walter fernandes – land relations and culture among the northeastern tribes

8/13/2019 Walter Fernandes Land Relations and Culture among the Northeastern Tribes

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Paper presented at the National Seminar on Culture in the Northeast,

Bagdogra: North Bengal University, December 6-, !""#, Under Print

$and %elations and Culture among the North &astern 'ribes

Walter Fernandes

In much of India the Northeast is known only for conflicts. They do exist but one has

to go beyond them to understand the situations that lead to unrest. Studies and field

experience indicate that changing land relations are one of their basic causes. The culture ofmost tribes of the region is centred round the common property resources (!"# but in recent

decades the changes introduced by the indi$idual based administration and legal system and

encroachment by immigrants ha$e had an ad$erse impact on them. These changes may notbegin the conflicts but exacerbate those existing already. In their turn conflicts lead to more

changes in land relations and the conse%uent new culture. This paper in which we try to

analyse some changes that ha$e resulted in conflicts& is based on a comparati$e study of landrelations among six tribes with the non'tribal ethnic ssamese as a control group. It shows a

close link between land and their culture and the impact of changing land relations on it.

'he 'ribes and the (ssues (nvolved

)asic to tribal culture is its close link with land& especially in the Northeast where the

!" based tradition of some tribes has been accorded legal recognition. *eghalaya and twodistricts of ssam come under the Sixth Schedule and ha$e utonomous +istrict ouncils.

rticle ,- in Nagaland and ,-/ in *i0oram recognise their !" based customary law

for ci$il administration. *ost tribes in other States ha$e their customary law but lack legalsanction ()arooah 1221#. This di$ersity is one of the factors conditioning their attitude to

land. We tried to understand it through a study of components such as land ownership&

demography and occupation of the ka of runachal !radesh& the )oro& Adibasiand +imasaof ssam& the "ongmei of *anipur and the /aro of *eghalaya.

The ka& a jhum practising tribe of West 3ameng district in runachal !radesh&

go$ern themsel$es according to their customary law based on community control andusufruct rights o$er the !"s. They lack the $ery concept of ownership but e$ery family

culti$ates as much land as it needs in the jhum season. fter it the land re$erts to the

community (Fernandes and )harali 12214 -'5#. 6owe$er& their customary law lacks legalbacking because the Sixth Schedule does not apply to them (Sinha 781#. Slow change is

$isible among them towards indi$idual ownership. While three respondents with a salaried

9ob call themsel$es landless since they do not practise jhum any more& as such ha$e

abandoned their right o$er the !"s& two others claimed pattaownership. )esides& someleaders ha$e monopolised wet settled agricultural land on the ri$er bank. Such

monopolisation is a recent phenomenon and is not in their tradition.

TheAdibasiof :harkhand origin whom the )ritish brought to ssam in the 7 thand

12thcenturies as indentured labour to work in its tea gardens are ;2 to 82< of the estimated 8

million present and past tea garden workers. They are not included in the Schedule and areexposed to impo$erishment and long'term marginalisation. =andlessness is high among them


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and literacy is $ery low. So they ha$e $ery few possibilities of impro$ing their lifestyle e$en

in the next generation (Toppo 7774 ,,',>#. That is the reason for including them in the

sample. Though some communities in ssam do not consider them indigenous they are ofinterest in this study because they represent the type of modernisation that has led to

impo$erishment and exploitation. The process of their alienation that began outside the

Northeast in ?astern India is complementary to what happened in the Northeast. While theAdibasiof ?astern India lost their landPermanent Settlement 1793and thezamindarisystem

and were forced to migrate to ssam as indentured labour& the hom& 3och& )oro and other

communities in ssam lost theirs to the )ritish planters as a result of the same inter$ention.TheAdibasiworked on this land that the same colonial regime had taken o$er un9ustly from

the local communities by using theAssam Land Rules 1838(Fernandes& )arbora and )harali

122,4 1',#. Thus they represent two facets of the same colonial process.

