Why news?

The commander-in-chief of the Dimasa National Liberation Army (DNLA) along with 46 cadres laid down their arms in Assam’s Dima Hasao district to join the mainstream.

Background

• The Dimasas are the earliest known rulers and settlers of Assam, and now live in Dima Hasao, Karbi Anglong, Cachar, Hojai and Nagaon districts of central and southern Assam, as well as parts of Nagaland.
• Prior to Ahom rule, the powerful Dimasa kings, believed to be the descendants of the rulers of the ancient Kamarupa kingdom ruled large parts of Assam along the south bank of the Brahmaputra between the 13th and 16th centuries.
• Their earliest historically known capital was Dimapur (now in Nagaland), and later Maibang in North Cachar Hills.
• The demand for statehood began in the 1960, it took a violent turn when a demand for a full-fledged state, ‘Dimaraji’, gathered steam, and led to the formation of the militant Dimasa National Security Force (DNSF) in 1991.
• The group surrendered in 1995, but its commander-in-chief, Jewel Gorlosa, broke away and formed the Dima Halam Daogah (DHD).
• After the DHD began talks with the government in 2003, Gorlosa broke away again and formed the Dima Halam Daogah (Jewel) (DHD-J), with an armed wing called Black Widow.
• Gorlosa was arrested in 2009, signed a ceasefire agreement in 2012, and thereafter joined mainstream politics. Dima Hasao was a hotbed of insurgency in 1994-95 and again in 2003-2009, but has been largely peaceful in the last decade.
• DNLA was the newest group to have taken up arms in Dima Hasao

About the DNLA

• It is a new insurgent group, operating in Dima Hasao and Karbi Anglong districts, and was formed in 2019.
• There slogan was “committed to revamp the national struggle and fight for the liberation of a sovereign, independent Dimasa Nation”.
• It aimed to “develop a sense of brotherhood among the Dimasa and also to rebuild the trust and faith among the Dimasa society for regaining the Dimasa Kingdom”.
• The group had run on a model of ‘extortion and taxation’ and was believed to have drawn its support and sustenance from the NSCN (IM) of Nagaland.

Constitutional safeguard provided to Assam

• The Sixth Schedule of the Constitution — Articles 244(2) and 275(1) — is a special provision that allows for greater political autonomy and decentralized governance in certain tribal areas of the Northeast through autonomous councils that are administered by elected representatives.
• In Assam, the hill districts of Dima Hasao, Karbi Anglong and West Karbi and the Bodo Territorial Region are under this provision.

Other insurgent group in Assam

• The United Liberation Front of Assam was formed in April 1979 to establish a sovereign state of Assam for the indigenous people of Assam through an armed struggle. In recent times the organization has lost its middle rung leaders after most of them were arrested
• The Bodo Liberation Tigers Force fought for autonomy of Bodoland under Prem Singh Brahma. It surrendered with the establishment of Bodoland Territorial Council.
• The National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) was formed in 1986 as the Bodo Security Force, and aims to set up an independent nation of Bodoland
• The Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) is a far-left militant organization based in Northeast India whose objective is to liberate the Kamtapur nation from India

Source: Indian Express, The Hindu.