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State-initiated development and theReang ethnic minority in Tripura (NorthEast India)Mayuri Senguptaa

a Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, School of Social Sciences,University of New South Wales, New South Wales, AustraliaPublished online: 28 Oct 2013.

To cite this article: Mayuri Sengupta (2014) State-initiated development and theReang ethnic minority in Tripura (North East India), Asian Ethnicity, 15:3, 317-334, DOI:10.1080/14631369.2013.853543

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14631369.2013.853543

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State-initiated development and the Reang ethnic minority in Tripura(North East India)

Mayuri Sengupta*

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, School of Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, NewSouth Wales, Australia

This paper explores the wider implications of state-led development on the Reangethnic minority in the North East Indian state of Tripura, and in doing so presents acritical view on such development endeavours. Basing itself on the study of therelationship between the state and the ethnic minorities, this research argues thefollowing: – first, most state-led development programmes are formulated on a pre-conceived notion of ‘backwardness’ in the ethnic minorities. Second, state-leddevelopment projects create internal fissures and ruptures within ethnic minorities onissues of what constitutes development. Third, often, state-led development pro-grammes create an image of oneself as inherently ‘backward’, whereby the condition-ing of the mind plays an important role in extending the desire of the members of anethnic minority to achieve this ‘imagined modernity’.

Keywords: state-led development; ethnic minorities; Reang tribe; North East India;Tripura

Introducing the problem

What does it mean to be a modern subject for members of an ethnic minority in a nationstate that has experienced the presence of multiple cultural histories within a politicallydefined territorial boundary? Does it entail forgoing all traditional practices associatedwith one’s own ethnic identity? How have the ethnic groups dealt with the problems ofnation-building and the process of modernization? Does it meet the aspirations of those itseeks to transform? These are some of the questions that are vastly debated by scholarsand activists while discussing issues of state-led development and modernity. Often thedebates critically view state-led development, which seeks to raise the living standards ofthe subjects, imposing economic and social development policies on them, therebyaltering and transforming their traditional and customary practices. The justificationbehind this ‘imposed development’ not only stems from the desire to replicate the Westin a hope to achieve the standard of living and material prosperity that is often associatedwith the Western countries, but also moves beyond at uplifting those groups who do notfit into the image of the ‘civilized’ (that of the ruling majority). In an attempt to promotean international image of a modernizing country, most states force transformation of thetraditional ways of living of those perceived to be ‘backward’.1 The process of state-leddevelopment works in ways that, in the first place, involve a thorough study of theterritorial population within the state boundary. This is followed by selecting specificareas and designating them as ‘backward’, which is often determined by the remoteness of

*Email: mayurise@gmail.com

Asian Ethnicity, 2014Vol. 15, No. 3, 317–334, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14631369.2013.853543

© 2013 Taylor & Francis

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the region, level of literacy acquired by its inhabitants and specific forms of agriculturalpractices considered ‘primitive’. This outlines not only the area as economically backwardbut also specific ethnic communities residing in such areas as ‘socially backward’ and‘primitive’. Thus, the process involves a complex structure of power and domination,whereby the state uses its power to reinstate the notion that culturally varied minoritiesresiding in different parts of the nation share a common aspiration of material prosperitythat can only be achieved by propagating a homogenous development strategy that seeksto transform the ‘primitive’ development subjects into modern subjects.

And how exactly does one become modern? This ‘perceived modernity’ is said to beachieved only under the guidance of the state, which relinquishes the ethnic identity andmost practices associated with it, thus seeking to ‘make minorities conform to the normsof the ruling majority…’,2 based largely on the desire to shift an economy based onagriculture to that of an industrialized one,3 often prohibiting swidden in the name ofenvironment conservation and other agro-engineering problems,4 thus adopting a ‘high-modernist’ approach by bringing enormous changes in the lives of ‘people’s habits, workand living pattern, moral conduct and world view’.5 Scholars have also highlighted thatdevelopment endeavours comprising an important component of environmental conserva-tion are very often used to support the political objectives of the state and its strategy ofexpansion.6 Most scholars have also outlined that the development projects are imple-mented to assimilate culturally and racially diverse ethnic minorities into the modernnation states,7 which are now territorially demarcated with fixed borders and are compli-cated more so with the threat of warfare and external aggression. Thus the process ofdevelopment often incorporates ethnic minorities to the majoritarian cultural mainstream,making them modern political subjects under the control of the state authorities.

Scope of this paper

This paper seeks to analyse the nature of complex relationship between the post-colonialIndian state and the Reang8 ethnic minority9 of Tripura.10 In doing so, the paper criticallyexplores what it means to be a modern Reang citizen in a modern nation state.Furthermore, the paper explores the development strategies adopted (for the Reangtribe) by the post-colonial Indian state (within its federal structures), broadly outliningthe challenges posed by such development. The arguments presented in this paper arethree-fold. First, state-initiated development projects are formulated on the notion thatmost ethnic minorities are ‘backward’ and ‘primitive’ in their everyday practices and, in arapidly modernizing country, require the state’s guidance to become modern citizens.Second, extending the first argument, this paper furthers that state-led development worksin ways to create an image of oneself as inherently ‘backward’, whereby the conditioningof the mind plays an important role in extending the desire of the members of an ethnicminority to attain the state-propagated ‘imagined modernity’. Third, most developmentprojects, in its drive to make modern subjects, create complex internal fissures andruptures within the ethnic minority on issues of what constitutes development, as wellas the long-term implication of such development practices on their lives. Based on thetheoretical framework outlined in the first section, these arguments seek to critique thebasic tenets of state-led development that relies heavily on the modernization theory. Thedevelopment policies adopted by the government can be traced to the theoretical conceptof modernization theory, which highlights that certain forms of development are inher-ently better than the others that are considered as ‘backward’. On the one hand, themodernization theory ‘makes everyone’s experience with development copy the

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approaches and accomplishments of the West’.11 On the other hand, it also highlights theneed for groups (clans, ethnic and tribal minorities) to identify with the nation rather thanwith ‘fixed, ascriptive groups’.12

Why study the Reangs of Tripura?

