Tripuri/Borok Syndrome
By: M K Jamatia, Category: General, Posted on:2010-06-24 18:03:17

The Indigenous Peoples of Tripura state are facing progressive minoritisation in their own native state, land dispossession , political disempowerment in the last half a century or , so due to largely to swamping of the native and local peoples by illegal aliens hailing from Bangladesh , the neighbourhood of India. As a result of Tripura merged with Indian Union , the Tripuri / Borok native have reduced from majority to helpless minority. The dispossessed and disempowered, Tripuri/Borok native s has lost their national future. This Tripuri Syndrome is gradually turning the other North Eastern States into Tripuri political, economic and cultural clone .

The constitutional political process compounded by the international standard setting has to be engaged in countervailing the Tripuri syndrome that made the entire N.E region restive and disturbed.

Social scientists would no longer deny that behind the restive region North East especially in Tripura ,lies on historical experience , native socio-economic and political structures, instruments that qualified the indigenous Tripuris of this region as distinctive people and also the fact that the Borok/Tripuri people face a reversal of the structur,instruments, that result to dispossession, deprivation , disempowerment and denial in wider sense of the term. Publication after publication, and analyasis after analysis have endorsed this position . That the Indigenous Tripuri/Borok people are in peril is not a subject of disputation and contest, open borders counter-productive regional wars , eventual massive immigration ,new economic opportunities ,failure of successive governments and displacement of sorts have yielded to the present state of affairs.

Indigenous Tripuri/Borok community , people and nation are those which having a historical continuity with pre-invation and pre-colonial soceity that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the soceities now prevailing in those territories , or parts of them. They form at present non-dominant sectors of soceity and determined to preserve, develop and tranmit to future generations their ancentral territories , and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence a peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns , social institutions and legal systems.

* Mr Sanjoy Hazarika, eminent journalist and writer, wrotes that 93 % of 6 lakhs Tripura population was Tripuri / Borok in 1947. It has been reduced to 28.5% in 1981

* It may be added that , Prof. B K Roy Burman would like to maintain that Tripuris constituted 80% in 1931 . but taking the muslim population and Tripuri cogrates ,it was about 90 % or more.

* Prof. Amalendu Guha raised the issue of Palestinian displacement in their homeland and the Prof. mention that by U N Security Council Resolution Nos 242 & 338 , Israel has to vacate Palestine which bears Tripuri syndrome.

Constitution of India has provisions for SC.ST, 5th and 6th schedules, protection of micro- nationalities, in Article 371 domains and reservation of seats in the Union and state legislatures.Unlike the federations like the USA, former Soviet Union , India has not provided scheme for dual citizenship. Constitution is yet to provide for dual citizenship to match with federal parameters. The Union government of India has conceded two special provisions for vulnerable state like Jammu & Kashmir. Firstly article 3 of the Constitution provides that the territorial boundary of J&K can be altered without the concent of the J & K legislature. Secondly by Jammu and Kashmir Order (JKO) 1954 article 35 A , the J & K permanent residents are fully protected against the impact of the illegal alien migrants and non- local Indians.

Right to settlement in any parts of the territory of India has been qualified by the Article 35A and at the same time, no one who is not permanent resident of J & K has the constitutional rights to acquire or hold property or to get job in J & K . The government of India had the obligation to enact laws comparable to Article 35 A for Tripura in 1950.

Within the ambit of Indian constitutional system, both the aliens and Indian citizens are not given access to the J& K facilities under article 35 A. The same normative regime should have been given in 1950 to Tripura, which was much vulnerable as J & K. In that event Tripuri syndrome would not have occurred at all and Tripuri would not have suffer as a result of Indian annexation of their native state. Tripuri people responds with various political expressions including protests, movements and legitimate national liberation movements for exercising the Peoples' Rights of Self-Determination under laws. The Union government and delegates are out and out accountable for materialising the Tripuri syndrome in the region. The state and Union government of India has all along been responsible for annexation of Tripura and facilitating progressive extinction of Tripuri and making North East a bastion of Tripuri syndrome

Tripura is the worse sufferer of divided India. Her increase of population during the last 90 years is 1600 times highest growth rate in the world history. In 1901 we had 1,73,325 population . In 1991 it has become 27,57,205.