The )oro& a plains tribe not under the Sixth Schedule& ha$e won a )odo Territorial

ouncil ()T# after a struggle but till recently their community based customary law was not

recognised ("oy 77;4 ;2';;#. *ost of them ha$e internalised the indi$idual ideology. So

the !" dependants among them call themsel$es encroachers while others like the ka and+imasa call themsel$es !" depensants. The )oro ha$e been in conflict with the Santhals

for land and it has led to some massacres like the one of 3okra9har in 778. That is reasonenough to include them in the study in order to better understand the conflicts around land.

The +imasa of North achar 6ills ruled much of @pper ssam before the arri$al ofthe hom. They were exposed to the dominant cultures after their 6induisation by the

)engali administrators who accompanied the colonial rulers in the 7 th century but ha$e

retained their autonomy and !" based law. They come under the Sixth Schedule and ha$e a

district autonomous council (!hukan 75>4 ;>';-# but the elite among them are mo$ingtowards indi$idualpattas. Ane of their leaders owns 122 acres ()arbora 12214 15-#. An the

other side& a $oluntary agency has helped some of them to grow commercial crops without

changing their !" culture. The families that ha$e changed o$er to indi$idual land ha$eintroduced also a share for women in its inheritances. If many more accept this pattern it can

become a model for tribes following their tradition to accept changes without abandoning

e%uity which is a basic feature of tribal culture (Fernandes and !eriera 122>4 2#. In mostof their $illages where the abo$e changes are not introduced& succession is bi'linear. !roperty

is inherited through men but the clan and family name come from women.

The /aro of *eghalaya& a matrilineal but patriarchal tribe ha$e a !" culture andcome under the Sixth Schedule. In recent years some areas of the ?ast /aro 6ills are

showing signs of class formation and of strengthening patriarchy (*arak 77-4 ;5'8#. The

main motor of this change is the introduction of rubber. The indi$idual oriented banks&administration and the "ubber )oard ga$e subsidies and loans only to patta holders and

heads of families that they identified as men. So some chiefs ga$epattasto a few persons&

mainly men (Fernandes and )arbora 1221a4 2>#. That has resulted in class formation andthe strengthening of patriarchy. We also studied some families in West /aro 6ills that

continue their !" culture but ha$e not started planting commercial crops as some +imasa

ha$e done& so they cannot be called models of combining the modern with the traditional.


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The "ongmei& a Scheduled Tribe of )ishnupur district in *anipur are not under the

Sixth Schedule. *any of them ha$e lost their land to ethnic conflicts or to the =oktak pro9ect

but ha$e not been compensated since much of what they owned was !"s that the law doesnot recognise. Thus they represent the interaction of their !" culture with the indi$idual

based legal and administrati$e systems (Fernandes and )harali 12214 8'-#. They try to

keep control o$er the little land that remains with them by putting it to commercial use as astep in their search for non'land alternati$es such as education and 9obs in the administration.

lso the non'tribal ssamese of Nagaon district ha$e experienced land alienation andha$e passed through the political process of the ssam *o$ement of the 7-2s and 752s

()aruah 7774 1'1>#. Today they seem to be following the "ongmei model of in$esting

in their childrenBs education and are gi$ing more importance to 9obs in the administration

than to tilling their land. )ut they want to retain ownership of their land. So they employimmigrants& many of them of )angladeshi origin& as agricultural labourers. Some rent their

land out for a season on a sharecropper basis (Fernandes and )arbora 1221b4 -8'-7#.

'ransition to a Ne) Culture

Thus the ethnic groups chosen represent the growing ambiguity around land thatmarks the transition of many of them to a new culture. )eing attached to their land they want

to retain control o$er it but some of them also want to mo$e away from it as their sustenance.