At the very onset, it is important to understand the relevance of studying the Reang ethniccommunity of Tripura in the context of state-led development endeavours. Developmentis central to the relationship between the state and the ethnic minorities and is viewed as aprocess by which ethnic minorities are integrated into the ‘cultural and social realm of thestate’.13 The Reang ethnic minority is one such hill tribe,14 in India’s North Eastern stateof Tripura, which shares a similar relationship of dependence with the federal IndianGovernment, owing to the latter’s policies of development and settlement. However, it isimportant to observe and understand the transition that this ethnic community has under-gone from being referred to as the ‘wildest’ tribe in the pre-colonial and colonial era,offering stiff opposition against forcible incorporation within the state framework,15 tothat being a political subject willing to put up with the assimilationist approach of thepost-colonial Indian state.

A brief history of the Reang tribe gives us an opportunity to understand the‘zomia’, 16,17 which includes the region of North East India along with the upland hilltracts of Southeast Asia. The hill tribes, inhibiting this ‘shatter zone’, have long been‘barbarians by choice’, fleeing state spaces and evading ‘manifold afflictions of state-making project’.18 The Reangs, being one of the ‘zomia’ tribes migrating from the Burma-Arakan region towards the Hill Tracts of Chittagong19 and Hill Triperrah, have ever sincesettled across the Indian states of Tripura, Mizoram and the Hill Tracts of Bangladesh.This entire region was inhabited by tribes who lacked ‘particular sense of unity’20 and forcenturies remained a battleground for the expansion and consolidation of power amongthe Hindus, Mughals and the British colonial rulers. Tribal resistance against stateincorporation was visibly clear during the rule of the various Tipperah Rajas that precededthe British Raj.21 Prior to the advent of the British, most of the independent Hindu rulersof Tipperah consolidated their power by expeditions that extended the boundary of thestate up to the frontiers of Burma and this move required them to control the hill tribes,which were regarded as wild, savage and dangerous to the stability of the kingdom.British anthropologists like Dalton,22 in his descriptive ethnology of Bengal, mentions theReangs as a hill tribe practising swidden cultivation residing in the east and south-east ofthe Chittagong district (presently located in Bangladesh) and outlined the Reangs as oneof the ‘wildest’ tribes who carried out savage raids along with other independent tribes onthe Hindu rulers and subsequently the British officers. The British officials often recordedtheir encounters with the Reangs who lived on the eastern verge of the Chittagong HillTracts as a ‘great source of trouble’ for the colonial rulers when they entered the hills.23

Most often, such ‘trouble’ stemmed from the refusal to incorporate under state control,which forced the independent tribes to pay taxes and tributes to the rulers. Most of theseclashes came as a form of protest against the British collection of tax and tributes throughthe local chiefs and it was not until the British annexation of the Chittagong Hill Tracts in1860 that the region came under some sort of formal state administration.24 Thus, historyrecords the emigration of the Reang tribes out of areas that faced fierce agitation with theruling class, suggesting the continuous effort on the part of the tribe to flee statepersecution and the self-governing Reang ethnic community often migrated to zonesthat provided them greater autonomy than the pre-colonial and colonial state structures.

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The rising of a newly independent nation and the history behind ‘development’

The Independence of India in 1947 brought about major changes in the lives of thoseethnic minorities, which hitherto could flee state spaces against forcible incorporation.Only a modern state with its state structures could realize a bounded territory that couldrule and bring under its control all non-state spaces.25 Seen from the newly independentIndian state’s perspective, it was essential to integrate the ethnic minorities (residing in theremote regions within the boundary of India) to the economy of the lowland and toincorporate them in the process of state-led development.

This brings us to question the necessity of such incorporation of the ethnic groups, aswell as the type of development that was envisioned for this section of the Indianpopulation. For the newly independent Indian state, the main focus was to build a nationon a ‘developmental model of rapid economic growth through state intervention’.26 TheIndian state was seen as the main coordinating agency undertaking the massive task ofdevelopment, which was then synonymous with economic growth. Simultaneously, theIndian state was also dealing with issues of insurgency, conflict and violence in manyquarters of its boundary that challenged the ‘presumed unity’ of the nation. The NorthEast India being one such region and Tripura being a part of the North East was also a partof this ‘durable disorder’.27

The Partition of India (1947) resulted in massive economic and infrastructural setbackfor the state of Tripura. First, the landlocked state (with the erstwhile East Pakistan onthree sides of its border) was connected to the rest of India only through the narrow borderit shares with Assam and Mizoram.28 Prior to the Partition, the capital city of Tripura(Agartala) was connected to the rest of India through the East Pakistan route. However,with the Partition and the creation of East Pakistan, the state became geopoliticallyisolated as the transit route to mainland India through East Pakistan was no longeravailable to the people of Tripura. Furthermore, the state remained cut-off from therailway networks of mainland India as it lost most of its rail heads to East Pakistan.This posed new challenges for the state and its people. Lack of connectivity to mainlandIndia resulted in the rise of transportation cost and food prices, which were now importedfrom the mainland through the narrow Siliguri Corridor.29

Second, being a border state in the Indian Union, bounded by erstwhile East Pakistanon three sides of its boundary, Tripura faced specific demographic problems that directlyaffected its economy and people. Prior to the political merger30 in 1949 to the IndianUnion, Tripura remained a tribal majority state. The Partition of India (1947) witnessed themigration of several categories of refugees who settled in the states of West Bengal and theNorth Eastern states of Tripura, Mizoram and Assam.31 The independence of Bangladeshin 1971 furthered this process, leaving Tripura as one of the Indian states to witness hugedemographic changes in terms of refugee influx, twice in the history of Partition of thesubcontinent.32 As a result of this, Tripura, which was predominantly a tribal state, becamepredominantly non-tribal. Furthermore, the tribes lost most of the lands to the Bengalirefugees from Bangladesh. The state focused on rehabilitating the refugees on lands thatwere hitherto used by the tribes for sustenance (most tribes in Tripura practicing swiddenrequired adequate land for cultivation and land was not privately owned by the swidd-eners). The roots to Tripuri tribal rebellion can be traced to this major historical transfor-mation that the state of Tripura witnessed in the twentieth century,33 and this remains therallying point of justification for secession by the tribal insurgent groups34 even today.35

For most policymakers, the process of development envisioned by the state could onlychallenge the legitimacy of tribal insurgency and revolt.36 Most of them regarded

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underdevelopment as the primary cause of tribal unrest.37 Development was regarded as acontinuous process to showcase the Indian state as a developmental state necessary forlong-term economic and social progress of the tribal population. The issue of tribaldevelopment was widely debated. For Verrier Elwin,38 the tribal problems of culturaldestruction and economic exploitation were created by caste society. Their situationworsened where they lived in Hindu-majority areas.39 This was evident in Tripura, asBengali refugees outnumbered the indigenous tribes, started acquiring land and destroyedtheir forest economy. For Elwin, the ‘isolationist’ approach40 (although he later changedto an ‘assimilationist’ approach) towards the tribes alone could prevent infringement ontheir economic space. The integration of tribes and their merger with mainstream Indiawas a Nehruvian approach to the tribal question.41 According to Nehru, it was essentialthat the vulnerable tribal groups be introduced to modern economy and this approach wasto free the tribal groups from the clutches of a primitive economy. Based on this principle,the newly independent Indian state undertook the role of development as a national taskby coordinating the various federal departments to garner economic and social change inthe various tribal belts of Tripura and the rest of North East India.

