The Making of Violent Spaces: Conflict and the Search for Peace in Bodoland

Abstract

For people struggling for survival in the Indo-Bhutan borderlands in Assam, episodes of violent conflict and forced displacement were catastrophes they could barely recover from. For more than three decades, Western Assam witnessed several waves of ethnic conflict that fuelled armed militant struggles. The long-drawn but largely low-intensity conflict, punctuated by episodes of intense violence, weakened the local economy, administration and society. Essential services including health and education systems in the area of study had collapsed. What then were the determinants of the conflict? The chapter begins by tracing out the history of the conflict and examines both the long non-violent phase prior to militancy and the onset of organized armed violence. Contemporary research on Bodoland does not attribute much importance to this earlier phase. In fact, as the chapter shows, the resort to arms was preceded by nearly 50 years of social reform with mass movements for cultural and territorial protection for the plain tribes of Assam. The situation was further complicated by the long-term population pressures exerted due to migration into the region (which accelerated during British rule) and limitations in access to land for the practice of traditional systems of agriculture. In later stages, we see the conflation of the protection for rights (including land rights) and developmental aspirations with territorial goals; this eventually translated into the search for political autonomy. The process of actualizing these territorial conceptions transformed the earlier efforts at social reform and catalysed the process of identity formation. 1987 was a crucial turning point with the rise of the ABSU-led Separate State Movement. It set the stage for introducing idea of Bodoland. The forest tracts along the Indo-Bhutan border became politically salient at this juncture. The chapter briefly examines the two major peace accords that were signed in 1993 and 2003. As will be seen, the failure of the 1993 Accord can be partly attributed to an incomplete form of autonomy without a clear-cut demarcation in territorial boundaries. This engendered massive internal violence among the stakeholders who were spearheading and participating the Bodoland agitation; and, also between the ethnic groups who were to be included under the new semi-autonomous institution called the Bodoland Autonomous Council (BAC). It is from now on that we see recurrent humanitarian crises and instances of large-scale protracted conflict-induced internal displacement, a trend that continued even after the formation of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) in 2003. Seeking to return to the micro-level, the chapter also attempts to understand the psychological dimension of violence. The chapter provides some insights on the nature of armed group formation and provides the background to the localized fragility underlying the dual system of governance in a Sixth Schedule area (a system that will be explored in more depth in the next chapter).