Inter- Ethnic Conflict, a great challenge to development in North East India :

A study of Hmar-Dimasa conflict

 

Biswajit Paul

Asst. Professor

Dept. of  Political Science 

 

              India’s North East is known as the homeland for numerous ethnic groups. The region has a long history of migration of different groups of people at different points of time. They are specially Aryans, Dravidians, Austrics, Tibeto-Burman and Mongoloid stock from Tibet, South-West China, Thailand, Combodia, Bangladesh and Burma or present day Myanmar. They carried with them different languages, cultures, traditions, religion etc. the cultural mobilization and movements launched by various ethnic groups in North Eastern Region remain an ongoing process. Since long different ethnic groups have been claiming for constitutional safeguards as well as privileges for socio-economic and cultural development of their respective ethnic communities. Some of them are fighting for autonomy or creation of separate state within the India Union on the basis of their ethno-cultural or ethno-linguistic identities. They have strongly contended that their communities can not develop unless they have  their separate state or autonomous region within the Indian Union and to achieve this, they have adopted both constitutional and extra constitutional strategies. They have also articulated different types of interest which has generated a lot of conflictual situation and tension ; because such interest of an ethnic community often comes into conflict with the interest of other communities. 

              There is hardly any country of the world which had not been affected by ethnic strife and more specially a heterogeneous country like India. In India, no state or region is so much affected by the ethnic strife as the North East India. The region is vulnerable to conflicts of different types and kinds. There are conflict between ‘residents’ and ‘immigrants’ conflict between ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ conflict between tribals and non-tribals, conflict between groups of tribe and what not. In fact, North East India has come to be best known as a conflict zone. One of the inter-tribe conflict in North East India is the conflict between Hmar and Dimasa which has resulted a great challenge to development in North-East India in general and both Cachar and North Cachar Hills districts of Assam in particular. The paper attempts to analyse the affects of socio-economic development of the region following the high volume rated ethnic conflict of the above two tribal communities.

 

The Dimasa Kacharis are one of the major  tribal community known as the aboriginals or earliest inhabitants of the Brahmaputra Valley. They were one of the branches of the Tibeto Burman Bodo race and known differently in different parts of Assam and North Bengal districts of West Bengal. Their origin remain a matter of conjecture, but their Mongoloid features pointed to their having originally arrived in Assam from China or Tibet. The term ‘dimasa’ literally means the children or descendents of a big river. ‘ Di’ means water, ‘Ma’ means big and ‘Sa’ means children. At present, the Dimasa people were settled in different states and different districts of Assam like Cachar, Hailakandi, Karimganj, Nagaon, Karbi Anglong and North Cachar Hills district of Assam. They inhabited and occupied lands of the above mentioned districts and states. The Dimasa people have a population of  1,10,976, souls as per 2001 census in Assam and constitute 3.4% of the total Scheduled Tribe population in the state of Assam. The highest concentration of the Dimasas can be found only in the Autonomous district of N.C. Hills where they constitute more then 40% of the total population. There population in the N.C. Hills was 91,232 souls as per 2001 census in N.C. Hills district, comprising 1481 k.m. The Dimasa Tribal people of the same language, culture and religion is recognized in different names in different districts Schedule list of Assam. They are:

1)   Dimasa (Kacharis), S.T. (Hills), N.C. Hills and Karbi_Anglong districts,

2)   Hojai Kacharis, S.T. (Plains), in Nagaon district,

3)   Barman, S.T. (Plains), in Cachar districts and

4)   Rukini Barman, S.T. (Plains), in Karimganj and Hailakandi districts. Thus, the Dimasa has completely lost the identity and oneness of the community though they belong to the same stock. It has harmed there society in many ways. 

            Hmar is one of the numerous tribes who has been living in the states of Manipur, Assam, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya, Upper Burma and Chittagong Hill tracts of the present Bengladesh. Till a few centuries ago they were not very well known people, because published works dealing with the Hmar were very scarce and limited.The Hmar belongs to the Chin-Kuki-Mizo group of tribes. They speak Hmar language which, according to G.A. Grierson, belong to the Tibeto-Burman language. The word ‘Hmar’ literally means ‘North’ in both Lushei and Hmar language. It is believed that they came to be known as Hmar, for they were living in the North of Lushei Hills. The Hmars were, however, identified as ‘ Kukis’ by the people of the plains. At present, the Hmars have made there their settlement in different parts and districts of Assam. The Hmar live in eastern part of  Cachar , Karimganj and Hailakandi and North Cachar Hills district in Assam. Actually 99 Hmar villages are their under the jurisdiction of Cachar district, 37 are in Karimganj district and 32 are in Hailakandi district. The highest concentration of Hmars is in Cachar district in comparison to other parts and districts of Assam. The total number in Cachar is 53,301 souls as per 2001 census, 13,877 in Karimganj and 12,880 in Hailakandi district of Assam. The Hmars have a population of 20,000 souls as per 2003 census in North Cachar Hills district of Assam. But Hmars claimed that their population is more than the census made by the council in 2003. According to their estimate there are 40,000 Hmars under the North Cachar Autonomous Hills District council. 