Who is it that we are seeking to develop?

From the perspective of a developmental state, categorizing the population remained animportant task. The colonial administrative classification of population in North EastIndia, who were regarded as ‘wild’, ‘primitive’ and ‘backward’, furthered the notion of‘tribe’ as ‘uncivilized’,42 and in need of immediate development assistance from theIndian state and identifying such groups remained crucial to the state.43 The concept of‘tribe’ in the South Asian context revolves around differentiating population not onlybetween the tribals and non-tribals, but also between lowland tribes and hill tribes. The‘hill tribes’ constituted one of the major sections of the population in North East India;they were distinguished from lowland tribals and non-tribal communities as ‘more back-ward, more violent and more savage’44 and remained an important ethnic identity in thepolitics of development in North East India.

The Reang, being a hill tribe in Tripura, was incorporated under the Sixth Schedule45

of the Constitution of India, which provided administration through elected District andRegional Councils members to the autonomous regions in tribal areas of Tripura, withpowers to make laws with respect to allotment and use of land (other than any land that isa reserved forest), collection of land revenue and impose tax, regulation of shiftingcultivation, establishment of village and town councils, marriage and divorce, inheritanceof property, public health and sanitation and administration of justice. Simultaneously, theIndian federal structure provided a two-tier development strategy for the tribes in the stateof Tripura. Most of the financial assistance (for tribal development) from the CentralGovernment to Tripura was granted as a part of the planned development process for theNorth Eastern Region (NER) as a whole, providing assistance to all the North East Indianstates (including Tripura). These states were considered an ‘area of low capita income’,and due to its territorial remoteness and fund raising constraints, it was deemed necessaryfor the Central Government to make financial investments. Under the central assistancefor the NER, the following initiatives were undertaken for the state of Tripura: (1) Tripurawas granted a ‘Special Category Status’, whereby the Central Government provided thehighest level of economic assistance for the development of NER, along with preferentialtreatment granted to all the NER states (for example, tax concession in NER); (2) theEighth Five Year Plan (1956–1961) adopted a series of development measures under

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the ‘New Initiatives for the North Eastern Region’, with special emphasis on financialinvestment, research and development in specific sectors (handloom and handicrafts,horticulture, energy, agriculture and environment conservation); (3) a number ofCentrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) for developing the NER states were undertakenwith the maximum percentage of financial contribution being made by the CentralGovernment, thus easing the financial burden on the NER State Governments; and (4)the Ministry for Development for NER was set up in 2001 as the primary coordinatingagency between the Central and State Governments for socio-economic development ofthe region.

The State Government of Tripura worked in coordination with the CentralGovernment of India and the international organizations to introduce specific develop-ment projects intended to yield higher revenue for the state while simultaneously utilizingthe tribal workforce in these projects. A series of state-led development cum conserva-tion46 initiatives were introduced and several changes were witnessed in the traditionalways of living and cultural practices of the tribal Reangs in Tripura. First, the tribes wereasked to refrain from shifting cultivation, which hitherto provided for food sufficiency tothe tribe. Citing long-term environmental concern of forest loss and soil degradation,swidden was permitted only in certain areas where development projects have not beensuccessfully incorporated.47 Second, the state government ushered externally fundedprojects from international development organizations and the National Ministry ofTribal Affairs. The North East Rural Livelihood Project48 (externally aided by theWorld Bank), the Participatory Natural Resource Management Programme49 (underIndo–German Bilateral Development Cooperation Programme) and Scheme ofDevelopment for the Primitive Tribal Groups, later renamed as Scheme forDevelopment of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups50 (Ministry of Tribal Affairs,India), were undertaken with the intention of ‘re-settling’ the Reang tribe by allottingthem plots for rubber, bamboo plantations and horticultural projects for income genera-tion. Third, the process of economic development was accompanied by settlement of thetribal jhummias, whose agricultural practice (jhum/swidden) hitherto required them tomove from one place to another. Homestead plots and financial assistance were given tothe tribes for construction and upgradation of households and dwelling units under the‘Indira Awaas Yojna.51’ Along with this the younger generations of Reangs are now sentto government-funded schools and most of them are the first-generation Reangs to receivesome form of formal education.

Criticism I – presumed notion that the Reang ethnic minority is ‘primitive’ and‘backward’

One might wonder how the various development projects and the settlement policies,accompanied with it, are detrimental to the tribal Reangs who are economically backwardand in the recent years have faced acute poverty and misery. Most often such argumentscome from the policymakers, government officials and the tribal elites, who believe in thepotential of the state-led development cum conservation plans in enabling economic self-sufficiency for the tribe. To begin with, most development programmes are based on theapproach of replicating the common notion of what constitute ‘modern’ and ‘developed’,thereby rendering all other approaches ‘primitive’ and ‘backward’. Often this stems fromthe belief that a chartered course of state-led development is inherently good for the tribe,thus ignoring the ‘alternative world’52 that exists in the minds of these developmentsubjects. This makes the tribes forgo most of its traditional practices associated with being

