Eminent scholars, activists, and journalists gathered for the "Tripura Roundtable" organised by BOOM Live's North East Facts Network (NEFN). The event focused on the crucial issues of the marginalisation of indigenous and tribal people of Tripura due to exclusionary state policies and the urgent need to decolonise the understanding of tribes in the context of Northeast India. The discussions shed light on the historical and ongoing injustices faced by indigenous communities and called for a reevaluation of prevailing narratives.
Historical Context and Demand for Statehood
Amaresh Debbarma, a PhD candidate at the Central University of Gujarat, narrated the history of Tripura's tribes' demand for Tipraland, tracing it through colonial, Partition, and post-independence periods. He highlighted the influx of Bengali-speaking immigrants from East Pakistan during Partition and the Bangladesh War in 1971, which led to significant demographic changes. The indigenous tribes faced political marginalisation, land-grabbing, exploitation by moneylenders, and rapid decline of native languages. Debbarma pointed out that these issues led to several tribal movements with demands ranging from separate statehood to secession from India. Key demands included the deportation of illegal immigrants, restoration of native land, and the introduction of the Kokborok language to preserve indigenous rights and cultural identity.
Women's Rights and Legal Challenges
Romita Reang, a women’s rights lawyer and PhD candidate at North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, emphasised the disparity between policy entitlements and the actual protection of tribal women's rights. She highlighted that although women are entitled to protection and welfare benefits, accessing these rights remains a challenge, especially in rural areas where human rights violations are rampant and under-reported. Reang pointed out that tribal women face numerous obstacles in reporting violations and seeking justice due to limited education and lack of awareness. Reang said that indigenous women's rights are frequently controlled by others, perpetuating their marginalisation. While women can seek justice through both customary and statutory laws, these mechanisms often disadvantage women equally. However, she contended that at a time when an Uniform Civil Code is being hotly debated in India, it must also be remembered that customary laws continue to play a major role in governing and preserving indigenous lifeworlds at local levels, and therefore, cannot be undermined.
Systemic Bias in Media Representations
Biswendu Bhattacharjee, a media scholar and journalist with the Times of India, critiqued the underreporting in the media of critical issues affecting tribals. He explained that journalists in remote areas often depend on police and politicians for information, which is selectively shared to avoid harming their interests. Bhattacharjee shared his experience of reporting impactful stories, including one about a girl with a medical condition that deeply affected him. He also discussed how most customary laws are not codified, reducing their judicial value and perpetuating the marginalisation of tribal perspectives in mainstream discourse.
New Media and Empowerment of Indigenous Lenses
Sunil Kalai, an Assistant Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication at Tripura University, discussed the complexities of indigeneity debates and the importance of tribals representing their own stories through new media and digital technologies. He contrasted this with mainland India's problematic exoticisation and negative portrayals of tribes as “high” versus “low” cultures, emphasising the need to decolonise these narratives and challenge the injustices and misrepresentations faced by tribals. Kalai highlighted the role of Big Media in controlling the flow of information, which in turn shapes public perceptions against the interests of the tribes. He also discussed the injustices done to tribals, including land dispossession and cultural tampering, and how all forms of tribal resistance or scholarship is labelled as “militancy”.
Resource Extraction and Environmental Impact
Thomas Malsom, a PhD scholar at North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong, highlighted the adverse effects of extractive regimes under the guise of development on Tripura’s tribal communities. He criticised the political and academic neglect of these issues, noting that local elites, private corporations, and the state benefit from policies like the Sixth Schedule and Forest Rights Act, while tribals at large face exploitation and the impact of environmental degradation. Malsom condemned recent legislative changes that enable further exploitation of indigenous land by private corporations. He discussed how forests in the Northeastern region are plundered by private companies and the state, leading to deforestation and worsening the socio-economic standing of tribals. Protests by tribals are often met with imprisonment and harassment, further marginalising and stigmatising these communities.
Knowledge Production on Tribes and “Engaged Observation”
Biswaranjan Tripura, who teaches Indigenous/Tribal Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, advocated for a decolonised approach to ethnographic research on tribes. He introduced "engaged observation" as a methodology that aligns with tribal lives, emphasising the importance of context in research. Tripura pointed out that traditional ethnography often treats tribes as subjects to be studied from a distance, rather than as active participants in the research process. He emphasised on the researcher’s need to immerse themselves fully in the community to build trust and understand the nuances of daily life. He shared his experience of sitting with people near the fireplace during winters, which he called "sitting around the fire," a method that fosters deeper connections and insights during such knowledge production. Critiquing conventional representations of tribes that fail to truly understand their lived experiences, he emphasised on a two-pronged approach to "de-caste the mind" and "decolonise the mind" by moving out of universal frames of reference and adopting perspectives that align with the lived reality of tribal people being studied.
State Suppression and Political Dynamics
RK Debbarma, Chairperson at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, TISS, Guwahati, began his segment with an anecdote: an incident from 2012-13 when the Tripura government took down a Tagore statue after public complaints about it resembling Karl Marx instead. Professor Debbarma interpreted this rather comic incident to demonstrate how the state could not decide whether it is essentially communist or settler colonial. He highlighted the systematic erasure of tribal history, consistent with state efforts to control indigenous populations or the intrinsically tribal nature of the state through removal of cultural symbols and deployment of state forces against tribes.
He discussed former CM Manik Sarkar’s role in raising 6 battalions of the Tripura State Rifles' (TSR) and the role it played in committing excesses against tribals under the veneer of a Left government. The Left front government also boasted about building the largest and most modern jail in Tripura conceived as a space to “correct” the tribal minds. Debbarma contrasted the lack of awareness of such violent state repression that continued alongside the mainstream media construction of Sarkar as a spotless, leftist leader with the disproportionate focus on atrocities committed by tribal insurgents. Debbarma emphasised the need to recognise this history of statist violence against the tribes, and how he often had to incorporate “other ways of talking” about Tripura to get around state repression.
Kokborok and the Role of Mother Tongue in Education
Bikashrai Debbarma, a veteran litterateur and the President of Roman Script for Kokborok Choba, underscored the importance of mother tongue education as advocated in NEP 2020. He highlighted the benefits of multilingual education in preserving tribal traditions and roots, arguing that learning in one's mother tongue is crucial for tribal empowerment and resistance to marginalisation. He provided a historical overview of multilingual education in Europe and its relevance for tribal communities in India. Debbarma argued that mother tongue education helps groups develop and preserve their own traditions and better appreciate their roots and cultural heritage.
The Tripura Roundtable has had the highest number of turnouts of all NEFN events so far, reflecting a genuine desire among interested audiences to learn and understand the issues of Northeast India beyond ready stereotypes. The discussions underscored the pressing need to address the top-down approach of engaging with the issues of tribal people of the state, and the implications of adopting a more inclusive policy based on an accurate and fair assessment of the threats facing them.
You can watch the session here.