Daniel Langthasa, Member of Dima Hasao Autonomous Council & Digital Creator

Daniel Langthasa

Member of Dima Hasao Autonomous Council & Digital Creator

Daniel Langthasa, Member of the Dima Hasao Autonomous Council and digital creator, also began his presentation with an overview of the history of Dima Hasao, previously known as North Cachar Hills District, in Assam. In 2010, the District was renamed Dima Hasao.

The North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council (NCHAC) was the first Autonomous Council formed in 1952. At the time the district was predominantly inhabited by the Dimasa tribe, the Zeme Naga Tribe, the Kuki; later on more tribes came in from neighbouring districts. After that, the Mar tribe also became the 4th big tribe residing in the district.

In the present scenario, the district and also North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council might be arguably one of the most diverse in representation of various tribes. It has 28 elected representatives representing 28 constituencies, with 7 different tribes representing their own communities, within which Dimasa is the majority. There are also Zemi Naga, Kuki, Mar, Yate, Khasi, Yang, Rankhol people.

The district had a huge militancy problem that started in the early 1990s and peaked in the early 2000s. There was a political demand for an autonomous state, spearheaded by parties like the Autonomous State Demand Committee, both in Karbi Anglong and in Dima Hasao. Simultaneously the armed militant movement began in Dima Hasao district.

In the early 2000s, there was one group, the Dima Halao Daoga (DHD), which splintered into two. At this point, in the early 2000s, there was a lot of violence and bloodshed, which impacted the peace-loving public. Dima Hasao has a diverse mix of communities, on record 14 different tribal groups and around 8-9 non-tribal groups. They had been living in peace for a long time, and even while there were many armed struggles elsewhere like in the Naga Hills and Lushai Hills, the North Cachar Hills were relatively peaceful with people living in harmony. It was only very late, when militancy reached its peak, that it spread among the people and led to ethnic clashes between the Dimasa and the Karbis, and between the Dimasas and Zeme Nagas. That was an unfortunate period.

The DHD and DHD-J groups signed the MoS with central and state govt. All militants came overground after the peace agreement and the process of rehabilitation began. In 2010, one of the demands of the DHD-J group was to rename the district from North Cachar Hills to Dima Hasao, which led to a lot of opposition. Dima Hasao means ‘People of the Hills’, pertinent since the DHD groups were fighting for separate statehood for the Dimasa community. This could not be achieved through the MoS agreement, but one of the outcomes was the change in the name of the district.

From then on, a lot changed in the Dima Hasao District. The other tribal groups came together and opposed this change in the name of the district, creating different political groups under the banner of the Indigenous People’s Forum (IPF). The IPF is politically defunct at present but continues to be very active as a social group. Since 2010 they have been demanding that the present day Dima Hasao be bifurcated into two, with one district comprising population not predominantly Dimasa. Their point of discontent has to do with the undemocratic renaming of the district from the North Cachar Hills to Dima Hasao. The demands have not died out, and every couple of months the IPF calls a bandh and holds talks with Assam govt.

Along with these, there are tribes not yet represented, and the demand for representation is growing from their side. As per the Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) signed between militant groups and the central government, just like in Karbi Anglong, there is meant to be delimitation and more constituencies are to be added. There are also 2 nominated members, taking the tally to 30. In the last couple of decades, these 2 nominated seats have been given to Bengali and Gorkha communities, the two biggest nontribal communities in Dima Hasao. Irrespective of the party in power, these seats are given to non-tribal communities, so as to give them proper representation.

Whatever discussions happen are kept secret and the general public has no clue what is going on inside those rooms. Since 2009-10, this has led to a very clear political divide between Dimasas and non-Dimasas. Any party ruling the Council would like to pretend this split does not exist. But the truth is the divide will continue now for quite some time, while the need to maintain peace and stay united is crucial. Based on his experience as a Council member, he also talked about issues of the Dima Hasao Council, especially looking at governance, resource rights and ethnicity. He explained that all three Sixth Schedule areas in Assam have been victims of militancy getting into the political system. This led to compromises when it comes to corruption and the usage of funds. When the Central Government did not agree to the militant groups’ fight for separate statehood in their respective area, they compromised and most of them agreed for financial grants and freebies.

Militants turned into contractors, businessmen and politicians, and these funded their political aspirations. But when one takes all these freebies, the young generation is inspired to follow the same path and that’s what is happening in Dima Hasao at present. The Dimasa National Liberation Army (DNLA) surrendered quite recently and are in talks with the government regarding rehabilitation. They stay in camps in Dima Hasao, such as the one in Maibang near the old capital. Recently apparently some cadres wanted to escape from

the camp, which angered some of their mates and they kidnapped them back, tortured them and 3 young men died and many were injured. Fortunately, because some members of the missing people lodged an FIR with the police, the latter went there and intervened and found some people who were already held hostage and they may have also lost their lives.

This kind of violence is not new. Something like this happened already between DHD-J and DHD-N 10 years back, and this is affecting politics. Militants have enough money to contest elections, they have might and muscle power, so present day politics in Dima Hasao has completely changed from 20 years back. All of this has led to unabated corruption.

It is quite clear that corruption is not particular to the Sixth Schedule, but it leads to the stifling of democracy. The biggest issue in the Sixth Schedule areas and in Dima Hasao, as well as in Karbi Anglong, is that BJP is the ruling party with absolute majority and no opposition. In Dima Hasao, BJP has 27 members, with the speaker as the lone opposition. Ironically, he mentioned that everyone did not contest and win on a BJP ticket, but defected after the elections.

The biggest challenge in the Sixth Schedule areas from the point of view of an elected member, is that there is a need for more opposition to come up, for young people to come up in the interest of the Sixth Schedule, and not just because the council is there and funds are available. This debate and discussion has to start.