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Separatist movements of India

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There may emerge 11 new countries namely Khalistan, Assam [1], Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Balochistan, Sindhudesh and Pashtunistan.

History

The term Greater India refers to the historical spread of the Culture of India beyond the Indian subcontinent proper. This concerns the spread of Hinduism in Southeast Asia in particular, introduced by the Indianized kingdoms of the 5th to 15th centuries, but may also extend to the earlier spread of Buddhism from India to Central Asia and China by way of the Silk Road during the early centuries CE. To the west, Greater India overlaps with Greater Persia in the Hindu Kush and Pamir Mountains. Historically, the term is also tied to the geographic uncertainties surrounding the "Indies" during the Age of Exploration.

Radcliff Award between India and o Pakistan

Background

On June 3, 1947,Mountbatten, the viceroy announced plans for partition of the British Indian Empire into the nations of India and Pakistan, which itself was divided into east and west wings on either side of India. The June 3, 1947 Partition Plan was prepared by Mountbatten in consultation with the British Government. It was based on a fundamental principle that transfer of power should take place according to the wishes of the people. The principle of partition was specified in the plan : The all Muslim majority areas were to constitute part of Pakistan and similarly the Hindu majority areas were to go to India. [2] Besides, the 565 princely States at that time including the State of Jammu and Kashmir were given the option either to join Pakistan or India. Such joining to either State was to be determined by the geographical contiguity and communal composition of the population. The State of Jammu and Kashmir with a 77 % Muslims majority (according to 1941 Census) would have acceded to Pakistan.[3]

Radcliff Award Handed over Some of the Muslim Majority Areas that were Contiguous to the Boundary of Pakistan to India: These areas included.[4]
1. Sub-district of Ajnala in Amritsar district
2. Sub-district of Nakadar and Jullundur in Jullundur district
3. Sub-district of Ferozepur and Zira in Ferozepur district
4. Sub-district of Batala and Gurdaspur in Gurdaspur district

Radcliff award, allotted sixty-two percent of the area of undivided Punjab to India, with fifty-five percent of the population.[4]

Junagadh and Manavadar

Junagadh was a small Hindu majority state of British India covering 3337 sq miles of the area. It situated 300 miles down to the coast of Karachi Indian coast of Kathiawar. The Muslim rulers ruled the state.[4] After independence the request for the accession with Pakistan by its rulers was accepted by the Quaid-e-Azam. Indian government reacted sharply and an economic blockade of the state of Junagardh was imposed that resulted in food shortage. By the end of October 1947 the rulers of the state of Junagadh were forced to leave the state. On 9 November 1947 the Indian army occupied the state. Pakistan took that matter in UNO where it is still pending. [4] Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was the last Pakistani head of state to mention Junagarh and Manavadar[5]

North East India

Greater Assam

The Ahom Kingdom, c1826.

Since the mid-20th century, people from present Bangladesh have been migrating to Assam. In 1961, the Government of Assam passed a legislation making use of Assamese language compulsory; It had to be withdrawn later under pressure from Bengali speaking people in Cachar. In the 1980s the Brahmaputra valley saw a six-year Assam Agitation [6] triggered by the discovery of a sudden rise in registered voters on electoral rolls.

Assam till 1950s; The new states of Nagaland, Meghalaya and Mizoram formed in the 1960-70s. The capital of Assam was shifted from Shillong to Dispur, now a part of Guwahati. After the Indo-China war in 1962, Arunachal Pradesh was also separated out.

The post 1970s experienced the growth of armed separatist groups like United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) [6] and National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB). Regional autonomy has been ensured for Bodos in Bodoland Territorial Council Areas (BTCA) and for the Karbis in Karbi Anglong after agitation of the communities due to sluggish rate of development and aspirations for self-government. As the situation in Assam has turned very serious as communal clashes continue in two central districts of the state, namely Udalguri and Darrang.

Assam and its Environs: As per the plate techtonics, Assam is in the eastern-most projection of the Indian Plate, where the plate is thrust beneath the Eurasian Plate creating the Himalayas over a subduction zone and [7]. So therefore, Assam possesses a unique geomorphic environment, with plains, dissected hills of the South Indian Plateau system and with the Himalayas all around its north, north-east and east.