The Hmars of Assam are found under different sets of administrative structures. The Hmars in North Cachar Hills district are one of the leading partners of scheduled Autonomous District Council where as the Hmars in the Barak Valley of Cachar are just one of the minorities ethnic Tribe. They are not given the status of Scheduled Tribe (Hills) nor Scheduled Tribe (Plains). They have been demanding recognition Scheduled Tribes for the last sixty years. But there was no positive response from the Government of India and Assam. As a result, they are deprived of all the safeguards and protection granted by the Constitution of India. 

For a long time, various tribes inhaviting these districts were living in peace. They exchanged views and opinion like brothers and sisters of the same family. But recently both the tribes got engaged in a conflict with the Dimasas in the year 2003 which caused a large number of lives and rendered many homeless. The conflict resulted in mistrust, suspicion and seemingly never ending gap in the relation between two communities.  

            The roots of the conflict between the Hmars and the Dimasas in 2003 in North Cachar Hills and Cachar district of Assam were centering around the abduction and subsequent killing of three important members of Dima Halam Daogah (DHD) by the cadres of its former ally National Socialist Council of Nagalim-Issak Muivah faction  (NSCN-IM) on 26th Feb, 2003. Though it erupted in 2003, it has many reasons. In early 1980’s the Dimasas put forward the demand for reserving 90% of government jobs for the Dimasas. This forced the non-Dimasa tribes to from different organisations in different times. The main object of these organizations were to safeguard the political right and interest of the indigenous people of the district from political discrimination. The Dimasas, on the other hand formed two organisations in 1994. These were ‘Dimaraji Revival Demand committee (DRDC) and Dimasa National Security Force (DNSE). The DNSF was transformed to Dima Halam Daogah (DHD).  

            The inter-ethnic tension between Dimasa and Non- Dimasa was further intensified when the executive committee of the N.C Hills Autonomous Council, in consonance with the Dimaraji  demand of the DHD and the DRDC, adopted a resolution to change the name of the N.C. Hills district into- ‘Dima Halai’ which means- ‘Golden Land of the Dimasas’ on 8th January, 2003. The Non-Dimasa tribes understood that it was nothing but an attempt to establish Dimasa hegemony over the affairs of the District. Consequently, the Non-Dimasa formed the ‘Indigenious Tribes Front (ITF)’ and submitted a memorandum to the Governor of Assam in February 2003,urging upon him not to give his assent.           

           Ethnic conflict always has disastrous consequences. It often leads to the destruction of assets, loss of lives, breakdown of social order and norms and finally displacement of a large number of people from their original habitat. Ethnic conflict often becomes a challenge to the development. In this regard, Hmar-Dimasa conflict has no exception. 

Like any other conflict, the Hmar-Dimasa conflict is bound to be painful. It has led to the loss of as many as 84 lives, which includes 35 Hmars and 49 Dimasa. In the conflict, people from the non-participant communities, who had nothing to do with the conflict, had to pay the price for the conflict. 2 people from other communities – one Nepali and one Kuki also lost their lives. The  conflict had resulted in burning of as many as 1146 houses. (of which 429 of the Dimasa, 710 of the Hmars, 5 of the Kukis and 2 of the Beharis). It also resulted in the displacement of about 6619 people in both the districts of Assam. 

            The Hmar-Dimasa conflict has unfailingly produced long term consequences upon the socio-economic development of the North East India in general and Cachar and North Cachar Hills districts in particular. It occurs at many levels. When people are forcibly moved, production system is dismantled. Their long established residencial communities and settlements are disorganized. Kingship groups and family system are often scattered. Informal social networks that provide mutual help are also rendered non-functional. People’s lives are affected in very painful ways. Jobs and assets are lost. Trade linkages between producers and customers are interrupted. Formal and informal association and self organised services are wiped out by the sudden scattering of their membership. The commulative effect is that the social fabric is torn a part.           

            The conflict had for reaching economic consequences also. It dismantled the production system and totally jeopardized the rural economy. Both the communities of the districts which are largely dependent on agriculture, had to meet a state of insecurity in which all the agricultural activities were disrupted. In most of the areas, work on agricultural land stopped for a long time as farm workers stayed away for fear of being attacked by the clashing enemies. Besides, land expropriation removes the main foundation upon which people’s productive systems, commercial activities and livelihood are constructed unless that foundation is reconstructed elsewhere or replaced by steady income generating employment. The Hmar-dimasa conflict resulted in loss of land to a large number of innocent rural people from both the communities. A large plot of land measuring more than 2000 bigas allotted to Joypur Hmar village known as Joypur Muolkoi and Ropuizawl (Brannagar) village under Jhum land permission and another plot of land on the foothills of Cachar under a periodic patta measuring 30 bighas had to be deserted due to the ethnic clash in 2003. 

