Inter-ethnic relations in Meghalaya

Identity, Deprivation and Demand for Bifurcation of the State of Meghalaya

“…However, in the recent past, the ethnic tensions in the state have shifted to the indigenous tribes. Given that economic insecurity, especially employment opportunities in the public sector, is the primary cause of tension between the majority indigenous communities in Meghalaya, equitable distribution of economic resources would be one giant step towards reducing discontentment in the backward areas of the state such as Garo Hills (Haokip, 2013). Therefore, politicising and polarising the communities based on any sort of criteria, for personal vote stunt opportunities will exacerbate the present crisis of Meghalaya, NER in general.…”

“…These migrants began to dominate business establishments, labour force and other employment opportunities. As a result the state witnessed ethnic riots between indigenous tribals and migrant non-tribal communities in 1979, 1987 and 1992 (Haokip, 2013). Since the eighties numerous cycles of ethnic cleansing incidents rocked the state and people belonging to Nepali, Bengali, Bihari and Marwari communities became the target of the attack.…”

“…Recently, as a part of its effort to regulate alienation of indigenous land, the state government proposed deleting certain Scheduled Tribe (STs) from the existing list of STs in the state, leading to an agitation of the indigenous minorities living in the state (Haokip, 2013). The mute question is-who is being relatively deprived and by whom?…”

Tribal communities and coal in Northeast India: The politics of imposing and resisting mining bans

“…As will be seen in the context of the ban, the Indian Government believes it has the right to prevent-in this case-tribal communities from mining under the Sixth Schedule. In comparison to Nagaland, Meghalaya has not been engaged in long-running armed insurgency against the Indian state, despite sporadic outbreaks of anti-India violence (Haokip, 2014;Karlsson, 2011).…”

Un paysage de noms : génonymes, clans et ethnicités dans l’Inde du Nord-Est

“…Se développa alors le sentiment que la frontière distinguait désormais un « pays Khasi » d'un « pays Karbi ». Les autres populations, comme les Tiwa ou les non-tribaux (Assamais, Bengali, Népali…), ainsi que ceux parmi les Karbi et les Khasi qui se trouvèrent du « mauvais côté » de la frontière, devinrent des minorités, régulièrement stigmatisées, au sein de quasi États-nations.4 On peut comprendre que l'attirance pour un statut tribal privilégié ou 4 Depuis la création du Meghalaya en 1972, des campagnes violentes, touchant davantage les zones urbaines que les régions frontalières elles même, ont régulièrement ciblé les étrangers et les minorités, cf Haokip (2014)…”