Separatist movements of India

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There are various separatist movements in India, mainly in the north-east and north-west of the country. There
have been 8 secessionist movements namely Khalistan, Assam [1][unreliable source?], Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram,
Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. The most high profile separatist actions have been in Kashmir,
with the assumption that the Muslim majority Kashmir Valley would join Pakistan or become independent, but
that Hindu majority Jammu and Buddhist majority Ladakh would stay in India.[original research?]

Contents
[hide]

• 1 History

• 2 North East India

○ 2.1 Greater

Assam

○ 2.2 Bodolan

○ 2.3 Tripura

○ 2.4 Arunac

hal Pradesh

○ 2.5 Nagalan

• 3 Khalistan

• 4 See also
 • 5 References

• 6 Further reading

• 7 External links

[ edit]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.

[ edit]North East India

Main article: Insurgency in North-East India

[edit]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 Assampassed 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language compulsory; It had to be withdrawn later under pressure from Bengali speaking people in Cachar.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 [2] triggered by the discovery of a sudden rise
in registered voters on electoral rolls.
Assam till 1950s; The new states ofNagaland, Meghalaya and Mizoramformed in the 1960-70s. The capital of Assam was
shifted from Shillong toDispur, 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) [2]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[3]. So therefore, Assam
possesses a uniquegeomorphic 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,[4] 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".[5]

ULFA claims to have been founded at the site of Rang Ghar on April 7, 1979,[4] 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.[6]

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)

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.[7] It is alleged that MULTA is supported
by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.

[edit]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 andArunachal 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 sovereignBodoland for the Bodo
people in Assam. The founder of the organization, Ransaigra Nabla Daimari, alias Ranjan Daimari, continues
to lead the organization.[4]

[edit]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.[8]. The NLFT, founded in 1989, aims for
independence for Tripura. The NLFT is currently proscribed as a terrorist organization in India.

[edit]Arunachal Pradesh
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 an
independent state resembling the pre-British Teola Country consisting of area currently in Arunachal Pradesh
as well as neighboring Assam.

[edit]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.

[ edit]Khalistan
Main article: Khalistan movement

Khalistan Khālistān (Punjabi: ਖਾਿਲਸਤਾਨ) 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 Sikhstate in all Punjabi-
speaking areas, which include Indian Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and some other Punjabi speaking
parts of states like Gujarat and Rajasthan..[9]

[ edit]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

 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

[ edit]References
1. ^ http://www.assamtimes.org/blog/3283.html

2. ^ a b Hazarika 2003

3. ^ Wandrey 2004 p3–8

4. ^ a b c United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) - Terrorist Group of Assam

5. ^ Country Reports on Terrorism, 2006

6. ^ Five killed in Assam bomb blasts - Dawn

7. ^ "Muslim United Liberation Tigers of Assam (MULTA)". South Asia Terrorism

Portal. Retrieved 2009-08-14.

8. ^ http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/topic,463af2212,469f2ddf2,469f3a9453,0.htm
l

9. ^ "Sikh separatists 'funded from UK'". BBC. 2008-03-04. Retrieved 2008-08-

28.

[ edit]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.

[ edit]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.[1]

 Parvinder Singh. 1984 Sikhs' Kristallnacht. 28-page report, 2009. [2]

 The Kashmir Dispute

 The Sikh separatist movement and the Indian state: A retrospect

Categories: Secession in India

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