This ambiguity has $arious degrees. An one side are the ka and +imasa most of whosefamilies continue to sustain themsel$es on land and on the other are the "ongmei and )oro

who ha$e lost much of it to ethnic conflicts and are searching for alternati$es to it. *ost

Adibasiwho were forced to mo$e away from their habitat in ?astern India continue to be

landless but are trying to get some of it. *any ssamese own land but also ha$e thealternati$e of a salaried 9ob. So they employ immigrants to culti$ate it while retaining its

ownership. )eing settled agriculturists& they lack the culture of !" ownership based e%uity

that accords a relati$ely high status to women (Fernandes and )arbora 1221a4 -'7#.Thus& no community wants to abandon its right o$er land e$en when it ceases to be its

sustenance but they also want a new identity within this ambiguity because apart from being

an economic asset land is also central to their culture and identity.

The !" centred customary law expresses the centrality of land in tribal life. An it is

based on one side their culture of e%uity and on the other a higher status of women than in

caste societies without being e%ual to men (*enon 77;4 2'2,#. In making this statementwe understand e%uality not as homogeneous but as a continuum. The opposite of the tot%l

gender ine%uality seen in the societies of the 6indi heartland would be total e%uality that

does not exist anywhere in India. *ost tribal societies are in between. The ngami ofNagaland& a terrace culti$ation based patriarchal tribe& also ha$e some jhum land as its

secondary sustenance. Women control jhum land but not clan land of terrace culti$ation

+BSou0a 1224 1-'15#. The control o$erjhumland gi$es them some social status but it doesnot make them e%ual to men. mong the +imasa sons inherit land from the father but the

clan descent and the family name are through the mother. So husband and wife belong to

different clans and ha$e different family names. Women in matrilineal societies like the /aro

are guardians of their property but men are its custodians. s such women ha$e more control


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o$er land than in patrilineal societies but are not e%ual to men. Ane can gi$e other examples

to show that e%uality has $arious degrees but in no society are women e%ual to men.

Af importance to our study is the fact that& womenBs status as well as the culture of

e%uity is changing fast among tribal communities that ha$e been exposed to commercial

inputs without measures to counter their negati$e impact. ma9or factor in this interface oftradition with modernisation is the formal land laws that recognise the !"s only in the Sixth

Schedule areas but not among other tribes that too li$e by their customary law. The second is

the indi$idual orientation of the administration that initiates processes leading to classformation. ?$en in the Sixth Schedule areas it gi$es subsidies for commercial crops like

rubber and tea topattaowners alone and banks gi$e loans to Cheads of familiesD understood

as men e$en in matrilineal tribes like the /aro (Fernandes and )arbora 12214 2,'2;#.

conse%uence of the commercial and indi$idual $alues gaining currency is a change

in the concept of land from being the centre of their culture and identity to a commodity

alone. With it they lose the sense of sacredness attached to it in their tradition. =inked to the

new unfamiliar world$iew that emerges from it is class formation that is a mo$e away fromtheir culture of e%uity. =and loss to immigrants and to ethnic conflicts intensifies this

process. 6owe$er& in most cases the changes are not a total break from the past. For example&the "ongmei who sell their land to educate their children or to bribe officials to get a 9ob in

the administration go against their tradition of a symbiotic relationship of treating land and

forests as renewable. +uring the conflict or at their displacement for a de$elopment pro9ectthe law was unable to pre$ent the alienation of their !"s since they were not under the

Sixth Schedule. That forced them to take a new look at their relationship with land. From it

emerged the effort to part with it for an alternati$e thus gi$ing a new interpretation of land as

their li$elihood or sustenance based on it (Fernandes and )harali 12214 ;,';>#.

Social Processes, $and %elations and Culture

ultural changes ha$e reached also the demographic sphere. Studies show that

subsistence farmers tend to ha$e around fi$e children since that is the number they need for

their farm based economy (*ehta 77,4 ,>',>1#. t ;.7- the a$erage family si0e of oursample tallies with it. The ka a$erage is higher because some of their leaders practise

polygamy and ha$e large families but most of them are within the abo$e a$erage. The ethnic

ssamese who are mo$ing towards non'land occupations are making a transition to relati$ely

small families. TheAdibasiwho are impo$erished and landless ha$e larger families and highchild labour. !arents of child labourers tend to treat children as two hands to work with not as

a mouth feed as the middle class does that in$ests in childrenBs education (Weiner 771#.

