TIPRALAND

1. Context

2. What is Greater Tipraland?

• Greater Tipraland includes the region under the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) and 36 villages out of it, within the Tripura State boundaries.
• Tipra Motha demands that this area be carved out as a state or union territory.
• It is essentially an extension of the ruling tribal partner Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura- I PFT's demand of Tipraland, which sought a separate state for the tribals of Tripura.
• The new demand seeks to include every tribal person living in an indigenous area or village outside the Tripura Areas Autonomous District Council (TAADC) under the proposed model.
• The idea doesn't restrict to simply the Tripura tribal council areas but seeks to include 'Tipsara' of Tripuris spread across different states of India like Assam, Mizoram, etc. as well, even those living in Bandarban, Chittagong, Khagrachari, and other bordering areas of neighboring Bangladesh.

3. Reasons for the Demand

• The TTADC receives two percent of the state budget while it has 40% of the state's population.
• The call for Greater Tipraland arose due to unfulfilled demands of revising the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Tripura and opposition to CAA in the past.
• Tripura saw turbulent violent struggles by different outlawed insurgent outfits like the Tripura National Volunteers (TNV), United Bengali Liberation Front (UBLF), National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF), etc. - all demanding self-determination and sovereignty, albeit on different ethnic and community lines.

4. Does parliament have the power to create new states?

• Parliament derives powers to create a new state from Article 2 and Article 3 of the Constitution of India.
• Article 2- Parliament may by law admit into the union, or establish, new states on such terms and conditions as it thinks fit. States like Sikkim (previously not within India) became a part of the country under Article 2.
• Article 3- It empowered the Parliament to make laws related to the formation of new states and the alteration of existing states.

5. What is the genesis of the demand?

• Tripura was a kingdom ruled by the Manikya dynasty from the late 13th century until the signing of the Instrument of Accession with the Indian government in 1949.
• The demand stems from the anxiety of the indigenous communities in connection with the change in the demographics of the state, which has reduced them to a minority.
• It happened due to the displacement of Bengalis from erstwhile East Pakistan between 1947 and 1971.
• From 63.77% in 1881, the population of the tribals in Tripura was down to 31.80% by 2011.
• In the intervening decades, ethnic conflict and insurgency gripped the state, which shares a nearly 860-km-long boundary with Bangladesh.

6. How has this affected Tripura?

• It seems to have considerably polarised an already uneasy relationship between the tribals and the non-tribals since the State emerged from the days of armed insurgency.
• The TIPRA Motha put up a massive roadshow in November which is being hailed as one of the largest political mobilizations of tribals in the State.

For Prelims & Mains