Arunachal Pradesh

Arunachal Pradesh, known as the "Land of the Dawn-Lit Mountains," has a rich cultural heritage and biodiversity. During British colonial rule, it was referred to as the North East Frontier Tract (NEFT). The region was governed by the neighboring state of Assam and classified as "excluded," meaning it was largely untouched by direct colonial administration.

With more than 110 distinct tribes living in Arunachal Pradesh, each with its customs and dialects, the state is home to an incredible cultural mosaic. The territory's path towards self-governance began with India's independence and was characterized by significant events that acknowledged the power of local tribal councils and attempted to include the region in the greater Indian Union.

The NEFT shared borders with Bhutan, Myanmar (partially undefined), and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China (now known as the McMahon Line). Internally, the region constituted numerous frontier tracts, namely the Balipara Frontier Tract, the Sadiya Frontier Tract, the Lakhimpur Frontier Tract, and the Tirap Frontier Tract.  In 1945, the British Governor passed a regulation to officially recognize the traditional tribal village councils as the authorities to self-govern and administer justice in NEFT.

Post-independence, the Bordoloi Committee recommended merging the Lakhimpur Frontier Tract and parts of the Tirap Frontier Tract with the regularly administered areas of Assam because of the similarity of their characteristics with the plains. When India adopted its Constitution on 26 January 1950, NEFT became ‘a separate politico-administrative entity’ although it was constitutionally still a part of Assam.

After Assam blocked a plan in 1953 to appoint a special commissioner to administer the area, a full-scale administration was inaugurated in 1954 with the North-East Frontier Areas (Administration) Regulation. NEFT was renamed as North East Frontier Agency (NEFA). 

Meanwhile, the Naga National Council demanded a single administrative unit comprising the Naga Hills district of Assam and the Tuensang Frontier Division of NEFA. PM Nehru accepted this demand and on 1 December 1957, the Naga Hills–Tuensang Area came into being as a new administrative unit in the state of Assam but under the direct control of the Ministry of External Affairs.

In 1962, due to the Chinese aggression, NEFA witnessed a shift in policy with an increasing focus on strengthening traditional village councils. Then Governor of Assam, constituted a four-member committee chaired by Daying Ering (an MP from NEFA) to explore the feasibility of democratic decentralization in NEFA.

The Ering Committee recommended the four tiers of representative bodies in NEFA, modeled along the lines of the Panchayati Raj style of democratic decentralization recommended for the rest of India by the Balwant Rai Mehta Committee. In a way, this was the precursor to the 73rd Constitutional Amendment implemented in the rest of the country in 1992. In 1967, Parliament passed the North-East Frontier Agency Panchayati Raj Regulation, incorporating most of the Ering Committee recommendations. NEFA was also moved under the care of the Ministry of Home Affairs. The regulation came into effect on 2 October 1968. As a result, NEFA got a territorial identity for the first time. Its extraordinary diversity, with 110 tribes that migrated centuries ago from Tibet and Burma made it distinct from Assam.

NEFA’s territorial identity was further strengthened on 30 December 1971 when Parliament passed the North-Eastern Areas (Reorganisation) Act. On 21 January 1972, NEFA, formerly NEFT, began its new identity as the union territory of Arunachal Pradesh.

On 24 December 1986, Parliament passed the State of Arunachal Pradesh Act. The Act came into effect on 20 February 1987. Arunachal Pradesh was reconstituted from a union territory to a state.

Sources:

• Administrative Atlas of India (2011). Origin Story of India’s States - Venkata Raghavan Subha Srinivasan (2020).

• We the People of the States of Bharat - Sanjeev Chopra (2022).