsiders and tribals after independence generated a sense of fear among the tribals of loosing their autonomy and control over their resources. 
7. The process of modernization brought changes in tribal life, their social institutions, traditional land relations, control over forest and occupational pattern. This created discontent among the tribals.

Tribal Movements in Mizoram

The term Mizo means hills which encompasses almost fifteen tribes. They have got together under the single Mizo identify. In 1946, some politically aware educated elites in Lushai hills area formed the Mizo Common People’s Front and a Mizo Union. Gradually they organized themselves to assert their cultural and political distinctiveness and preserve their identify. Common people formed a political party, the United Mizo Freedom organization (UMFO) on July 5, 1947 which sought to merge the Mizo area with Burma. But the mizo leaders of mizo union accepted the sovereignty of India and agreed to remain as the part of Indian union with limited autonomy and the freedom to opt out when they wished to do so. In response to this acceptance the government of India gave protection to the tribes of this region under the sixth schedule.

But when the Assam government decided to introduce Assamese as the state language, Mizo people apprehended threat to the Mizo identity. Then the UMFo demanded separation from Assam state. They were supported by the all party Hills Leaders conference and the eastern India tribal union. But the major immediate cause for the Mizo Unrest was the ‘efflorescence of the bamboo Ormautan’ in 1959 which led to acute famine in the region. This famine was not addressed properly by the government. The Mizo cultural society became the Mizo National Famine Front and undertook deceive relief measures. Under the leadership of Laldenga this organization emerged as Mizo National front (MNF) 1963. on February 28, 1966 Mizoram was declared on independent sovereign state with the lunch of ‘operation Jericho.’ But these activities were forcefully handled by Indian army. MNF was declared unlawful. On July 1, 1976 an agreement of ‘people accord’ was signed. After a long struggle finally, on June 30, 1986 Mizoram emerged as a separate state in the Indian Territory with a formal agreement between Laldenga, Lal Thanwala and Pradhan in Delhi.

Bodo Movement 

The Bodo movement was started by the All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) in 1987 seeking a separate tribal state on the bank of Brahmaputra called Bodoland and inclusion of the Bodo-kaharis and other tribes in the sixth schedule. The people of this region were hopeful that after independence, the democratic government will end their all problems. But their problems remained same even after decades of independence. The influx of vast outside population brought imbalance in the development of local people and the tribals became less in number. These issues along with other factors like fear of erosion of Bodo identify, control over land, jobs, language, script and culture is fueling the movement. 

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