Tripura Insurgency

Tripura became a part of dominion of India after Maharani Regent of Tripura signed the Tripura Merger Agreement on 9 September 1949. First it was made a Part C state. In 1956, it became a Union Territory. On 21 January 1972, it came into existence as a separate state of India along with Meghalaya and Manipur.

The evolution of insurgency in Tripura can be traced to the formation of the Tripura Upajati Juba Samiti (TUJS) in 1971. This was followed by the Tripura National Volunteers (TNV) in 1981. The National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) was formed on March 2, 1989 and its armed wing, the National Holy Army and All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF), in July 1990. These two outfits had secessionist agenda as follows:

• They disputed the merger of the kingdom of Tripura with the Indian Union
• They demanded sovereignty for Tripura
• They demanded deportation of “illegal migrants
• They demanded nullifying the Tripura merger agreement and the restoration of land to the tribal people under the Tripura Land Reform Act, 1960.

Illegal Immigration Problem in Tripura

The major issue behind the insurgency in Tripura was the illegal immigration that led to ethnic strife. After the partition of India, many Hindu Bengalis migrated to Tripura as refugees from East Pakistan. This inflow further increased after the 1971 war between India and Pakistan. Before that, the indigenous population was a majority in Tripura which became a minority after creation of Bangladesh. It’s worth note that in recent times, Tripura has been a peaceful state and has remarkably won over the insurgency.