Revision summary
Unrest follows land loss, migration, and recognition gaps. North-East cases add treaty memory and hill autonomy claims. Sixth Schedule and ILP are institutional bargains over settlement and rule. AFSPA has been a legal fact in notified areas and a source of alienation there. Accords treat the conflict as a federal place, not a single crime wave.
Model answer
Introduction
Tribal unrest is organised protest or armed conflict when land, identity, and rule are felt as stolen. In North-East India the causes are historical sovereignty claims plus the same development shocks seen elsewhere, inside a sensitive border region.
Body
Shared tribal causes
- Land alienation, forest reservation, and mines break Vidyarthi’s nature-man-spirit base and Roy’s customary title.
- In-migration and job competition produce sons-of-the-soil politics.
- Recognition gaps—who is ST, whose language counts—feed the politics of deprivation.
North-East specifics
- Many hill societies entered the Union with treaties, inner lines, and a memory of not being a caste village of the plains.
- Sixth Schedule councils house some autonomy. Groups left out demand the same or a state.
- Inner Line Permit regimes try to control settlement. Leakage and exception keep the grievance alive.
- National security law, including AFSPA where it has been in force, is a documented fact of militarised everyday life. It is a cause of alienation in affected districts, not a slogan about the whole region.
- Naga political talks, and other accords, show unrest as a bargain over federal place, not only as crime.
Caution
- The North-East is many states and many tribes. One unrest story is a teaching error.
- Christianity, student unions, and ethnic media shape mobilisation without being the root land cause.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD L[Land identity] --> U[Unrest] S[Sixth Schedule ILP] --> A[Autonomy bargain] M[Migration mines] --> U F[AFSPA in notified areas] --> Al[Alienation fact]
Conclusion
Tribal unrest joins land loss to a demand for recognised rule. In the North-East that demand is territorial and federal, through Sixth Schedule, ILP, and political talks, under a border-security state that has used extraordinary law in named areas.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Delineate the salient characteristics of 'Narmada Man' and examine its phylogenetic significance
Next question on this syllabus topic (2016 · Q2(b)). View answer →
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Is all North-East unrest the same?
No. Causes and groups differ by state. Common threads are land, migration, and autonomy.
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Is AFSPA the only cause?
No. It is one security-legal fact in notified areas. Land and recognition sit underneath.
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