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a member of an ethnic community in lieu of the development that the state has to offer. Tosubstantiate this argument, let me highlight an example from the state-initiated develop-ment charter prescribed for the Reangs in Tripura. Most development projects undertakenfor the Reang ethnic minority have focused on resettling the tribe by allotting them land,housing, income opportunities and social security measures. The ‘Scheme for theDevelopment of Primitive Tribal Group’ is an umbrella scheme for ‘primitive’ tribes(like the Reangs of Tripura), thus separating them from those people, regarded as ‘non-primitive’, on the level of literacy achieved, socio-economic development and the meth-ods of cultivation adopted by them. The process begins with the State Government’sformulation of the ‘Conservation cum Development Plan’ for each ‘primitive’ tribe(within its state), which is then forwarded to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. TheMinistry, which is the central agency on tribal development across India, provides thestates with financial grants for a period of five years, periodically regulated and mon-itored, to achieve effective progress. Although this project has been widely criticized bypolicy analysts on grounds of lack of effective implementation, scanty research has beenconducted to question the essence of this scheme (in India), which defines certain ethnicminorities as ‘primitive’. The Reang ethnic minority is the only tribal group that is termedas ‘primitive’ by the Tripura State Government and receives periodic assistance under thisdevelopment scheme from the government. To begin with, and tracing the argument backto Escobar,53 development has been initiated by defining specific problems and ‘abnorm-alities’ (in terms of poverty, traditional agricultural practices, absence of industrialization,population growth, etc.) and clinically treating them. This has resulted in a ‘top-down’approach, overemphasizing the role of bureaucracy54 that treats people and cultures as‘abstract concepts’ in the chart of progress.

In the context of the Reangs of Tripura, the Government’s approach is reflective of alack of adequate knowledge of the practices of ethnic communities, largely renderingthem alien in their own territory by altering their traditional society, thereby highlightingthe fact that the mainstream Indian society has no hesitation in labelling upland commu-nities and their practices as ‘primitive’.55 First, this development project and most otherprojects have been undertaken primarily to wean the Reang jhummias from jhumming,56

thereby highlighting the failure of the state to acknowledge the positive contribution ofswidden cultivation in maintaining the natural ecology when compared to the practice ofmonoculture based on rice cultivation,57 thus forcing them to ‘assimilate into the nationaleconomy’.58 Second, it has often been observed that tribal knowledge in the field ofagricultural cultivation has greatly been ignored by the scientifically trained policymakers.Since most Reangs have been traditionally associated with jhumming, which is consideredas a ‘primitive’ agricultural practice by the state, their knowledge and experiences havemost often been opposed, discredited and labelled ‘backward’. Even in areas wheredevelopment planners have opened up participatory forums59 for the Reang tribe todiscuss local alternatives that can be successfully implemented in such projects, theforums remain an arena of confession by the tribes that their knowledge is inept to dealwith the current compelling situations that confront the economic position of the tribe,income-generating alternatives and environmental consequences. This eventually leads toconvincing the ‘other’ (as in this case the tribal Reangs) as being ‘ignorant’ or havinginsufficient knowledge to cope up with the current crisis situations that confront the stateand the community. Often it has been observed that the policymakers ‘discredit localknowledge to maintain their position’,60 criticizing local knowledge as ineffective tocounter the current pressures of environmental degradation on the one hand and povertyon the other.

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Criticism II – state-led development creates internal fissures and ruptures within anethnic minority

To be or not to be a Reang?

The issue of state-led development and settlement is intrinsically associated with a kind of‘perceived modernity’ that revolves around complete transformation of the traditionalways of living. Integration to the modern nation state is often accompanied by the state’scontrol over ethnic identity, and traditional life associated with that identity. It is interest-ing to note how the lives of the Reang people reflect both the national and local world inlight of the relationship it shares with the state authorities that have sought to transformtheir socio-cultural background and agricultural practice in the name of development andintegration.

It is important to record the wider implication that the development process has on thelives of ethnic minorities in terms of the internal fissures and ruptures that this processinitiates. First, it has been noted that to be or not to be a Reang often depends onsettlement of the Reang tribes and varies enormously in accordance with the level ofsettlement achieved. For this paper, to be or not to be a Reang broadly refers to thosesocio-cultural traits intrinsically associated with this tribe that makes the members a partof the Reang ethnic minority. It necessarily includes swidden cultivation and the culturaland regional dimension associated with their identity. Hence, to be a Reang, prior to thestate policy of settlement, meant practicing jhum based on community cultivation for self-consumption, wearing the Reang traditional outfit and performing rituals associated withthe community. The opposite of being a Reang would imply being a member of thecommunity by birth, yet distancing oneself from the historical and cultural past of thetribe, which is regarded as ‘primitive’ and ‘backward’ by the state. It largely meant thatthe social life of these Reangs and their newly acquired identity as modern citizens oftenrevolve around state institutions led by the non-tribals. Hence, one finds reluctance towear traditional outfits in public spaces, perform everyday Reang rituals or practice jhum.In short, such Reangs distance themselves from their historical past, which, for them, isthe only viable path to attain modernity.

It has been increasingly observed that the younger generation of settled Reangs viewstate-led development programmes as a necessity and emphasize the need for a strongstate to legislate and implement policies of development for the tribe. Most settled Reangsare those who receive periodic financial and technical assistance from the state, asbeneficiaries of the development projects undertaken by them. This section of theReang population thus own land for residence, as well as plantations for bamboo, rubberand horticultural endeavours. Therefore, most settled Reangs in Tripura often benefiteconomically from state-led development. It has also been observed that this youngergeneration of Reang men and women has utilized formal education and employmentopportunities that the state has to offer. Formal education in state-funded schools has,often, widened their prospects for higher education at universities and avail job vacancies.Furthermore, it has not only secured them stable income prospects, but most Reangsbelieve that formal education has earned them respect in the eyes of the majoritarian non-tribals in the region. The state-funded educational institutions are thus the primaryorganizations through which the transformations from traditional inhabitants to moderncitizens take place, and in most cases ‘centralized state school system’ is the starting pointfor such changes.61 The Government of Tripura has urged the tribal families to send theirchildren regularly to schools under the ‘Sarva Shikha Abhijan’ or ‘Education forEveryone’ programme, focusing particularly on enrolment and retention of tribal children.

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The school curriculum provides not only for a platform to learn a language different fromtheir own, but also a perspective of the world that is very different from the historical pastand cultural practices62 of the tribe. Therefore, it provides for a common history and alegitimate national past for everyone living within the state boundaries. It imbibes a senseof commonality across cultural differences and propagates those practices considered tobe ‘modern’ by the state parameters. State-sponsored education provides not only ‘uni-formity of credentials’ but also uniformity in knowledge. Thus, for instance, most school-educated settled Reangs have often echoed state policies of development, terming jhumand other tribal practices as ‘primitive’.