The United Liberation Front of Asom is a separatist group from Assam,[8] among many other such groups in North-East India. It seeks to establish a sovereign Assam via an armed struggle in the Assam Conflict. The Government of India had banned the organization in 1990 and classifies it as a terrorist group, while the US State Department lists it under "Other groups of concern".[9]

ULFA claims to have been founded at the site of Rang Ghar on April 7, 1979,[10] a historic structure from the Ahom kingdom. Military operations against it by the Indian Army that began in 1990 continues till present. In the past two decades some 10,000 people have died in the clash between the rebels and the government.[11]

The major leaders of the organisation are:

Muslim United Liberation Tigers of Assam (MULTA) is an Islamist extremist organization founded around 1996 in the eastern Indian state of Assam. The South Asia Terrorism Portal (satp.org) describes it as part of the All Muslim United Liberation Forum of Assam (AMULFA), and that Muslim United Liberation Front of Assam (MULFA) is a sister organization under the AMULFA umbrella.[12] It is alleged that MULTA is supported by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.

Bodoland

Flag of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland.

Bodoland is an area located in the north bank of Brahmaputra river in the state of Assam in north east region of India, by the foothills of Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh; inhabited predominantly by Bodo language speaking ethnic group. Currently the hypothetical map of Bodoland includes the Bodoland Territorial Areas District (BTAD) administered by the non-autonomous Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC). The map of Bodoland overlaps with the districts of Kokrajhar, Baksa, Chirang and Udalguri in the state of Assam.

The National Democratic Front of Bodoland, also known as NDFB or the Bodo Security Force, is a separatist movement that is predominantly christian which seeks to obtain a sovereign Bodoland for the Bodo people in Assam. The founder of the organization, Ransaigra Nabla Daimari, alias Ranjan Daimari, continues to lead the organization.[13]

Tripura

Both the National Liberation Front of Tripura and the All Tripura Tiger Force, which claim to represent the Tripuri people, an economically disadvantaged community. [14]. The NLFT, founded in 1989, aims for independence for Tripura. The NLFT is currently proscribed as a terrorist organization in India.

Arunachal Pradesh

The Arunachal Dragon Force (ADF), also known as the East India Liberation Front, is a violent secessionist movement in the eastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. The ADF seeks to create an independent state resembling the pre-British Teola Country consisting of area currently in Arunachal Pradesh as well as neighboring Assam.

Nagaland

The Christian Narga tribes also feal the same way towards Assam as Assam dose to India and Burma.

The Chin tribes

Chin is one of the ethnic groups in Myanmar, S.E. Bangladesh and Manipur.[15] The Chins are found mainly in western part of Myanmar (the Chin State) and numbered circa 1.5 million. They also live in nearby Indian states of Nagaland, Mizoram and Manipur and Assam. Owing to Mizo influence and Baptist missionaries' intervention, 80%-90% of the population are Christians. However, a sizable minority of the Chin adhere to their traditional tribal beliefs, as well as to Theravada Buddhism. A small group of individuals from Mizoram claimed that they are one of the lost tribes of Israel, that of Bnei Menashetribe, some have since resettled in that country.

The Chin are one of the large ethnic minority groups in Myanmar. The Chin people are of Tibeto-Burman groups and they probably came to Myanmar, especially the Chindwin valley in the late 9-10 century A.D. Most Chin people moved westward and they probably settled in the present Chin State around 1300-1400 A.D. The original meaning of "Chin" remains obscure, though scholars have proposed various theories no widely-held consensus has been reached.

For much of history, sparsely populated Chin Hills were the westernmost region of Irrawaddy valley-based Burmese kingdoms. The extent of Burmese control of Chin Hills, which never had a political organization beyond chiefs, can only be inferred from the recorded history of the region's more established neighbors, the kingdoms of Manipur and Assam.

The British acquired the Chin Hills after the Third Anglo-Burmese War of 1885. The ensuing Chin resistance to the British was suppressed only by 1890. The British administered the Chin Hills as part of Arakan Division.[16] American missionaries began arriving in the 1890s and by the middle of 20th century, had converted most of the Chin people to Christianity.

Upon independence from the United Kingdom in 1948, Chin Hills Special Division was created out of Arakan Division, with the capital at Falam. On 4 January 1974, it was granted the state status and became Chin State.[16] Today, the state has little infrastructure and remains extremely poor and undeveloped.

Zogam (or Zoland, the political appellation mainly used to describe the envisioned unified and separate democratic nation-state) is the name for a territory, approximately 60,000 square miles (160,000 km2) in size, in Burma, India and Bangladesh. It is the traditional home of the Zomi, who lived in this area before the colonial period under British rulership.

