Hotspots of trouble in North East India
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Borus Thongam
Traditionally the term terrorism defined the use of violence against its citizens by the State during the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror 1793-1794, under the leadership of Maximilien Robespierre. Through the years, originally a National or sub-National phenomenon became a worldwide phenomenon in this globalisation era. This evolution involves the use of violence as propaganda during the late 19th century, as a National liberalist movement during the late 19th century, against the State by radical leftist groups during the 1960-1970s, violence against the State to achieve political gain by minorities of which may be of religious, culture, population, linguistic etc during 1960s-1990s.
However, in the late nineteenth century, there was the emergence of radical Islamic terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda, ISIS, JeM etc. It is the 9/11 attack that gave terrorism a new understanding in the study of Global Politics and international relations.
Terrorism, in its general term, refers to attempts to further political ends by using violence to create a climate of fear apprehension and uncertainty. The most common forms of terrorism include assassination, bombings, hostage seizures, plane hijacks etc. Terrorist groups work clandestinely and are involved in acts of surprise. They mainly attack innocent civilians, Government officials and institutions, public figures etc.
In India, terrorism and violent extremism can be traced back partly to the religion-based partition in 1947, which ripped the sub-continent into two Nations: India and Pakistan.
The sub-continent remained witness to the most horrifying ethnic riots in modern history, which were marked by extreme violence and acts of terrorism. Moreover, India is a highly diverse country in the sense of language, culture and religion. At the time of independence, several princely States and small States from the periphery merged into dominant India. However, not every State merged intending to become a part of the country, some of them were coercively merged and others were forced to sign the merger agreement to become a part of India. Accordingly, violence gripped many parts of the country, violence and clashes among different religions, languages and cultures frequently. Also, the secession revolution emerged in various parts of the country-most notably Jammu and Kashmir and the States of North East India.
Since 1989, the low-intensity conflict in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) has been the most important issue in India's internal security scenario. Possession of the State has been an issue of dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947. Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF )was the first militant group to advocate the secession of J&K from India. The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) initially used the JKLF for disaffected elements who were willing to take up arms against India's control in J&K. The JKLF, formed in 1965, was originally a Pakistan-based militant outfit committed to challenging India's control over the State. This organisation was used to bring militant youth of the State, train them and send them back to foment insurgency. From the time of its inception till 1988, the JKLF focussed on propagating its secessionist cause and building its militant base through indoctrination and arms training.
The foremost hotspot of terrorism after the J&K, in the country are North Eastern States. North Eastern India consists of seven States (also known as the Seven Sisters)-Assam, Me-ghalaya, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland. Tensions existed between insurgents in these States and the Central Government as well as amongst the native people and migrants from other parts of India and illegal immigrants. India’s North East has been scarred by sustained separatist insur- gencies, mass agitation, ethnic riots and heavy-handed State response resulting in continuous bloodletting. The land-locked region, which is linked to the Indian mainland by the 22 km-wide Siliguri corridor in northern Bengal, borders Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myan-mar, China’s Tibet Autono- mous Region and Nepal is not too far away. Located in a volatile neighbourhood as it were, India’s North East has witnessed, since the 1950s, large-scale violence directed against Indian security forces and frequent fighting between different ethnic militias. The North East is surely the one area of post-colonial India where the outbreak of insurgency has been more frequent than anywhere else in Southeast Asia and where recourse to armed rebellion has often been the first, rather than the last, option of a recalcitrant tribe or a larger ethnic group.
North-East India is India’s most ethnically diversified area. Around 40 million people live there, including 213 of India’s 635 tribal groups. These tribes each have their own distinct culture, each tribal group disagrees with being combined into mainstream India because it means losing their unique identity, giving rise to insurgency. The long distance between mainland India and the North East, as well as a lack of representation for the region in the Indian Parliament, has contributed to the North East being more neglected in the political framework of the country, which has served as a major reason behind the insurgencies occurring in the region. During the Bangladeshi Liberation War, an estimated 10 million people from East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh) fled the country and took refuge in India, particularly in the Indian States of West Bengal and the Indian North East, especially Tripura and Assam. This changed the demography of the area, resulting in greater competition between locals and refugees, which further contributed to the insurgency in the area. The North East has been traditionally neglected, with the region receiving low levels of investment from both the Indian Govt and other investors. All these factors fostered a number of separatist groups in the region which carried out an activity of insurgency intending to target their different goal based on their respective State or community.