The settled Reangs felt the necessity of state intervention in their lives as the onlyviable way to attain financial security against economic onslaught. For them, state-devisedpolicies could save them from economic turmoil as citizens of a modern nation state,while competing with other non-tribals in the region. For most of the settled Reangs, thestate’s endeavour in granting economic and educational avenues to this ‘primitive’ tribe isbeneficial and secures their economic position when compared to the other citizens in thestate. Hence, most of the settled Reangs are highly optimistic about state-led developmentprogrammes and genuinely believe in its potential to transform the lives of the jhummiaReangs (those practicing jhumming) in other parts of Tripura. Despite state assimilation,most development policies are, thus, welcomed by the settled Reangs to gain political andeconomic benefits that these programmes are supposed to generate.

To be or not to be a Jhummia?

The method of cultivation traditionally adopted by the Reangs has undergone profoundchanges with limited or no access to protected forest areas in Tripura. The practice ofjhum has been permitted only in those areas where the government-initiated developmentprojects have not reached or have failed to generate the desired results, leaving the Reangsvulnerable to acute poverty and misery. What remains apparent, on the issues of devel-opment, is the difference of opinion that Reangs shared (across generations and betweenthe settled and jhummia) on such issues. For the older generation of tribal jhummias,settlement and restrictive forest policies have prevented them from jhumming land, whichhas been either redistributed for settlement or protected under forest laws. Limitedjhumming has serious economic consequences for the tribal Reangs, who now dependon the market for food and other essential items. The tribal jhummias belonging to the‘below poverty line category’63 find it extremely difficult to survive the vagaries of themarket where inflation is evident. This generation of jhummias often narrates theirglorious past as members of a self-sufficient tribe whose swidden capabilities providedyearlong food for the tribe. Citing the strict government restrictions on jhumming, theseReangs fall prey to the increasing food prices over the years, forcing them to face abjectpoverty. With the absence of viable alternative income options, these Reangs are, thus, atthe mercy of the state subsidies. Most development projects undertaken in Tripura are landintensive and require large tracts of land for settled cultivation, horticultural missions andplantation endeavours. The availability of land for such schemes remains a major obstaclefor the Government of Tripura as it is difficult to simultaneously extend the scheme to allthe tribals in the region. Two implications have been witnessed as a result of thisimpediment. First, the pursuit of settlement of the Reang tribal jhummias has remaineduneven over space and time. One finds some regions more settled than the others, someareas settled much before the others. Second, most projects have remained a temporaryoption of income generation for the tribal jhummias. The reduced availability of land

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made the government allot plots for settled cultivation (including the horticultural mis-sions) to the Reangs on a temporary basis (most often annual allotment takes place). Theland is then allotted to the next beneficiary who gets a similar opportunity to cultivatetemporarily. Therefore, one finds the lack of permanent income options as a major reasonwhy most tribal jhummias resort to jhumming.

The younger generation of the Reang jhummias narrates a different perspective. Forthem, state-led development is crucial for the tribe. Most of them view development in theeconomic perspective and the settled Reangs remained a successful example of thisdevelopment path. The young jhummias consider themselves as citizens of the modernnation state, and seek state intervention in their lives to bring positive economic transfor-mation. Thus, the younger generation of jhummia Reangs often feels the need for greaterstate intervention to ensure immediate and effective implementation of settlement policies.

The ‘divide’ in question

It is crucial here to elaborate briefly on the issue of settlement64 of the tribal Reangs.Although the process of settlement of the tribal jhummias has been initiated in Tripurasince 1888,65 what remains apparent is the division that the process of settlement hascreated among the members of the same tribe. State-led development programmes oftencreate a divide within the tribe, which invariably depends on the level of settlementachieved. Settlement in Tripura has entailed a new class of rural tribal elites owningland and means of production, thus constituting the upper class. The members of thisupper class have access to state-funded development packages, including educational andemployment opportunities, along with other settlement facilities. Most of the Reangsbelonging to this group have stable income generated from two or more sources ofearning. For example, the Reangs interviewed (for this paper) in the settled areas ofSouth District (Tripura) highlighted that the family members have jointly contributed inearning from both agricultural and non-agricultural practices, unlike relying only on jhumas in the past. Therefore, one finds the male head of the family undertaking farmingsupervision, the females involved in tertiary economic activities of weaving and theyounger generations involved in non-agricultural professions. These Reangs have beensettled on residential land, allotted to them, and have full ownership of these lands.Most of these settled Reangs are of the opinion that state-led development is animportant aspect of the transition that takes place from being a ‘backward’ tribe to a‘modern’ citizen.

As opposed to the tribal elites, the jhummia Reangs have remained on the fringes ofacute poverty. Without effective income alternatives and stringent forest laws, thesejhummias have limited earnings. With miniscule land to jhum, most jhummia Reangshave undertaken non-agricultural jobs in tribal and non-tribal fields. Often these includeworking as migrant labourers in settled regions of Tripura. The lives of these Reangs havebeen transformed enormously due to the development policies of settlement. Although thesame development policies of education and employment cover all Reangs as members ofthe Scheduled Tribe, the jhummia Reangs have been unable to utilize such initiatives, thusfocusing on the differential effect that state-led development has on the members of thesame tribe. Most of the policies often create internal divisions, whereby elite Reangs ownand control means of production whereas the jhummias face abject poverty. Baruah66

highlights the complexities within the transitional tribal economies whereby the ‘protec-tive discrimination regime’ of the state has enabled the ‘proletarianization’ of somesections of the tribals at the hands of other tribals who have performed comparatively well.

