A delegation of the Autonomous State Demand Committee (ASDC) of Karbi Anglong and North Cachar Hills was in Delhi in February to meet the Home Minister and other political leaders. Their primary demand was for the declaration of this region as an autonomous state within the state of Assam, under Article 244A of the Constitution which pertains to the power of Parliament to create separate states for the hill areas within Assam.

The state of Assam contains within it a great diversity of peoples with a variety of cultures. For instance, the district of Karbi Anglong alone has 29 distinct tribes and languages, including the Karbis, Kukis, Bodos and others. At different times, movements have arisen among different peoples within Assam reflecting their aspirations for varying degrees of self-governance, recognition of their own languages and cultures, and so on. The state of Meghalaya, for instance, was created in 1970 by separating the Khasi and Jaintia Hills and Garo hills region from Assam.

At the same time, the state of Assam as a whole has been discriminated against by various governments at the Centre. These governments have supported the agenda of the Indian big bourgeoisie to exploit the rich natural resources of Assam, including its oil and timber, with little of the benefits of development going to the people of this region. There have also been powerful movements of the people in this state demanding an end to the exploitation by the Centre and for greater control over their own resources.

Following the footsteps of the British colonialists who brought this region gradually under their control in the 19th century, the rulers of independent India also sought to control and exploit it by playing off the different peoples of the region against one another, and particularly by playing off the hill peoples against the plains peoples and inciting violence against each other. This has been done in the name of “protecting” one people against another. Party politics has also been pressed into service by the Indian ruling class to divide the people and set them off against each other. Whenever the state government of Assam controlled by the same party that ruled at the Centre, it invariably carried out the Centre's bidding openly or covertly. Whenever an opposition party controlled the state government, the Centre tried to intrigue and manoeuvre with all kinds of forces there to ensure that it retained the upper hand.

The various people's movements in Assam have been at the receiving end of this kind of ruthless politics and policies of the Central and state governments. Sometimes they would be the target of ferocious state repression, and at other times, they have been called for “peace talks” and have even received assurances at the highest levels on their demands and grievances. However the net result of this carrot-and-stick approach has been that the aspirations of the peoples have mainly been left unfulfilled, while the movements have suffered from many splits that have complicated the picture and led to escalation in violence. In the name of curbing the rising violence in the region, more and more paramilitary and armed forces have been deployed in all the areas, leading to ever greater insecurity of the people.

As a result, frustration and anger is growing among the peoples of this region. It is very important that they understand the game that the Centre and the major political parties have been playing, and that they wage a united struggle for an end to exploitation and discrimination of all kinds, and for the right of all the peoples to determine their own destiny.