Separatist movements of India

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There are various sepatratist movements in India, mainly in the north-east of the country. There are 3 main secessionist movements namely Khalistan, Assam and Kashmir. Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland too have reported skirmishes in the past and minor incidents continue to be reported till date. The more important issue with these stats however is territorial dispute with neighboring states, rather than independence from the India. The most high profile separatist actions have been in Kashmir.

India introduced AFSPA in 1958 to put down separatist movements in certain parts of the country. The law was first enforced in Manipur and later enforced in other insurgency-ridden north-eastern states. It was extended to most parts of Indian-administered Kashmir soon after the outbreak of armed insurgency in 1989. The law gives soldiers immunity against prosecution unless the Indian government gives prior sanction for such prosecution. The government maintains that the AFSPA is necessary to restore normalcy in regions like Kashmir and Manipur.

Hundreds of people are locked up on spurious grounds under the Public Safety Act in Jammu and Kashmir every year. This report exposes a catalogue of human rights violations associated with the use of administrative detention under the Public Safety Act. It highlights how these run counter to India's obligations under international human rights law. If India is serious about meeting these obligations, then it must ensure that the Public Safety Act is repealed and that detainees are released immediately or tried in a court of law.

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.

Kashmir

Main article: Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir

The insurgency in Kashmir, the most notable one, has existed in various forms. Thousands of lives have been lost since 1989 due to the intensification of both the insurgency and the fight against it.

A widespread armed insurgency started in Kashmir with the disputed 1987 election with some elements from the State's assembly forming militant wings which acted as a catalyst for the emergence of armed insurgency in the region.

The Inter-Services Intelligence of Pakistan has been accused by India of supporting and training mujahideen. to fight in Jammu and Kashmir. According to official figures released in Jammu and Kashmir assembly, there were 3,400 disappearance cases and the conflict has left more than 47,000 people dead as of July 2009. However, the number of insurgency-related deaths in the state have fallen sharply since the start of a slow-moving peace process between India and Pakistan.

North East India

Main article: Insurgency in North-East India

Geographically and culturally, the region now called north-east India is situated between the two traditions of Indic Asia and Mongoloid Asia and is regarded as part of Southeast Asia. This geographical-cultural condition of "in-betweenness" is an important factor in the area’s crisis of identity. The leaders of the present-day "underground outfits" continue to struggle for independence, as the political integration of the northeast to India was brought about without the approval of its people. The people of northeast India, who are culturally Mongoloid, refuse to accept the caste-ridden social system advocated by ‘Indian’ culture. Similar struggles for independence are also going on in other northeastern subdivisions or sister regions, such as Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Nagaland.

Greater Assam

The Ahom Kingdom, c1826.

Since the mid-20th century, people from present-day Bangladesh (then part of Pakistan) 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 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 the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and the 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. 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, 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".

ULFA claims to have been founded at the site of Rang Ghar on April 7, 1979, 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.

The major leaders of the organisation are:

• Paresh Baruah (Commander-in-Chief)
• Arabinda Rajkhowa (Chairman) (in Government of Assam custody)
• Anup Chetia (General Secretary) (in Government of Bangladesh custody)
• Pradip Gogoi (Vice-Chairman)

There have been reports of support lent to ULFA by Pakistan's ISI and Chinese Militay, as have the weapons recovered from the militants pointed to.

Muslim United Liberation Tigers of Assam (MULTA) is a Separatist 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. It is alleged that MULTA is supported by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.

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.

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. The NLFT, founded in 1989, aims for independence for Tripura. The NLFT is currently proscribed as a terrorist organization in India.

Arunachal Pradesh

Map of the Teola region

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 a state resembling the pre-British Teola Country consisting of area currently in Arunachal Pradesh as well as neighboring Assam.

Nagaland

The NSCN factions and Naga National Council have been fighting for a greater Nagalim, which constitutes areas of present day Assam, Nagaland, Manipur and Myanmar.

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 Punjabi-speaking areas, viz. Indian Punjab and Chandigarh.

This movement started in the early 1980s and greatly escalated in 1984 following Operation Blue Star. It has however pretty much died down in India and separatists operate from other counrties like Canada, the U.K. and Pakistan. Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence is believed to be a major force behind the Sikh separatists. The Kanishka Air India flight bombing was carried out by Sikh Separatists based in Canada.

Other states of India

• Bengal Liberation Army — Organisation struggling for the secession of West Bengal from the Indian Union and uniting it with Bangladesh, formerly known as East Bengal province of India.
• Gujarat Swarajya Sangh (Gujarat Independence Movement) — Advocating a homeland for the Gujaratis and Vaishyas of India.
• Maratha Rashtra Parishad — Advocating the restoration of Shivaji's 18th-century Maratha Empire.
• Oriya Mahasabha party is the Oriya secessionist movement for Orissa (Odisha).
• The Rajputana Liberation Front is demanding the secession of Rajasthan, the homeland of the Rajputs.
• Sikkim National Party is a political party in Sikkim, Formed in 1950. National Party was in favour of the monarchy and advocated independence for Sikkim.
• Dalit secessionists are demanding a homeland for Tamil Nadu which is a part of Greater Dravida Nadu state.

See also

• Aspirant states of India
• Assamese Separatist Movement
• Insurgent groups in Northeast India
• Mangalorean regionalism
• Insurgency in North-East India
• Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir
• The Khalistan movement
• The Gorkha National Liberation Front
• Naxalite
• Naxalite-Maoist insurgency
• Red corridor
• Separatist movements of Pakistan
• Tamil Tigers
• Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)
• Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist)
• The Compact Revolutionary Zone
• List of terrorist organizations in India

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.

External links

• The Kashmir Dispute
• The Sikh separatist movement and the Indian state: A retrospect
• 'History of Naxalism', Hindustan Times
• Punjab: The Knights of Falsehood by K P S Gill
• The Ghost of Khalistan - Sikh Times
• Jaskaran Kaur, Barbara Crossette. Twenty Years of Impunity: The November 1984 Pogroms of Sikhs in India. London: Nectar, 2004.[3]
• Parvinder Singh. 1984 Sikhs' Kristallnacht. 28-page report, 2009. [4]
• The Kashmir Dispute
• The Sikh separatist movement and the Indian state: A retrospect