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Criticism III – state-led development works in ways to create an image of oneself asinherently ‘backward’

Development and settlement led by the state have severe implication for the Reang tribalsin Tripura, and this section highlights how state initiatives often begin with reinstating theimage that everything that is tribal is also ‘primitive’ and requires transformation.Development works in ways to create an image of oneself as inherently ‘backward’, interms of lack of formal education, practice of swidden and wearing of traditional outfits inpublic, which are then ingrained into the subjects of development. The conditioning of themind then plays an important role in ethnic minority members desiring to attain this‘imagined modernity’. Very often this ‘imagined modernity’ is associated with economicdevelopment and the tribes are left to believe that this particular course of state-initiateddevelopment is essential to achieve economic prosperity and well-being. In transactingwith the outside world, the settled Reangs cautiously tread the path of the ‘imaginedmodernity’ so as to hide any gesture related to their tribal past. Often, this includes visiblechanges in Reang clothing, language and profession. For example, most settled Reangsworking in the government offices and schools wear formal clothing – the men wear ashirt and a pant, while women wear a sari (traditional Hindu attire). Even in the Reangmajority village council meetings and other social gatherings, the settled Reangs wearclothes different from their traditional clothing. Similar changes have been visible in thelanguage of these people (native speakers of Kok-Borok67), who most often speak Bengali(local language used by the non-tribal Bengali settlers in the region) and even English(which is a foreign language) while negotiating with the outside world. Two widerimplications seem to emerge out of this. (1) Adherence to formal dressing and non-triballanguage not only distinguishes the settled Reangs from the ‘backward’ jhummias, butalso helps them build an image that remains consistent with this ‘perceived modernity’. Itoften helps in overcoming the general notion that everything that is tribal is ‘backward’.(2) Maintaining this difference is important to maintain their different position in thesocietal power structure. Thus, the Bengali- and English-speaking Reangs in westernand/or formal clothing often represent (while negotiating development with the state)the jhummia Reangs (who are considered as ‘primitive’) and most development negotia-tions with the government take this difference into consideration.

However, two broad observations need to be cited here. First, most tribals faceawkwardness in their drive to be ‘modern’ while interacting with the non-tribals, aswell as the tribal elites. Such awkwardness stems from being unable to completelytransform oneself by adopting practices associated with an ‘imagined modernity’,68 andtherefore breaking the facade with their traditional past. The Reangs often narrate tales ofawkwardness and shame in their failed attempts to be modern. It also highlights thatdespite several attempts to be ‘modern’, most of the Reangs have failed to completelyattain this ‘imagined modernity’. Thus, the jhummias find themselves ‘backward’ whencompared to the settled Reangs, whereas the settled Reangs regard themselves ‘backward’when compared to the non-tribal elites. Such comparisons are not only reflective of thepresent practices but also associated with those traditional and cultural practices thatdefine oneself as a tribal Reang.69 Second, the development projects, being most oftenhomogenous, focus on the economic aspect of development, thus ignoring the culturalpractices. This homogeneity has very little to offer in terms of preserving the identities ofthe various tribal groups, which are now regarded as ‘backward’ and an impediment tonational progress. The uniqueness of the tribal culture seeks to challenge the homogenousdevelopmental path that the state implements. Therefore, the result is removing such

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uniqueness from the traditional lives of the tribals. For instance, when one visits the TribalCultural and Research Institute in the city of Agartala (capital city of Tripura), one findsstatues of every Tripuri tribe performing something traditional and unique to that specifictribe. The Reang stand has Reang male and female statues depicting dancing with theirfeet on steel plates and their heads balancing a glass bottle. What seems interesting is thefact that tribal traditions and cultural practices are portrayed as a part of the tribal historyof ‘backwardness’. Most often such symbols of ethnic identity lie in these cultural centresas a measure of the level of modernity achieved by the tribes, post state-led development.The tribal culture is often viewed as obsolete in a modern nation state, whose contributionis thus greatly ignored, or confined within cultural centres.

Concluding views on state-led development

In the concluding section, it might be helpful in drawing some inferences from the threecriticisms that have been elaborated in the previous section. First, development (for ethnicminorities) in Tripura has been a form of an opportunist attempt by the state and tribalelites who use the notion of ‘backwardness’ of upland ethnic minorities to assert controlover them and garner certain benefits. For the state, asserting control over ethnic mino-rities, who hitherto fled state spaces, is crucial for maintaining internal security andpolitical stability. For the Reang elites, such benefits70 include gaining immediate eco-nomic concessions, financial support from the government, privatization of common landand political aspirations. The process involves settled Reangs who become examples ofprosperous ‘modern men’ leading a peaceful life, urging others (the jhummias) to utilizethe same opportunities offered to them by the state. These settled Reangs play an activerole in the village councils and other tribal meetings to further the process of tribalassimilation. It also emphasizes the Reang desire to be modern and avail the opportunitiesthat the state has to offer through the development projects in order to increase wealth andsecure their future. The Reangs are highly aware of their economic situation within thestate and much of the demands for state-led development often stem from the desire tohave enough money and secure a comfortable living for the family. Second, ethnicidentity of the tribe precedes development endeavours insofar as this same identityremains a dominant perspective that most non-tribals have of the tribals despite the tribalsbeing a part of the state apparatus (development project). The widely prevalent notion(among non-tribals in and outside the region) that tribals are ‘backward’ and ‘primitive’persists, despite major lifestyle and material circumstances changing in the lives of theReangs. Finally, the paper also elaborates on the issue of intra-tribal dynamics. This getsreflected in the increasing differences between the settled and the jhummia Reangs andacross generations on issues of the relevance of swidden, changes in their decision-making capacities within and outside the family and community, their social positioningand financial independence. The intra-ethnic dynamics is an important aspect in studies ondevelopment and ethnicity. Most policies focus on ethnic minorities as homogenousgroups with similar demands, notions of suspicion and hatred towards non-tribals andgovernment agencies, and this gets reflected on the development policies adopted by thegovernment officials (as they regard ethnicity as an unchanging category, a way in whichstates organize, count, govern their population and formulate homogenous policies forparticular groups). This paper has attempted to show that the relationship between stateand ethnic minority (development being central to it) is a complex phenomenon challen-ging the notion of homogeneity of ethnic minorities. There is a difference with the way in

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which development is experienced by members of the same ethnic community, and thisgets reflected further in the way they envision and demand future development projects.

AcknowledgementsI am thankful to Dr Tanmay Kanjilal, for introducing me to the subject of political science, to DrDuncan McDuie-ra, for introducing me to the various aspects of development, the anonymous peerreviewers of Asian Ethnicity for their valuable comments and feedback, to Ms Laura Cole and MrSoham Bhattacharjee, for their vital assistance. I am also thankful to the Australian Government forgranting me the Endeavour Fellowship and the University of New South Wales (Australia), for theresearch grant for undertaking this study.

Notes on contributorMayuri Sengupta is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of NewSouth Wales. Her doctoral thesis explores how state-led development is experienced by the ethnicminorities of Tripura (North East India). She has completed her MA and MPhil degrees in PoliticalScience from Jawaharlal Nehru University (India). Her research interest includes politics of devel-opment in South Asia.

Author’s postal address: School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Universityof New South Wales, New South Wales, Australia.

