This dyad belongs to the conflict India: Tripura
Summary of conflict India: Tripura
The conflict over the area of Tripura proved to be quite intractable. It was rooted in resentment against settlers whose presence made the tribal people of the area a minority. Since the 1992 inception of the conflict the Indian government has fought the ATTF (All Tripura Tribal Front) and the NLFT (National Liberation Front of Tripura), two insurgent groups aiming for an independent Tripura region.
Background
Indias Northeast - also 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 have experienced a turbulent history, stoked by ethnic tensions, insurgencies and waves of immigration from the rest of India and Bangladesh.
The genesis of the territorial insurgency in Tripura lies to a large extent in the same demographic changes that occurred following Indias independence in 1947. An influx of Bengali settlers from East Pakistan immediately following partition in 1947, as well as following Bangladeshi independence in 1971, resulted in a transformation of Tripuras demographics from a predominantly tribal to a non-tribal province in the period from 1950 to the 1990s. A perceived economic and political marginalisation among the tribal people was attributed to the state-sponsored influx of Bengali settlers and their annexation of land, which left the tribal people a demographic and economic minority in the area. The tribal proportion of Tripura changed from a two-thirds majority at Indian independence to a one-thirds minority thirty years later.
All the major rebel outfits since the onset of the first organised insurgency in Tripura in 1978, have shared a strong resentment against Bengali settlers and have made use of anti-colonial rhetoric specifically targeting India as a coloniser of Tripuran lands.. Demands stated by the rebel outfits that have launched armed conflicts against the Tripura state government and the Indian federal government have all focused on an increase in autonomy for Tripura or its complete independence from India. The stated incompatibilities have thus all concerned the territorial status of the Tripura state.
The initiation of armed conflict by the TNV
Tensions in Tripura began to take their first concrete form in the late 1960s, when several political and youth groups demanding increased autonomy and political and cultural representation began to form. These more peaceful movements (which still had some minor armed elements) had little success in achieving their goals.
Armed action instead begun with the formation of the TNV (Tripura National Volunteers), which launched its armed struggle in 1978. A Tripuran tribal named Hrangkhawl, who had previously led the TUJS (Tripura Upajati Juba Samity; Tripura Tribals’ Youth League), formed the group after being badly beaten in the 1977 elections by communist parties. Drawing its military strength (though small) from the militant Tripura Sena (Tripura Army group the TNV demanded ‘freedom for Tripura’, the ban of more immigration and increased tribal rights.
The TNV set up its first bases of operation in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in neighbouring Bangladesh, where they also received training from the MNF (Mizo National Front). Some of the group’s first attacks were launched together with this Mizo tribal outfit and took the form of ambushes of government forces.
Throughout its entire duration the TNV’s insurgency was one of low activity, with only minor ambushes of government soldiers, coupled with extortion to raise ‘tax’. There was also violence aimed against non-tribal civilians (Bengali settlers especially) who were part of the problem in the TNV’s view. Such violence against Bengalis rose in intensity whenever the TNV negotiated with the government, so as to increase pressure on it. The increase in such violence was especially pronounced in 1987-88, as the TNV began to move towards agreeing to a settlement and wished to see the Indian government’s party win the state elections to allow for the initiation of such negotiations. By initiating a reign of terror the TNV wished to destroy the ruling leftists’ changes to remain in government.
With the election of Rajiv Gandhi as Prime Minister of India some important changes in policy towards the insurgencies in the North-East became visible. Gandhi’s government concluded several peace accords with tribal outfits throughout 1984 and 1985, bestowing tribal groups with so-called ‘Scheduled Tribes’ rights, in essence giving them more autonomous powers. In 1985 the Indian government intended to do the same with Tripura’s tribals. As a result TNV leader Hrangkhawl begun to feel pressured as those rights would certainly blunt the edge of support for his group. He thus began to attempt to reach a negotiated settlement, already in 1984 sending a letter to Gandhi explaining his will to negotiate. Nothing came of these first attempts at negotiations. In early 1988, after the Congress Party’s victory (in an alliance with other parties) negotiations began.
The decade-long insurgency did, however, not end until 1988, after negotiations with the government ended in the signature of a peace accords by the TNV and the government on 12 August 1988. Following the peace deal 437 guerrillas of the TNV surrendered. The agreement contained stipulations for the disarmament and demobilisation of TNV forces, resettlement and rehabilitation of combatants, the reservation of seats for tribals in Tripura’s legislative assembly, a territorial expansion of the autonomous tribal district and some measures for economic development. A few months later the TNV converted into a political party.
However, disappointment over the TNVs "betrayal" of the tribal population and the unsatisfying implementation of the 1988-accord fed into a re-mobilisation of tribal guerrillas in 1990, which would subsequently spawn further insurgencies.
