States Reorganization in North East India

There are several components of Government of India’s repose to insurgencies in the North East India. These include: Meeting the political aspirations of the ethnic groups by giving them autonomy; Economic development of the area; Improving governance; Engaging the outfits in peace dialogues and coordinating operations with the neighbouring countries and lastly use of force.

We can study the Government of India’s response to insurgencies in the Northeast broadly in four parameters viz. Structural Changes in administration; Dialogue and Negotiations; Use of Force and Development activities.

Structural Changes in Administration

Greater Statehood

The government has given considerable attention to reduce the conflicts by conferring greater statehoods in the north east. At the time of Independence, India’s north east region was made of three entities as follows:

• Assam since 1912 as Assam Province of British India.
• Princely states of Manipur and Tripura
• North East Frontier Province (NEFA)

Manipur and Tripura became Union Territories in 1949. The fifth entity in North East emerged on 1 December 1963 as Nagaland via the State of Nagaland Act in 1962. Sixth entity was Meghalaya, which first emerged in 1970 as a autonomous state within Assam via the Assam Reorganisation (Meghalaya) Act of 1969 as per sixth schedule of the constitution. On 21 January 1972, Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura were given status of fully fledged states via the North East Reorganization Act 1972. Meanwhile in 1972, Mizo Hills region of Assam was converted into a Union Territory. After the Mizoram Peace Accord (1986), Mizoram emerged as a full-fledged state of India in 1987. NEFA was first converted to a Union Territory in 1972 and then full-fledged state in 1987.

The above reorganization of the states of North East is arranged in following table in chronological order: