This Indian state paid the price for open-door migration policy

Having been marginalised in their own land, the Tripuris now know that the Citizenship Amendment Act has the power to be the final nail in their coffin.

By Rituraj Borkakoty (Voice of Reason)

  • Follow us on
  • google-news
  • whatsapp
  • telegram

Published: Sun 12 Jan 2020, 9:33 PM

Last updated: Sun 12 Jan 2020, 11:34 PM

At a time when half of India is up in arms against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act, Tripura, the tiny state at the foot of the northeast region of the country from which the revolutionary fire first started and killed ethnic Tripuris, has been forgotten.
No one is discussing why and how this unprecedented protest in India started from the country's most neglected state - a state of four million people that now only makes national headlines because of one man: Biplab Kumar Deb, the current chief minister of the state, representing the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Deb, a former gym instructor, is now a big box office for the Indian media houses that love his bizarre statements like how 'modern-day internet existed during the time of Mahabharata (an Indian epic)' and how he would chop off the nails of anyone that dared to criticise his government.
But the same media houses fail to ask the big question: why the 1.2 million ethnic Tripuris dared to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Bill.
Well, it's not expected from the country's news anchors many of who would scratch their heads if you ask them the capital of Tripura.
There is a general lack of knowledge about the state and the region. Many would be surprised to know that SD Burman, India's most revered music composer, was not a Bengali. Burman belonged to the royal family of Tripura, and had moved to Bombay to chase his musical dreams in 1940s - a time when the demography of Tripura was beginning to change. This change eventually crippled the ethnic Tripuris in their own land.
When Bengal was in the grip of its worst famine in 1943, it melted the heart of the head of Tripura's royal family and he opened the doors of the state to scores of Bengalis to settle in Tripura so they could escape death.
But few could have imagined then that it was the beginning of the end of ethnic Tripuris in their own land. The Bengali migration from East Pakistan never stopped as it eventually outnumbered the locals and took away all their rights.
Having been marginalised in their own land, the Tripuris now know that the Citizenship Amendment Act has the power to be the final nail in their coffin.
Fearing the worst, Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barma, son of the last king of Tripura - Kirit Bikram Kishore Deb Barman - is now leading the Tripuris' fight against the CAA.
"Today, we, the ethnic Tripuris are a minority in our own land. See, language is one of the main bases of your identity. Today, the indigenous language has been relegated to the second position. All forms of government, bureaucracy, judiciary, MLAs, ministers are occupied by people who came from the East Pakistan," Deb Barma told me over phone.
"In 70 years, we never had an indigenous chief minister barring Dasarath Deb who ruled for three-four years. Even names of the roads have been changed. A cultural impact had taken place. If you want to see a complete isolation and change of demography for indigenous people, then Tripura is a classic example. This is what happens when the government of India decides to do vote-bank politics and finish off a community ethnically, linguistically and culturally."
It was Deb Barma's father who signed the instrument of accession as Tripura became a part of India in 1949. Certain constitutional guarantees were given to Tripura when the agreement was signed. Deb Barma is using those promises as a tool to fight against CAA in the Supreme Court.
Looking back, one wonders what if the Bengal famine, which resulted in three million deaths, had never happened.
"You know they were allowed to enter Tripura as refugees when the famine happened," Deb Barma said matter-of-factly.
"But today those people tell me not to enter their areas. There is a place called Kanchanpur which was named after my grandmother, Kanchan Prava Devi. She allowed these people to live there. Today, I am told that if I enter Kanchanpur, they will lynch me. They can do that. That's the plight of our people now."
And that's the grim reality India's national media never even cares to highlight or talk about.
- rituraj@khaleejtimes.com


More news from