The conflict in the early 1990s
The onset of the present insurgency came with the formation of the ATTF (All Tripura Tribal Front) on 11 July 1990. The group started out as a small outfit, operating against economic and political targets in Tripura, but emerged by mid-1991 as a highly organised force. The ATTF has not publicised any written manifesto, but it has stated that it was established to continue the struggle of the indigenous Tripuri people for "the liberation of our Motherland from Indian Colonial Occupation."
Initially it seemed that the option of carving out a tribal, autonomous homeland within India was equally satisfying as the attainment of sovereign statehood. This impression was confirmed when the ATTF in mid-1996 issued a political ultimatum to the government, demanding the expulsion of all persons who had settled in Tripura after 1949, and the restoration of tribal land to the indigenous people, but did not mention secession. During the course of the rebel insurgency however, the separatist goal has taken on an increasing importance. Both ATTF and the NLFT (National Liberation Front of Tripura), the other major rebel group established in 1991, have stated the desire for secession from India. The latter has also taken an assertive pro-Christian stance. At the core of their perception of the incompatibility stands resentment against the perceived political and economical supremacy of the Bengali immigrants.
How the ATTF emerged is a matter of debate, but it is widely believed that the ATTF was sponsored by political opponents aligned to the then political opposition. Political manipulation, it is asserted, has perpetuated the insurgency, since political parties chose to extend political patronage to militant outfits for electoral gain. In 1992 and 1993 the ATTF carried out a number of operations selectively targeting political opponents. In 1993 the left-wing party, widely accused of being the key force behind the ATTFs campaign of violence, came into power. Shortly thereafter, on 23 August 1993, the ATTF and the state government signed a memorandum of understanding that provided for the surrender of the rebels. The new left wing government committed itself to take measures for resettlement and rehabilitation of ATTF personnel, to work for the eviction of post-1971 Bengalis from the tribal areas, and to introduce an inner-line permit system restricting the settlement of Bengalis in Tripura.
A number of ATTF rebels surrendered following the agreement, but a substantial number of the cadres continued the territorial insurgency under a slightly different name, changing it from All Tripura Tribal Force to All Tripura Tiger Force. The NLFT, known to be associated with the opposition Indigenous National Party of Tripura, also continued its hit-and-run operations that targeted civilians and security personnel. The 1993 peace-agreement thus failed to end the conflict, which has remained at a level of low-intensity conflict.
Developments in the 2000s
In 2001, about 30 militant outfits were active in Tripura. The NLFT (National Liberation Front of Tripura) was clearly the most prominent among these, actively engaged in the armed conflict with the government. Mirroring the general trend in the fractious Tripura rebel movements, the NLFT split into two factions along ethnic lines in 2001. Both factions continued the armed insurgency, claiming to be the "real" NLFT. Inter-factional fighting, rebel-group clashes, and indiscriminate attacks against civilians have increasingly come to be part of the conflict. The tribal rebel outfits specifically target non-tribals (i.e. Bengali settlers). There has also been a deepening criminalisation of the various outfits in recent years. The intractability of the conflict is compounded by the number of linkages between the Tripura insurgency and other rebel movements in the region, such as ULFA (United Liberation Front of Assam), PREPAK (Peoples Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak) and PLA (People’s Liberation Army) in northeast India and insurgents in the Chittagong Hills in Bangladesh. The Indian government has also accused the Pakistan Inter Service Intelligence of supporting the tribal insurgents, a claim which Pakistan denies.
Apart from the 1993 Memorandum of Agreement, official measures for conflict management have remained sparse. The re-constituted ATTF after 1993 and the NLFT have not been willing to enter into negotiations with the government. ATTF has put forward three preconditions for talks: 1) persons immigrated to Tripura after October 1949 should be termed foreigners; 2) peace negotiations must take place in a convenient third country under UN mediation; and 3) the "sovereignty of Tripura" is not negotiable under any condition. The government has not accepted these conditions, and negotiations between the warring parties are not likely in the immediate future.
In 2004, although there was a continuation of violence, there were also more positive developments in the efforts to end hostilities and find a political solution to the conflict. On 15 April 2004 the government announced a six-month long ceasefire with one faction of the NLFT, following official level negotiations in Delhi. Subsequently, in December 2004 the Nayanbashi faction of NLFT signed a Memorandum of Settlement with the Union Government and the State Government of Tripura to surrender arms and ammunition. The All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) also indicated its desire to join the ongoing peace process in Tripura but reiterated previous conditions to be fulfilled before it would enter into a dialogue with the government. 2004 was the last year of conflict activity in the UCDP data.
The Biswamohan Debbarma faction of the NLFT did not sign the Memorandum of Settlement in 2004, and continued to fight on a low level. The ATTF also engaged in sporadic violence, but as in the case of the NLFT, the clashes only resulted in few battle deaths.