Notes1. van Schendel, “The Invention of the ‘Jummas’”; Winichakul, Siam Mapped; Duncan,

“Legislating Modernity Among the Marginalized”; Jonsson, Mien Relations; Guo, State andEthnicity in China’s Southwest; Cao, “Introduction to Ethnic Minorities and RegionalDevelopment in Asia”; and Scott, The Art of Not Being Governed.

2. Duncan, “Legislating Modernity Among the Marginalized,” 1.3. McCaskill, “From Tribal Peoples to Ethnic Minorities.”4. Burmon, “Tribal Agriculture in the North-Eastern Hill Region,” 61; Govind, “Recent

Developments in Environmental Protection in India,” 429; Gupta, “Shifting Cultivation andConservation of Biological Diversity in Tripura, Northeast India,” 605; and Nunthara,“Grouping of Villages in Mizoram,” 1237.

5. Scott, Seeing Like a State, 89.6. Forsyth and Walker, Forest Guardians, Forest Destroyer.7. Duncan, “Legislating Modernity Among the Marginalized”; Li, The Will to Improve; and Cao,

“Introduction to Ethnic Minorities and Regional Development in Asia”.8. The Reang tribe is one of the Scheduled Tribes in India. Majority of the Reangs are located in

the North East Indian state of Tripura, residing in the three districts of Dhalai, South and theNorthern districts. The Reangs also reside in other North Eastern states of Assam, Manipurand Mizoram. They are the second-largest tribe in Tripura, after the Tripuri tribe.

9. For this paper, the term ‘tribe’ (as commonly used in the South Asian region) has been usedfor the Reang ethnic minority, to outline the continuation of this colonial administrative andpolitical category in the post-colonial Indian setting. See Béteille, Society and Politics in India,59. A common definition of the term ‘tribe’, in the South Asian context, has been greatlydebated with wide-ranging views, which largely revolve around the historical, evolutionary,scientific and theoretical approaches to defining tribes. The colonial writings elaborated ‘tribe’as those having a common descent from their ancestors, living in groups in ‘primitive andbarbaric conditions’. See Xaxa, Transformation of Tribes in India, 1519. Early colonialclassification relied on social evolutionism as a scientific category to understand humandifferences. Therefore, the prevalence of ‘animism’, use of primitive agricultural technologyand lower levels of human development as compared to their colonial rulers were the guidingparameters for defining tribes. The category of tribe in South Asia broadly outlines the‘vocabulary of power’, which distinguished between the South Asian subjects and theEuropean rulers during the colonial period. They were ascribed low ranks in the hierarchy

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of civilization, broadly termed as ‘unmodern’, requiring ‘paternalistic protection and violentcorrection’ by specific state policies. See van Schendel, The Politics of Belonging in India, 22.

10. Tripura is one of the federal states in North East India. It is bordered by Bangladesh on threesides of its boundary. It is territorially connected to the Indian states of Assam and Mizoram,which lie to its east. Before its merger with the Indian Union in 1949, Tripura was a princelystate, ruled, for several centuries, by the rulers of the ancient Tripuri Kingdom. After thepolitical merger of Tripura with the Indian Union in 1949, Tripura became a Group C categorystate and later became a Union Territory in 1963. It was not until 1972 that Tripura became afull-fledged state under the Indian Union.

11. Peet and Hartwick, Theories of Development, Second Edition, 104.12. Eisenstadt, “Social Change and Development,” 23.13. Gillogly, “Developing the Hill Tribes of Northern Thailand,” 117; and McDuie-Ra, “The

Dilemmas of Pro-Development Actors,” 79.14. The category of ‘hill tribes’ in North East India is an important classification of ethnic identity

in this region and is distinguished from the other tribes of the lowland and the non-tribalpopulation. During the British colonial rule in the Indian subcontinent, the North East Frontierof Bengal was inhabited by a large number of independent hill tribes. They resided mostly inthe hills surrounding the Surma and the Brahmaputra Valley and the Chittagong Hill Tracts(located in Bangladesh) and Hill Tipperah (present-day Tripura). Each of these hill tribes hadtheir own language, political and social institutions and practices, religious and culturalpractices. Most of these tribes had historically migrated from the East and South East Asiancountries practicing shifting cultivation, hunting and food gathering for livelihood. During thecolonial rule in the North East Frontier of Bengal, the ‘Inner-Line Regulation’ was imposed toseparate Assam from the rest of North East Frontier in order to protect the colonial economy inAssam from the hill tribes (most often referred to in British anthropology as savage and wild,engaging in raids). With the independence of India, the term ‘hill tribe’ assumed newconnotations. They were regarded as more backward and savage than the other tribes inhabit-ing the lowlands and plains of North East India. Therefore, relying heavily on the colonialdefinitions, in post-colonial India, the hill tribes (of North East India) are referred to as thosetribes living in remote mountain and forest regions (jungle dwellers), practicing swiddenagriculture, who are ‘more barbaric’ and ‘more savage’ than the lowland tribes and the non-tribes.

15. Lewin, The Hill Tracts of Chittagong and the Dwellers Therein, 80; and Mackenzie, TheNorth-East Frontier of India, 272.

16. The ‘zomia’ is the highland region spanning the Western Himalayas to the Tibetan Plateau,India’s North East, Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts to the South East Asian peninsula.This region has faced ‘cartographic peripheralization’, awarded marginal status when com-pared to the heartland of the territories to which these regions officially belong and are mostoften considered ‘geographies of ignorance’. Previously, this region, which witnessed theformation of kingdoms (to mention some, the Ahom Kingdom, Tipperah Kingdom and theNanzhao Kingdom), now remain at the margins of modern nation states with which it sharesan antagonistic relationship. With ‘fragmented sovereignty’, a thousand years ago, fleeing statespaces was an option for most people residing in the ‘zomia’. With the formation of modernstate structures (with fixed territorial boundaries) and settled cultivation, the option of fleeingstate structures no longer exists and the ‘zomia’ remains on the margins of these states. Seevan Schendel, “Geographies of Knowing, Geographies of Ignorance,” 652.

17. van Schendel, “Geographies of Knowing, Geographies of Ignorance.”18. Scott, The Art of Not Being Governed, 22.19. Located in present-day Bangladesh.20. van Schendel, “The Invention of the ‘Jummas’,” 96.21. Bhattacharyya, Progressive Tripura, 12.22. Dalton, Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal.23. Mackenzie, The North-East Frontier of India, 330.24. van Schendel, “The Invention of the ‘Jummas’,” 97.25. Scott, The Art of Not Being Governed, 4.26. Roy, Beyond Belief, 107.27. Baruah, Durable Disorder.28. Chakravarti, “Insurgency in Tripura.”

