Question

How did the Center respond to Assam’s agitation for more autonomy?

Answer 1

Demands for autonomy were raised when Non- Assamese populace felt that the Assamese language was being forcibly imposed on them by the State Government. Leaders of the major tribal communities wanted to secede from Assam. To put up a united front, they set up the Eastern India Tribal Union, which later transformed into the All Party Hill Leaders Conference in the year 1960. They demanded that a tribal-state be separated from Assam.

As a result, a massive movement began taking shape to demand autonomy for the State. Consequently, riots broke out in the region. To contain these uneventful series of incidents taking place throughout the State, the Centre acted swiftly and took the following decisions:

1. It created Mizoram, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh out of Assam.
2. Tripura and Manipur were’ upgraded into states by the Centre.
3. Reorganization of the region was completed by 1972.

By taking the above-mentioned measures, the Center Government indeed fulfilled the demand for autonomy to a certain extent, yet the major tribal communities went into revolt. They started organizing mass movements and mobilizing public opinion. This is the time when the evil of insurgency started to spread its hood in the region. After creating a number of States from Assam, the Government did not deem it feasible to create more States. They instead went ahead with creating autonomous Councils for these groups/communities. To fulfill the aspirations of other tribal communities like Bodos, Karbis, and Dimasas; the latter two were granted autonomy under District Councils and the Bodos were granted autonomous Council.