An Alternative Formulation for Autonomous Councils in Assam

An alternative formulation of a “de-territorialised” autonomy in Assam staying true to the Sixth Schedule, but entailing amendments to the Constitution is proposed. This should address the concerns of minorities, the claims of other ethnicities for their own autonomous councils and indeed reconcile the presence of “differentiations” and ethnic claims in the state. This alternative formulation could help the state adhere to the idea of a truer autonomy and democracy.

Jayanta Krishna Sarmah (jayanta1947@gmail. com) is at the department of political science, Gauhati University, Guwahati, Assam.

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The concept of autonomy initially referred to “self-legislation”, whereby the autonomous individual carried out its will on itself by itself (Schneewind 1997). It has since then also been defined as selfestablished rules, self-determination, selforganisation and containing self-regulating practices particularly vis-à-vis the State and capitalist social, economic and cultural relations. Rawls (1971: 516) also suggested that “acting autonomously is acting from principles that we would consent to as free and equal human beings”.

It is also wrong to suppose that democracy can do without a concept of autonomy altogether. According to Sartori (1987: 315), democracy is the most difficult objective to achieve and also the most vital; an ideal that all human beings desire. Fleming (1995:1) argues that the right of autonomy must be situated within a constitutional constructivism – a guiding framework for constitutional theory with two fundamental themes – deliberative democracy and deliberative autonomy rooted in the language and d esign of the Constitution.

Another important discourse of autonomy involves demands for autonomy from hegemonic relations resulting in colonial domination and developmental dependency. These are characterised, for example, by calls for “defensive localisation”, focusing on preserving locally specific forms of

some local good.

Such definitions considered, autonomy in the north-east of India is perceived mainly in ethnic terms. This results in an inevitable conflict between autonomy and overdependence on the centre because of the lack of an economic base in the various states. Instead of tackling the real issues of isolation and of socioeconomic development, the focus of attention shifts towards the accommodation of competing ethnic claims. At the sametime, demo graphy is the key to understand the dynamics of these movements. Thus, the emphasis on culture and ethnic identity is a response to the demographic number games.

The north-eastern tribal people had been living in isolation autonomously for centuries (Sing 2002: 39). The British inherited and continued the “inner line” policy from the Ahoms, who ruled Assam for 600 years. The Inner Line Regulation, 1873; the Scheduled Districts Act, 1874; the Government of India Act, 1919 and the Government of India Act, 1935 broadly unfold British tribal policy and administrative principles in erstwhile composite A ssam. Assam has been subjected to a process of political fission after Independence to meet the demand of political a utonomy of different ethnic tribes and some structured geographical units.

In order to bring the tribal people into the mainstream of national politics and also for their welfare, a number of provisions are incorporated in the Constitution. Among them, some are specifically formulated for the tribes of north-east India. For example, Article 244(2) of the Constitution provides for a Sixth Schedule for bringing development of the tribes of north-east India only because it was assumed that these tribes have some special problems of their own. The idea behind the Sixth Schedule was to provide the tribal people with a simple a dministrative system of their own, so that they could safeguard their own customs and

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Economic Political Weekly

COMMENTARY

citizenship develops the sense of collective belongingness and equal respect for the “other”. At the same time, a number of rights could be ensured and established, viz, special representation rights, multicultural rights, self-government rights or rights to self-determination, etc.

Autonomy should not be viewed as a tool to govern people of the frontier or p eriphery. It is to be taken as the integral and inherent part of the democratic process. It should not be regarded as a process to deal with extraordinary circumstances, and instead must be taken as a spontaneous flow of political life.

An alternative approach of the de-territorialising of the present autonomous councils is considered necessary, looking at the population mix of the state. By deterritorialising of the autonomous councils, the whole multicultural domain of the state is represented. De-territorialising helps to bring to a standstill the ethnic conflicts based on territorial demand.

By de-territorialising the autonomous councils, any member of a community may feel as an integral part of his or her own community and accordingly of their own autonomous council. Territorial boundaries of the autonomous here will not restrict one to be a part of an autonomous council. For example, one citizen of the Bodo community residing in Karbi Anglong, N C Hills or anywhere in Assam can participate in the process of election and other variety of activities of the Bodo A utonomous Council. Correspondingly, a Karbi citizen residing outside the Karbi Anglong district in Assam will be regarded as the integral part of the Karbi Autonomous Council, which is not possible in the present structure.

De-Territorialising the Councils

In this process of de-territorialising, the present grievances of non-representation of the minority tribes or other communities will end altogether. De-territorialising autonomous councils will pave the way to constitute a number of other autonomous councils for the indigenous ethnic communities. All the very small, small and comparatively large communities could live together preserving their self-identity, equal respect and developing a sense of collective belongingness.

A de-territorialised reconstruction of the autonomous councils in Assam would therefore entail – at the very top, the presence of a supreme council of autonomous councils (SCAC) which would

(a) have equal representation of all the autonomous councils – small or large, two members each; (b) be a permanent body where one-third of the seats are filled up every two years through elections; and (c) be elected for a period of six years by the elected members of the r es pective autonomous councils. The autonomous councils themselves would be comprised of members varying from 20 to 40 depending on the size of the population of the community including the chief executive member and the deputy chief executive member.

In this alternative formulation of nonterritorial autonomous councils in Assam, a number of autonomous councils of equal status will be created. All the ethnic communities will get their councils. The new de-territorialised autonomous councils are to be constituted as an elected body for a period of five years by the adult citizens of the concerned community in A ssam. Polling booths are to be established on the basis of the density of the population of the community, and very small number of population in some area may use the postal ballot.

The chairman and deputy chairman of the supreme council could be elected from amongst the members and by the members for a period of two years. Their power and positions could be determined later on and the SCAC may be placed at par with the legislative council in the present structure.

In this formulation there will be no scope of further division of Assam. Instead, a sense of unity and integrity will flourish, which in turn will help the very process of national integration with strong federal character. Future studies could be made to extend this model to the whole of the north-east India and some other special parts of the country.

References

Fleming, James E (1995): Securing Deliberative Autonomy, Stanford Law Review, Vol 48, No 1, p 1.

Kevin, Morgan, Marsden Terry and Murdoch Jonathan (2006): Worlds of Food: Place, Power and Provenance in Food Chain, Oxford University Press.

Rawls, J (1971): A Theory of Justice (Bellnap: Cambridge).

Sartori, Giovanni (1987): The Theory of Democracy R evisited, 2 vols (Chatham, NJ: Chatham House Publishers).

Schneewind, Jerome B (1997): The Invention of Autonomy: A History of Modern Moral Philosophy

(Cambridge University Press).

Sing, Bhupinder (2002): Autonomy Movements and Federal India (Jaipur and New Delhi: Rawat P ublications).

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