When we joined with India on 15th Oct.1949 we had hardly five and half lakhs population with Indigenous Tripuris/ Borok People majority. After joining with Indian Union the increase of population of Tripura during 41 years i.e 1950 to 1991 is 550 times . This is not normal growth of population but because of unprecedented influx and of refugees from the then East Pakistan and continuous illegal infiltration of foreign nationals till the date. Decade-wise population of Tripura during the last 90 years are as below :

Year of Census Total Population Growth Rate (Over All %) Tribal Population Growth Rate of ST(%)
1901 1,73,325 - Un Known -
1911 2,29,631 32.5 Un Known -
1921 3,04,437 32.6 Un Known -
1931 3,82,450 25.6 Un Known -
1941 5,13,010 34.1 Un Known -
1951 6,39,029 24.6 2,37,953 36.85
1961 11,42,005 78.7 3,60,070 31.53
1971 15,56,342 36.3 4,50,544 25
1981 20,53,342 31.9 5,83,920 30
1991 27,57,205 34.3 8,53,345 46

One will wonder from the above given statistic that how 51% increase of tribal population took place during 1951-61 unless influx of tribal refugees took shelter in Tripura? The basic fact is that till 1955, Tripura had no SCHEDULED TRIBE LIST in accordance with the Article 342 of the Constitution of India. The Scheduled Tribe List for Tripura was finalized and published in 1956. Prior to Independence only five communities namely, Puran , Tipra, Noatian, Jamatia, Reang, and the Halam were treated as the Hill Tribes of Tripura and a special provision containing rights on lands for the above mentioned communities has been proclaimed by the then Maharaja Late Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya bahadur on 20th Bhadra, 1341 T.E (1931 AD) vide Memo No.49 in an area of 110sq. miles under Kalyanpur Revenue Circle and extedded to additional 1950 sq. miles all over Tripura on 1st Aswin, 1341 vide Memo no. 325. Till annexation with India the Hill Tribes List remained unchanged. It means, the Scheduled Tribes List of 1951 census was enumeration of the above mention 5 Tribes excluding other 14 communities included in 1956 list. Thus the theory of 36.85%Scheduled Tribe population in 1951 census was incomplete and biased. Had all the 19 tribes incorporated in 1956 been taken into account in the 1951 Census, tribal percentage might have been more than 80 percent, including Monipuri who are Mongalian tribal nature .Besides this , nearly 20, 000 Agartala resident tribals families who were know as the Thakurs and Kartas mostly relatives of the Rayal families denied to be enlisted as the Scheduled Tribes during the considering their supremacy of status as has been directed by the Brahminns They have been told by Shukreswar and Baneswar of South Indian Brahmins who translated Kokborok Rajmala into Bengali that Tripura Kindom was established by Prince Druhjya , son of Yayati an Aryan King of Northern Indian during Veda period So, the relatives of the King are Aryans not tribal. Thus about 20,000 Thakurs and Kartas of Agartala were excluded from the Hill Tribes list in 1951 census. It comprises 20% of ST population in 1951. Had they been included , as it is now , the St percentage of 1951 would have been 80 to 90 % or above it has been determined by Shri Nripen Chakraborty , the ex- Chief Minister of Tripura

According to Late Kailash Chandra Singha, eminent historian and writer of the Rajmala Ba Tripurar Itibrita , published in 1869 AD, Tripura is the oldest Kingdom of India. According to him , hundreds years ago, a groups of SHAN dynasty of China who used to ruled PUWAN or PUMANG kingdom in between northern Brahma and China invaded Kamrup and set up kingdom at upper Assam. They used to used FA as surname or title . Donguifa was the first King of that dynasty . In course of time, due to the continuous disturbance from the local tribes man they were complete to shift their capital from Shivsagar to Dwimapur / Twimapur/ Dimapur , now commercial capital of Nagaland



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