Letter from the Editor - In - Chief

Saturday, 05 June 2010 18:30

Letter from the Editor - In - Chief

June 2010

The Langpih incident on the 14th of May 2010 and the reactions to it have again brought to light the complicated boundary issue not only between Assam and Meghalaya but rather, between all the states of the North East.

Most of the states in the Northeastern region have been carved out of Assam. Initially, the district boundaries were the boundaries of the states. At the point in time when these states actually attained statehood, there were few voices of protest claiming boundaries or lands. Even those few voices who raised these issues were drowned out in the clamour for statehood. As such, most of the states in the North East came about through very rushed processes and boundary issues were ‘settled’ without keeping in mind the ethnic composition of the people living in the border areas. With the passage of time emerged claims and counterclaims. As a result of these rushed ‘settlements’, almost all the states of the Northeastern region of India are in some dispute or another with one or more of their neighbours over issues relating to their borders. This has resulted in the loss of countless lives and much property in the ensuing tug of war for control of these border areas.

Mr. B. K. Nehru who was the Governor of as many as four states of the North East at one point of time had pleaded with the disputant states and asked them to gracefully accept the existing boundaries but there were no takers.

A number of commissions and committees have studied the claims and counterclaims of the disputant states in depth and produced voluminous reports on these but none were accepted and no solution to the issue of border disputes between the states has been solved.

These boundary issues have become very emotional issues and erupt with the slightest provocation. What has happened in Langpih on the 14th of May 2010 must act as a turning point for the governments. It is not really clear as to what prompted the Assam Police personnel to fire on the villager and thus forced the NGOs to act.

This issue of Eastern Panorama has carried an in depth report on Langpih. Besides this in depth report, we have also reproduced an article published in Eastern Panorama’s July 1997 issue entitled ‘Cartographic War Between North East States’. This article will give you an idea of the genesis of the border problems in the region.

One can not deny that problems like this can best be solved through political initiatives with the spirit of give and take. Most of these problems have lived on for so many years because they are ‘grey’ in nature, there is no black or white. As such, people should also realise that there can not be a win all – lose all solution to such problems. As stated before, it has to be a matter of give and take.