SUMMARY
The Tripura Non-Tribal Communities is a label used by UCDP in referring to the Bengali-speaking Hindus and Muslims who together with some immigrants from elsewhere in India constitute some 70 percent of the Tripura’s (a state in northeast India) total population of 3 200 000. Northeast India, sometimes referred to as the “Seven Sisters” after the seven states that comprise the region, has since independence been a patchwork of ethnic, linguistic and religious groups. These relatively small and sparsely populated (by Indian standards) states, including Tripura, have experienced a turbulent history, stoked by ethnic tensions and insurgencies. One particularly prominent part of the social and political milieu in the region has been the demographic stress and conflict brought by the immigration from the rest of India and Bangladesh. The “indigenous” population of India’s seven northeastern states has commonly been referred to as the “tribal populations”. Many of these tribes, but not all, has received special protected status in the Constitution of India; the protected tribes are referred to as the “Scheduled Tribes”. The immigrant population of Northeast India is commonly called the “non-tribal” population, and is comprised of, for example, Bengalis and other ethnic or religious groups found in India proper. Among the tribal populations, there has often been a perception of discrimination, particularly compared to the “immigrant” non-tribal communities, but also between different tribal groups.
Aside from residing in Tripura, the Bengalis also inhabit India’s West Bengal state, and Bangladesh. The Hindu and Muslim parts of the non-tribal population originate from the Bengal, thus sharing their “ancestral homeland”. The Hindu-Muslim interactions have generally been more peaceful in Tripura than in the Bengal, not in small part because of the shared experience of forced migration. Approximately 85 percent of Tripura’s population (tribal and non-tribal) practice Hinduism.
The non-tribal Bengal population in Tripura has historically benefitted from the Tripura ruling elite’s adoption and promotion of Hinduism and the Bengali language. Bengali immigrants were brought into Tripura from the early nineteenth century to serve as laborers. Historically, a disproportionate share of Tripura’s administrative workforce has been recruited from the Bengali population at the expense of the tribal communities. Immigration of non-tribal people into Tripura has historically occurred in several episodes, for example in the aftermath of India’s independence in 1947 and the subsequent partition of the country. However, the share of non-tribal people (roughly 70 percent) has remained more or less stable since the 1950s; the Bengalis became the majority population at some point between 1941 and 1951.
In 1999, the United Bengali Liberation Front (UBLF) was formed in order to protect the Bengali population of Tripura; the group has participated in the violence against the tribal population.
