Quandary in Tripura

R K Debbarma’s article “Where To Be Left Is No Longer Dissidence: A Reading of Left Politics in Tripura” (EPW, 27 May 2017) raises important questions albeit in a rather biased manner. The important question of Tripuri ethno-national identity, inevitable as the Tripuri masses come to self-consciousness in the course of their development, may no longer be ignored by the left in Tripura. But it is perhaps a simplification to regard the left as complicit in the Bengali chauvinist oppression of Tripuris.

Prior to the ascendance of the left, the Congress-led governments had completely ignored the interests and the rights of the indigenous Tripuri people. It is under the left government that autonomous councils were formed and the land under them was treated as inalienable. In recent times, the left government also took steps to recover such land from the clutches of Bengalis who had seized it illegally. Further, the left did make serious efforts to improve their lot, for instance, in healthcare and education. The Tripuri language Kokborok was given its present script under the auspices of the left regime.