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29. The Siliguri Corridor is a narrow stretch of land that connects mainland India to the NorthEastern states of India. This corridor shares international boundary with Bangladesh, Nepaland Bhutan.

30. The Tripura Merger Agreement (1949) was signed between the Government of India and thethen Queen of Tripura, Kanchan Prava. The Agreement provided the Government of India fullpower over the administration of this princely state, which agreed to cede to India. Thus, withthe Merger Agreement, the princely state of Tripura became a part of the Indian Union.

31. Rahman and van Schendel, “I Am Not a Refugee’,” 551.32. Dasgupta, “Jhumias of Tripura”; and Bhattacharyya, “The Emergence of Tripuri Nationalism.”33. Bhattacharyya, “The Emergence of Tripuri Nationalism.”34. Insurgency and violence have long plagued the state of Tripura. Scholars have attributed the

major demographic shift (twice partition of the subcontinent in 1947 and 1971) as the primarycause of insurgency in the state. The All Tripura Tiger Force (formed in 1990) is an insurgentgroup that seeks the expulsion of all Bengali immigrants who settled in Tripura after 1965 (dueto the Bangladesh Independence war and the refugee influx that followed) and removing thenames of these people from the electoral list of the state. The National Liberation Front ofTripura (1989) is another organization (outlawed by the Indian Government for its involve-ment in various terrorist activities) that seeks to establish an independent Tripura by secessionfrom the Indian Union through continuous armed struggle.

35. Ramunny, “Changing Face of Tripura,” 1879.36. See Planning Commission of India, 1997. http://planningcommission.nic.in/reports/genrep/

ne_exe.pdf; World Bank, 2007. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTSAREGTOPWATRES/FeatureStories/20981161/2006-06-30NEEnvStudyStrategyReport.pdf

37. The Hindu Newspaper, “Insurgency Cannot Be Viewed in Isolation.”38. Verrier Elwin, an anthropologist and tribal activist, was appointed as the North Eastern tribal

affairs advisor to the Government of India by the former Prime Minister of India, PanditJawaharlal Nehru.

39. Dreze and Gazdar, “Uttar Pradesh.”40. Elwin propagated the ‘isolationist approach’ to tribal development, which meant ‘letting the

tribe live in their own way, not infringing on their economic space and allowing them to growin their self-created or self-designed paradigm’. See Rath, Tribal Development in India, 273.Later, during the formulation of the Second Five Year Plan (1956–1961), his approachchanged to one of slow integration of the tribes with the economic and political mainstream.Rustomji, Verrier Elwin outlined Elwin’s changed perspective as an opinion shaped by thechanged political circumstances post the independence of India in 1947.

41. See G. Parthasarathi, Letters to Chief Ministers, 151.42. Marriott, The Other Empire.43. Béteille, “The Idea of Indigenous People,” 188.44. McDuie-Ra, “Anti-Development or Identity Crisis?,” 47.45. The Sixth Schedule was extended to include the state of Tripura and the Tripura Tribal Areas

Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) was constituted on 15 January 1982, primarily ‘inresponse to tribal militancy’. See Baruah, “Citizens and Denizens,” 51.

46. The Central and the State Governments (in India) adopted a development strategy that focusedon issues of environmental degradation and ecological conservation, which remained anintrinsic part of the state-led development vision. Restriction on jhumming was the primaryoutcome of most policies under state-led development. See http://www.moef.nic.in/downloads/about-the-ministry/introduction-nfp.pdf.

47. See http://www.destripura.nic.in/review2010_11.pdf; http://agri.tripura.gov.in/links/sov.pdf.48. See http://www.worldbank.org/projects/P102330/north-east-rural-livelihoods-project-nerlp?

lang = en.49. See http://www.mdoner.gov.in/content/kfw-1.50. The Scheme for Primitive Tribal Group initiated by the Government of India has identified 75

Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups across 15 states and 1 union territory in India. ThisScheme was introduced as a part of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme by the CentralGovernment of India in 1998 and has been renamed as the Scheme for Development ofParticularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups.

51. See http://rural.tripura.gov.in/welcome_files/documents/Iay_sucess.pdf.52. Arizpe, “No Alternatives Without Diversity.”

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53. Escobar, Encountering Development.54. Ferguson, The Anti-Politics Machine.55. McDuie-Ra, “Anti-Development or Identity Crisis?.”56. Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region, “Externally Aided Projects in the North

Eastern Region”; and Government of Tripura, 2011.57. Greetz, Agricultural Involution; and Tapp, Sovereignty and Rebellion.58. Zaman, “Crisis in Chittagong Hill Tracts,” 77.59. Most often such participation takes place in the Village Councils constituted under the Tripura

Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council.60. Briggs, “The Use of Indigenous Knowledge in Development,” 106.61. Keyes, Reshaping Local Worlds.62. Ibid., 9.63. The below poverty line category is used by the Government of India as an economic bench-

mark to identify and provide financial assistance to the beneficiaries of the poverty alleviationprogrammes.

64. The settlement policy for the tribal jhummias in Tripura dates back to 1888 when severalschemes were launched to urge the jhummias to settle and adopt practices of settled cultiva-tion. The Jhummia Resettlement Colony Scheme and the setting up of the Tribal ReserveAreas were intended to prevent the jhummias from jhumming. The focus on ecologicalproblems of jhumming became one of the main reasons for the post-colonial Indian govern-ment to further the process of settlement of tribal jhummias. This is accompanied by alliedeconomic activities for the jhummias for self-sustenance.

65. Dasgupta, “Jhumias of Tripura,” 1955.66. Baruah, “Citizens and Denizens,” 47.67. The language of Kok-Borok is of Tibeto–Burman origin, comprising the collection of several

dialects that are spoken by the various tribal groups in Tripura.68. Knauft, “Trials of the Oxymodern.”69. Most often this awkwardness stems from the non-tribal perception on tribes as ‘backward’,

requiring state aid, development projects and special quotas (as a member of a ScheduledTribe by birth) for education and employment opportunities in the government sectors.

70. See Xaxa, Empowerment of Tribes, 221.

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