Thus their large families represent a culture of their powerlessness.

Neither cultural trait is specifically tribal or north eastern. Specific to this region is

the transition of many of them to a new relationship with their li$elihood resource. Thedemographic data show that the ethnic ssamese ha$e made this transition faster than the

tribes. They ha$e smaller families and many depend on 9obs in the administration but retain

control o$er land. lso the sex ratio of 78, is abo$e the national a$erage of 7,, and is

specific to the Northeast. It is close to &222 among the matrilineal /aro who do not


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discriminate against women but is 572 among the Adibasiwho being impo$erished send

many teenaged girls to middle class families as domestic helpers. Since we counted only the

members li$ing with the family& the absence of teenaged girls from their home brought thesex ratio among them to 572 (Fernandes and )arbora 1221a4 -7'5#.

The absence of Adibasi girls also showed the pressure on women to deal withimpo$erishment. Such pressure was felt much more by children& girls in particular& who cope

with po$erty by depri$ing themsel$es of childhood through child labour. It is not specific to

the Northeast. What is specific is the status of theAdibasiwhom the )ritish planters broughtto ssam from :harkhand& hattisgarh and Arissa in the 7 thand 12thcenturies to work in its

tea gardens. Their counterparts in their States of origin are in the Schedule but are excluded

from it in ssam. They ha$e for all practical purposes lost their tribal identity. Some tribes of

the region oppose their inclusion in the Schedule for fear that the addition of such a bignumber can add to the competition for scarce 9obs& the plantation management ignores their

education and the State depri$es them of free education by excluding them from the

Schedule. onse%uently& po$erty is high among them& so is child labour. The pre$alence of

child labour and female emigration for domestic work show that they ha$e lost the hope ofimpro$ement e$en in the future. So they only think of children as sources of immediate

income and do not in$est in their education (Fernandes& )arbora and )harali 122,4 1>',2#.

Con*licts in an &conomy o* Shortages

n issue emerging from the abo$e is an economy of shortages that has a cultural

impact. Autsiders controlling its economy ha$e neglected the region and ha$e treated it as a

source of raw materials and a capti$e market for finished products from the rest of India and

ha$e not in$ested in the secondary sector. In 77> the se$en States together had 88 ma9orand medium industries (+BSou0a 7774 7# while Arissa& considered industrially backward&

had ,->. *any of them ha$e been declared sick& including all 8 in Nagaland and no new

ones ha$e opened since then (?0ung 122,#. s a result& unemployment is high not for lack of%ualified personnel. ?xcept in runachal !radesh and *eghalaya the literacy rate is higher

than the national a$erage ("egistrar /eneral and ensus ommissioner 1224 25'27#.

!opulation growth is high in the region also owing to immigration. The feudal system

and lack of land reforms in their places of origin push the people of the 6indi "egion& Nepal

and )angladesh to the fertile plains of the Northeast much of it !"s that are the tribal

li$elihood. )ut the law does not recognise their right o$er the !"s. That ambiguityfunctions as the pull factor. Ance in the region many of them occupy the !"s and prosper

because most of them are agricultural labourers who know the culti$ation techni%ues and use

them to grow three crops. The local people& on the contrary& depend on a single crop since thesharecropper system that had de$eloped in States like ssam depri$ed them of moti$ation to

go beyond it since half or more of what they grew went to the zamindar (*a9umdar 12214

2-'25#. :humkept the hill regions in the single crop culture. Thus& immigration is anencounter of these two histories.

With the ensuing land shortages a contradiction de$elops in the peopleBs attitude

towards it. They demand non'land alternati$es to suit their high educational status but the


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economic decision'makers create $ery few 9obs in the secondary sector. s a result& -2 to

-;< of the workforce in the Northeast is in$ol$ed in the primary sector& against a national

a$erage of 88.;#.