The Naga National Council (NNC) led by Phizo was the first group to dissent in 1947 and in 1956 they went underground. The NNC declared independence a day before India became independent from the British and challenged the claims of the post-colonial Indian State to rule over the Naga Hills, which became part of the large province of Assam. The NNC engaged in many negotiations with the Indian Govt on the future status of the Naga Hills and when things seemed Delhi would not entertain the Naga aspirations of self-rule, it formed the Naga Army and started waging sustained guerilla warfare against Indian forces. The Sema Naga tribal faction was co-opted by the Indian administration to be used against the Naga Army resulting in the factions among the army in the 1960s. The bulk of NNC leadership gave up the path of armed insurgency and signed an agreement with the Indian Government in 1975 known as the Shillong Accord. But the China-trained Naga rebel leaders Isak Chisi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah formed the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) in 1980 to establish a Greater Nagaland, encompassing parts of Manipur, Nagaland, and the north Cachar hills (Assam). The NSCN split in 1988 to form two groups, NSCN(IM) and NSCN(K).
In the early 1960s, in Assam’s Mizo Hills, what is now the Indian State of Mizoram there was a famine caused by bamboo flowering and the accompanying explosion of the rat population in the region. Angry Mizos joined the Mizo National Famine Front (MNFF) to help out the victims of "Mautam" (Rat Famine) after rats destroyed crops and caused large-scale starvation. Laldenga, a former Indian Army soldier from the Mizo tribe took control of the MNFF and turned it into an organization to lead the rebellion against India after the administration of Assam failed to heed the warnings by tribal leaders and responded inefficiently. Later the word famine was dropped and the Mizo National Front (MNF) seized nine towns in the Mizo hills in 1966. After several months, the Indian army was able to fully control the Mizo Hills and the Mizo Hills were fully carved out of the Assam province to form a federally administered province of Mizoram which later became a full fledged State in the year 1987-a year after the MNF finally bade farewell to arms and entered an agreement with the Indian Govt in 1986.(To be contd)
Traditionally the term terrorism defined the use of violence against its citizens by the State during the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror 1793-1794, under the leadership of Maximilien Robespierre. Through the years, originally a National or sub-National phenomenon became a worldwide phenomenon in this globalisation era. This evolution involves the use of violence as propaganda during the late 19th century, as a National liberalist movement during the late 19th century, against the State by radical leftist groups during the 1960-1970s, violence against the State to achieve political gain by minorities of which may be of religious, culture, population, linguistic etc during 1960s-1990s.
However, in the late nineteenth century, there was the emergence of radical Islamic terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda, ISIS, JeM etc. It is the 9/11 attack that gave terrorism a new understanding in the study of Global Politics and international relations.
Terrorism, in its general term, refers to attempts to further political ends by using violence to create a climate of fear apprehension and uncertainty. The most common forms of terrorism include assassination, bombings, hostage seizures, plane hijacks etc. Terrorist groups work clandestinely and are involved in acts of surprise. They mainly attack innocent civilians, Government officials and institutions, public figures etc.
In India, terrorism and violent extremism can be traced back partly to the religion-based partition in 1947, which ripped the sub-continent into two Nations: India and Pakistan.
The sub-continent remained witness to the most horrifying ethnic riots in modern history, which were marked by extreme violence and acts of terrorism. Moreover, India is a highly diverse country in the sense of language, culture and religion. At the time of independence, several princely States and small States from the periphery merged into dominant India. However, not every State merged intending to become a part of the country, some of them were coercively merged and others were forced to sign the merger agreement to become a part of India. Accordingly, violence gripped many parts of the country, violence and clashes among different religions, languages and cultures frequently. Also, the secession revolution emerged in various parts of the country-most notably Jammu and Kashmir and the States of North East India.
Since 1989, the low-intensity conflict in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) has been the most important issue in India's internal security scenario. Possession of the State has been an issue of dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947. Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF )was the first militant group to advocate the secession of J&K from India. The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) initially used the JKLF for disaffected elements who were willing to take up arms against India's control in J&K. The JKLF, formed in 1965, was originally a Pakistan-based militant outfit committed to challenging India's control over the State. This organisation was used to bring militant youth of the State, train them and send them back to foment insurgency. From the time of its inception till 1988, the JKLF focussed on propagating its secessionist cause and building its militant base through indoctrination and arms training.