It does not include Asho settlements in Lower Burma and Masho settlements in the Arakan (Burma).

Khalistan

Main article: Khalistan movement

Khalistan Khālistān (Punjabi: ਖ਼ਾਲਿਸਤਾਨ) is on actually proposed Sikh homeland. The Khalistan movement is a movement in Indian Punjab to create "The Land of the Pure" as an independent Sikh state in all Punjabi-speaking areas, which include Indian Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and some other Punjabi speaking parts of states like Gujarat and Rajasthan..[17]

File:Khalistanollars.jpg
Defunct 'Khalistani' Currency
A proposed flag for Khalistan

Geography of Khalistan
According to the Khalistan web-site:

The geographical boundaries of Khalistan will include current India Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pardesh and River Ravi on the west and river Jamuna on the east will be some of the boundary lines between Khalistan & Pakistan, Khalistan & India respectively. In the north, part of Himalayan range and in south, part of Thar Desert will make the geographical boundaries of Khalistan.[18]

Kashmir

Main article: Kashmir conflict

Secessionist Movements in the Indian Subcontinent/South Asia

Below is given the list of Separatist/Secessionist Movements in South Asia


See also: Insurgent groups in Northeast India and the Taliban”

Note: Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed territory and not recognised as an Indian integral part, according to the International community.

See also: Insurgent groups in Northeast India

See also under Bodoland, Dimasaland, Kamtapur, Karbi below.

See also

Further reading

  • Inventing Boundaries: gender, politics and the Partition of India edited by Mushirul Hasan (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000)
  • The Sole Spokesman: Jinnah, the Muslim League and the demand for Pakistan by Ayesha Jalal (Cambridge University Press, 1985)
  • Naxalite Politics in India, by J. C. Johari, Institute of Constitutional and Parliamentary Studies, New Delhi, . Published by Research Publications, 1972.
  • The Naxalite Movement, by Biplab Dasgupta. Published by , 1974
  • The Naxalite Movement in India, by Prakash Singh. Published by Rupa, 1995. ISBN 8171672949.

References

  1. ^ http://www.assamtimes.org/blog/3283.html
  2. ^ http://www.shaykhabdalqadir.com/content/articles/Art004_19022004.html
  3. ^ http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/indo-pak-partition1.htm
  4. ^ a b c d http://www.scribd.com/doc/16445129/Initial-problems-of-Pak
  5. ^ http://rupeenews.com/most-popular-articles/polls-on-kashmir-tehrik-e-ilhaq-e-pakistan
  6. ^ a b Hazarika 2003
  7. ^ Wandrey 2004 p3–8
  8. ^ http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/states/assam/terrorist_outfits/Ulfa.htm
  9. ^ Country Reports on Terrorism, 2006
  10. ^ United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) - Terrorist Group of Assam
  11. ^ Five killed in Assam bomb blasts - Dawn
  12. ^ "Muslim United Liberation Tigers of Assam (MULTA)". South Asia Terrorism Portal. Retrieved 2009-08-14.
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference satp was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/topic,463af2212,469f2ddf2,469f3a9453,0.html
  15. ^ Head, Jonathan, Burma's 'abused Chin need help', BBC News, Jan 28, 2009, Accessed Jan 28, 2009
  16. ^ a b "Myanmar Divisions". Statoids. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
  17. ^ "Sikh separatists 'funded from UK'". BBC. 2008-03-04. Retrieved 2008-08-28. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  18. ^ "Khalistan.net - Khalistan the New Global Reality". Khalistan.net. Retrieved 2008-11-12.
  19. ^ "The Final Countdown". Sri Lanka Ministry of Defence. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
  20. ^ Syed Amin Jafri (2006-12-26). "Coastal leaders call for separate Andhra state". Rediff.com India Limited. Retrieved 2009-04-10. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  21. ^ "Arunachal Dragon Force (ADF)". South Asia Terrorist Portal. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
  22. ^ "Muslim United Liberation Tigers of Assam (MULTA)". South Asia Terrorist Portal. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
  23. ^ "People's Liberation Front of Meghalaya (PLF-M)". South Asia Terrorist Portal. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
  24. ^ "United People's Democratic Solidarity (UPDS)". South Asia Terrorist Portal. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
  25. ^ "India - Terrorist, insurgent and extremist groups". South Asia Terrorist Portal. Retrieved 2009-04-10.


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