The combination of land shortage and unemployment is basic to the conflicts that

ha$e de$eloped in the region. In ssam it had led to the anti'foreigner mo$ement& the )oro'

Santhal conflict ("oy 77;# and the anti')ihari riots (Fernandes 122,#. *anipur (Fernandes

and )harali 12214 ;';,# and Tripura ()haumik 122,4 5># ha$e experienced conflicts aroundland. Intrinsic to them is the culture of rigid and exclusi$e identities. mid shortages and

competition for the little that is left& each community rewrites its own history to lay exclusi$e

claims and an indigenous status in a gi$en area and monopoly o$er its resources to the

exclusion of all others whom it begins to $iew as threats to its li$elihood of land and 9obs.Tension mounts when the local feel that these resources are being appropriated by outsiders&

as it is happening in Tripura or as it happened in ssam in No$ember 122, when applicantsfrom )ihar flocked to /uwahati to appear for recruitment exams for 1&222 railway 9obs.

6owe$er& the conflict goes beyond the economic sphere to culture and identity bothof which are linked to the !"s. From the threat perception they de$elop a consciousness of

being neglected by the outsiders controlling their economy and $iew the shortages as attacks

on their identity. Intrinsic to this consciousness is the perception of the people of the

Northeast being different from those of C*ainlandD India and the depletion of their resourcesas an attack on their culture. They react at first to people coming from outside the region

whom they consider responsible for the problem. They then feel the need to come together to

protect their li$elihood or to take ad$antage of modern inputs ("oy )urman 75;4 xii'xiii#.The next step is identity expansion. Se$eral tribes merge to de$elop a new identity without

gi$ing up their indi$iduality and de$elop a belief in their common origin as the Naga and the

*i0o ha$e done (charya 7724 -'7;#. The Naga had resisted the )ritish in$aders and theirIndian collaborators already from the 7 thcentury ()ose 77-4 7-'12#. 1- of their tribes

came together against the :apanese in$asion in the 7>2s& under the leadership of E. . !hi0o

who later led the Naga Nationalist struggle against the Indian army (Sanyu 7784 55'78#.

conse%uence of the close link between land and culture is that they interpret the

conflicts as tools of protecting their culture. Since they percei$e the homogenising trend of

the dominant Cone State one nationD thinking of the Indian State as a tendency to take thedegree of ryanisation as the measure of Indianisation (+atta 7724 >#& they react to real or

percei$ed discrimination by outsiders in terms of nationality& identity and ethnicity. So the

steps of defending their li$elihood& protecting their identity and propounding a sub'nationalism specific to a culture and community merge into one (ibid4 >1#.

Such reaction that began o$er a century ago& led to the formation of institutions such

as the Boro Sahitya Sammilani("oy 77;4 8>'8;# and the Naga lub. The difference in


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recent decades is that in the context of shortages the reaction has been extended to ethnic

groups within the region. It results in the hardening of ethnic identities and exclusi$e claims

to their li$elihood to the exclusion of all others both within and outside the region. ?$erycommunity rewrites its history in order to declare itself the original inhabitant of a gi$en area

and claims a monopoly o$er its resources and culture and refuses to recognise anyone else as

ha$ing a role there. ?thnic conflicts result from the exclusi$e claims (*ishra 12224 ;-';5#.

+mbiguity and Search *or +lternatives

nother feature of the culture in the region is the ambiguity towards land that has

de$eloped mainly because of shortages. For example the "ongmei and the ethnic ssamese

want to retain control o$er land but mo$e away from it as their sustenance. fter losing much

of their land to ethnic conflicts and de$elopment pro9ects the "ongmei ha$e lost hope in it aslong'term security and use it as a tool in their search for alternati$es such as childrenBs

education and salaried 9obs. *any sell or mortgage it for such purposes. The ssamese

continue to own land but employ immigrants& mostly of )angladesh origin to culti$ate it.