The foremost hotspot of terrorism after the J&K, in the country are North Eastern States. North Eastern India consists of seven States (also known as the Seven Sisters)-Assam, Me-ghalaya, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland. Tensions existed between insurgents in these States and the Central Government as well as amongst the native people and migrants from other parts of India and illegal immigrants. India’s North East has been scarred by sustained separatist insur- gencies, mass agitation, ethnic riots and heavy-handed State response resulting in continuous bloodletting. The land-locked region, which is linked to the Indian mainland by the 22 km-wide Siliguri corridor in northern Bengal, borders Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myan-mar, China’s Tibet Autono- mous Region and Nepal is not too far away. Located in a volatile neighbourhood as it were, India’s North East has witnessed, since the 1950s, large-scale violence directed against Indian security forces and frequent fighting between different ethnic militias. The North East is surely the one area of post-colonial India where the outbreak of insurgency has been more frequent than anywhere else in Southeast Asia and where recourse to armed rebellion has often been the first, rather than the last, option of a recalcitrant tribe or a larger ethnic group.
North-East India is India’s most ethnically diversified area. Around 40 million people live there, including 213 of India’s 635 tribal groups. These tribes each have their own distinct culture, each tribal group disagrees with being combined into mainstream India because it means losing their unique identity, giving rise to insurgency. The long distance between mainland India and the North East, as well as a lack of representation for the region in the Indian Parliament, has contributed to the North East being more neglected in the political framework of the country, which has served as a major reason behind the insurgencies occurring in the region. During the Bangladeshi Liberation War, an estimated 10 million people from East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh) fled the country and took refuge in India, particularly in the Indian States of West Bengal and the Indian North East, especially Tripura and Assam. This changed the demography of the area, resulting in greater competition between locals and refugees, which further contributed to the insurgency in the area. The North East has been traditionally neglected, with the region receiving low levels of investment from both the Indian Govt and other investors. All these factors fostered a number of separatist groups in the region which carried out an activity of insurgency intending to target their different goal based on their respective State or community.
The Naga National Council (NNC) led by Phizo was the first group to dissent in 1947 and in 1956 they went underground. The NNC declared independence a day before India became independent from the British and challenged the claims of the post-colonial Indian State to rule over the Naga Hills, which became part of the large province of Assam. The NNC engaged in many negotiations with the Indian Govt on the future status of the Naga Hills and when things seemed Delhi would not entertain the Naga aspirations of self-rule, it formed the Naga Army and started waging sustained guerilla warfare against Indian forces. The Sema Naga tribal faction was co-opted by the Indian administration to be used against the Naga Army resulting in the factions among the army in the 1960s. The bulk of NNC leadership gave up the path of armed insurgency and signed an agreement with the Indian Government in 1975 known as the Shillong Accord. But the China-trained Naga rebel leaders Isak Chisi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah formed the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) in 1980 to establish a Greater Nagaland, encompassing parts of Manipur, Nagaland, and the north Cachar hills (Assam). The NSCN split in 1988 to form two groups, NSCN(IM) and NSCN(K).
In the early 1960s, in Assam’s Mizo Hills, what is now the Indian State of Mizoram there was a famine caused by bamboo flowering and the accompanying explosion of the rat population in the region. Angry Mizos joined the Mizo National Famine Front (MNFF) to help out the victims of "Mautam" (Rat Famine) after rats destroyed crops and caused large-scale starvation. Laldenga, a former Indian Army soldier from the Mizo tribe took control of the MNFF and turned it into an organization to lead the rebellion against India after the administration of Assam failed to heed the warnings by tribal leaders and responded inefficiently. Later the word famine was dropped and the Mizo National Front (MNF) seized nine towns in the Mizo hills in 1966. After several months, the Indian army was able to fully control the Mizo Hills and the Mizo Hills were fully carved out of the Assam province to form a federally administered province of Mizoram which later became a full fledged State in the year 1987-a year after the MNF finally bade farewell to arms and entered an agreement with the Indian Govt in 1986.(To be contd)