Articles by Udayon Misra

The violence in August on the border of the Naga Hills that left 17 people dead, scores injured and over 200 houses burnt has its roots in the colonial period. But a solution to this long-standing dispute over land lies not in the realm of constitutional borders or assertion of historical claims to "ancestral land", but in mutual give and take.

The major protests in Guwahati on 22 June against the Government of Assam's attempts to evict settlers on the hills around the city reflect a much wider and deeper sense of insecurity amongst the masses arising out of land alienation in the region. The Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti, led by activist Akhil Gogoi, has emerged in the past few years as a major plank of mass protest. The KMSS has added a completely new dimension to the politics of protest in the state, but can the organisation translate the mass support into an alternative political platform?

In the last three decades the United Liberation Front of Asom has followed a trajectory which has taken it away from its stated goal, alienated it from the masses and pushed it increasingly into the groove of terrorism sans an ideology. It began in April 1979 as an organisation committed to ending "Indian colonial rule" and, unlike other such outfits, succeeded in drawing its cadres from all segments of the population. At one time ULFA symbolised, for many in Assam, a point of resistance to Indian hegemony. But the extortions, killings, bomb blasts, targeting of civilians and of migrant workers from north Indian states, led to erosion of whatever support and sympathy it enjoyed. Today the outfit is on the defensive mode.

The adivasi struggle for scheduled tribe status in Assam is part of a wider struggle of identity assertion - a search for cultural roots and heritage.

With the Congress returning to power at the head of a coalition government, political equations will take a new turn in Assam. To retain its minority support base, the Congress will have to reach out to the Assam United Democratic Front, as well as find ways to assuage the increased ambitions of diverse organisations such as the Bodo Progressive People's Front, claiming to represent the interests of narrow identity groups. Concomitantly, the question of who "truly" represents the 'Asomiya' - groups such as the ULFA, the AGP or even the BJP - will continue to simmer and influence the course of politics in the state.