Thus on one side they demand their repatriation and on the other employ them because thelocal people refuse to work at low wages (Fernandes and )arbora 1221b4 8>'8;#.

The second change is pattasamong tribes with a !" tradition as a result of the

indi$idual processes set in motion by the commercial forces and the administration. patta

is alien to their culture but the administration introduces these modern inputs withoutprotecti$e measures. s a result& land that was their li$elihood and the centre of their culture

and identity becomes a commodity to be sold or leased to the highest bidder. Their

communities lose the sacredness attached to it and a new world$iew emerges that they are

not familiar with. It is seen among others& in the fact that much of the mortgaging and sale iswithin the community. From it follows class formation in their egalitarian societies.

Thus the culture of conflicts results not from immigration as such but from what theypercei$e as land encroachment and alienation that they $iew as attacks on their li$elihood

and culture. Within this context of percei$ed or real shortages the transition to an indi$idual

culture is supported by laws that recognise onlypattas.Thus their !" culture interacts onone side with encroachment by the immigrants and on the other& with low in$estment in

producti$e 9obs and high le$el of education in most States. )esides& the commercialisation of

land and forests results in the transition of most ethnic groups from subsistence to a

commercial economy. Their land that was their li$elihood becomes a commodity. With ittheir communities change o$er from an egalitarian to a class society and strengthen

patriarchy because the commercial processes weaken the tribal culture that ga$e some

decision'making power to women in the family especially in the matrilineal societies. Todaymore power than in the past is transferred to men e$en in tribes like the /aro who took to

commercial crops with no safeguards against these ha0ards. *en who had till now shared

power with women in the task of producing riches& are slowly taking o$er all decision'making in the family and society (*arak 77-4 87'-2#. The patrilineal tribes had till now

allotted an important role to women without making them e%ual to men. Indi$idual pattas

depri$e women of their relati$ely high status ()arbora 12214 15-#.


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Thus conflicts emerge from land and 9ob shortages but they are not purely economic.

)eyond the economic component is the fact of land and forests being the centre of their

culture and identity. That is a main reason why e$en when taking up a source such as asalaried 9ob as their main sustenance they retain control o$er their land without depending on

it economically. ttachment to land is also a reason why most ethnic conflicts ha$e been

around it. With land and 9ob shortages& competition ensues for the little that is left o$er./i$en the close link between land& culture and identity& they $iew the shortages as an attack

on their identity (charya 7724 7;# and present conflicts as defence of their culture.

Cultural Di**erences in %eaction

mid such land'based conflicts the reaction of each tribe changes according to its

culture. The Sathals in Western ssam who lost their land in an ethnic conflict and theAdibasi of =akhimpur who lost theirs to an airport reacted differently from other tribes.

)ecause of their regimented work structure in the tea gardens for o$er a century and

landlessness forced on them& they seem to ha$e lost their tribal identity and imbibed a psyche

of dependence and helplessness (Fernandes& )arbora and )harali 122,4 1',#. Their reactionto land loss took the form of greater helplessness.

An the other side& the "ongmei who had a strong identity attached to their !"s&

realised that they could not reco$er what they had lost to the ethnic conflict and decided to

come together as a community and form organisations to de$elop new norms for their tribe.From them emerged the new meaning gi$en to their land as a tool in their search for

education& salaried 9obs and other non'land alternati$es. ll their children below 12 are at

school. Some sell or mortgage their land to earn money for their education or to bribe

officials for a salaried 9ob. =and has been a basic issue in the ssam *o$ement ()ehal 12214>;'>8#& the Tripura insurgency and other conflicts. The latter $iewed its loss to the ?ast

!akistani 6indu immigrants at first and to the +umbur dam later ()haumik 122,4 5># as an

attack on their economy and identity and reacted through what they called self'defence.