              Besides, the inter-community Co-operation which is the pre-condition of any development has been jeopardized by the conflict. The construction of Broad-Gauge from Silchar to Lamding and National Highways – from Silchar to Guwahati became stagnant due to the conflict. It had far reaching consequences on the developmental projects which were being undertaken in various parts of the districts by the government and non-government agencies. Though the development work has resumed, the loss of times, labour and other resources have delayed their completion. This may have long-term effects on the development of both the districts. 

Like other ethnic conflict, Hmar-Dimasa conflict is responsible for slow economic development in this region. It imposes addition financial burden on the state. The state government have been spending huge amount of money in counter insurgency operations, maintenance of refugee or relief camps, financial assistance to the deceased and injured families, re-construction of the houses, etc. which could be spent for economic development of the state. Besides, in order to maintain peace and communal harmony among different tribal communities in the state, additional forces are to be deployed. All these require extra expenditure on the part of the government, which could be utilized for development work. 

            Besides, infants and children of the two districts of Assam also suffered a lot because of the conflict. They are considered as the future of national progress. During the period of conflict, a total of 29 educational institutions were burnt down in Hmar-Dominated areas by the Dimasas in N.C Hills District. The entire progress of both communities became stagnant because of the long time conflict and more than 10-15 months stay in different relief camps. Infants and children did not give proper attention to their studies. Many students had to leave their schools and colleges because of this conflict. Even the Final Examinations for Higher Secondary and TDC courses were postponed. A great tension was injected into their mind. The conflict had brought drastic changes in the behaviour of many children. Use of liquor, ciggaratte, stealing and cheating are common practices among the students. As a result of the clashes, a large number of school going children were displaced along with their parants. Many children dropped out their studies due to the financial and socio-economic constraints borne out of the conflict and were also forced by the need of the time to work to contribute financially to their survival. Most of them become idle and dependent on the family members because of lack of  education and employment. Thus, they require proper attention of the concerning authorities; otherwise they can destroy the sanctity of society and the nation. 

             Now, in order to bring lasting peace and communal harmoney among the ethnic tribal communities in this tiny hilly region in particular and North East India in general. The administrative reforms will be necessary to look into the following problems: 

(i)         The general political grievances of the indigenous tribal groups.

(ii)        The demand for a separate state by the Dimasas.

(iii)       The clamour for more autonomy as well as administrative and political powers by the tribal communities in N.C Hills District.

 

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References :  

1.   Application submitted  to the Hon’ble Justice P.C Phukon Commission of Enquiry by J.N.H. Dimasa Apex body, H.Q. Haflong.

2.   Biswajit Paul, ‘Displacement of People vis-a vis security and ethnic conflict : A brief highlight under the Rajabazer Development Block, an unpublished paper present to a Seminar on Problems of Displacement in North East India by the Dept. of Political Science, Assam university, Silchar on 8th and 9th Feb. 2007.

3.   D. Ray. Laifungbam : Contours of Conflict, Pathways of Peace, A Souvenir on the occasion of Training on Conflict Resolution and Peace Building Capacities, Guwahati-24-31 March 2007, Organised by ICITP-NEZ, First  Published, 2008.

4.   Debasish Bhattacharjee : Co-ordinator of the Seminar, Problems of Displacement in North East India, Dept. of Political Science, 8th and 9th Feb. 2007.

5.   Debasish Bhattacharjee, ‘Hmar-Dimasa conflict in Assam : A Historical perspective in Girin Phukon (Ed.) Inter-ethnic conflict in North East India. South Asian Publishers, New Delhi, 2005.

6.   Field Report.

7.   H. Srikanth, ‘Resolving Ethnic conflict in the North East India; Need for Radical Civil Forums’ in Girin Phukon (Ed) Inter-Ethnic in North East India, South Asian Publishers, New Delhi, 2005.

8.   Memorandum submitted to tarun Gogoi, Hon’ble Chief minister of Assam by the Hmar People Union N.C. Hills Assam, H/Q Haflong, Dated 5th August 2005.

9.   R. Pudaite : The Education of the Hmar People, Indo-Burma Pioneer Mission, Sielmat, Manipur, First Edition, 1963.

10. Soronica Dimasa, Dated, 17th and 18th Jan. 2008.

11. The Sentinel, Thuresday may, 2003.

12. The Sentinel, Sunday January, 2010.

 

 

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