lso the legal status affects their reaction. For example& the right of the "ongmei and

the Tripura tribals to their !"s to which their identity was linked was not legally recognisedsince the Sixth Schedule did not apply to them. So when they felt a threat they tried to defend

them at first and then reacted by rebuilding a new sub'national identity as the "ongmei did or

by struggling for it as the Tripura tribes do. The )oro had rebuilt their identity through

con$ersion to the reformist )rahmo 6induism or to hristianity that reformed their societywithout alienating them from their past ("oy 77;4 ,-',7#. They ha$e re'written their history

to lay exclusi$e claim to the area to the exclusion of the Santhals but without the legal

backing of the Sixth Schedule. So they ha$e internalised the ideology of indi$idualownership and consider themsel$es encroachers (Fernandes and !ereira 122>4 52'5#.

Conclusion

We ha$e studied in this paper& the tensions and conflicts that follow from the shortage

of land and 9obs. )asic to them is the new culture that has entered the region as a result ofexternal inputs. Some ha$e reacted $iolently to the shortages while many !" dependent


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tribes ha$e made a transition to indi$idual based systems with no measures to counter its ill

effects. It has introduced class formation in their e%uity based society. While their tradition

ascribed a relati$ely high status to women without making them e%ual to men& the indi$idualbased processes introduced by the commercial forces strengthen patriarchy among them.

That is where one has to find solutions that can help the communities to modernisethemsel$es without losing the $alue system based on their customary law. Ane cannot make

an absolute of the past or reinterpret their customary law to suit the needs of men from the

elite among them. That is what many of their elites do and it is basic to the conflicts. It alsomeans that one cannot make an absolute of community ownership or re9ect all mo$ement

towards the indi$idual. What is needed is a system that respects their tradition of e%uity and

reinforces e%uality while impro$ing their land producti$ity to suit modern needs and

shortages. That re%uires the community to de$elop a culture that combines the modern withthe traditional. To achie$e this one cannot re9ect new practices but has to integrate them with

their tradition. In other words& one has to build the future on the past.

%e*erences

charya& S. 3. 772. ?thnic !rocesses in North'?astern India& in +. !akem (ed#.ationality! "thni#ity and $ultural %dentity in orth&"ast %ndia. New +elhi& Amsons

!ublications4 pp. 87'25.

)arbora& San9ay. 775. Plantation Systems and Labour 'o(ement in orth "astern %ndia.@npublished *. !hil. Thesis. +elhi4 +epartment of Sociology& +elhi School of ?conomics.

)arbora& San9ay. 1221. C?thnic !olitics and =and @se4 /enesis of onflicts in IndiaBs North'?ast&D"#onomi# and Politi#al )ee*ly!,- (n. ,& *arch ,2#& pp. 15;'171.

)aruah& San9ib. 777.%ndia A+ainst %tsel,- Assam and the Politi#s o, ationality. New +elhi4Axford @ni$ersity !ress.

)ehal& *onisha. 1221. WomenGs ollecti$es in ssam4 short 6istory of their Status andpresent +ay "ealities& in Walter Fernandes and San9ay )arbora (eds#. $han+in+ )omens

Status in %ndia- /o#us on the ortheast./uwahati4 North ?astern Social "esearch enture& pp.

,5'>5.

)haumick& Subir. 122,. CTripuraBs /umti +am *ust /o&D 0he "#olo+ist Asia (n. & :an.'

*ar#& pp. 5>'57.

)ordoloi& ). N. 75>. 0he imasa 2a#haris ofAssam. /uwahati4 Tribal "esearch Institute.

)ose& *.=. 77-.A istory o, Aruna#hal Pradesh.New +elhi4 oncept !ublishers.

+atta& )ri9endranath. 772. ?thnicity& Nationalism and Sub'Nationalism& with Special

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Social "esearch entre (mimeo#.

Fernandes& Walter and /ita )harali. 1221. 0he So#io&"#onomi# Situation o, Some 0ribes o,

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walter fernandes – land relations and culture among the northeastern tribes

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