Explain the reason for the introduction of the special provisions for North East India.
Answers
The Indian Constitution is a set of documents that provides a blueprint on how to govern a country with 1.2 billion providing uniform law all over the country. However, considering the size of the country and the population there are bound to key cultural differences among various people.
This is why the Indian Constitution has what they call 'Special Provisions' for certain areas of the countries which are there to protect local cultures, identities, traditions, including local economic and political interests.
These special provisions cover many regions in the country including the contested region of Jammu and Kashmir, which is a hotly debated and highly militarized region.
Apart from Jammu and Kashmir, the tribal hill of the Norther-Eastern states of the country which include, Manipur, Assam, Nagaland, Tripura, and even the large state of Aranachul Pradesh.
The Government of India, based in Delhi, took these intitiatives early on in order to better strengthen India, develop a sense of national unity and improve ties of these far-flung regions with Delhi.
For example, many such states were actually independent countries when the British left, some States like Nagaland were forcibly captured by the Indian Army, and has been a source of Headache as it has experienced significant rebel and tribal warfare with a separatist movement going on fighting against the Indian Government.
The same has been observed in Manipur where the government initiated such Constitution reforms to provide more political power to the leaders of the States but even to date there is a small separatist movement present in the area with an Indian Army presence.
Let's also look at the State of Aranachul pradesh which is a hotly contested area between India and China but is currently being administered by India. Hence, the government, in order to develop strong bonds of the region with Delhi, has ensured that the people are given significant socioeconomic and political freedom to run their own affairs.
Efforts of Delhi, in this regard have been extremely successful where the majority of the population of this state has been integrated into the wider political and economic spectrum of India and proudly call themselves Indians. There is no seperatist movement in the State and no connections with the State of China even though it shares a border with it.
It has to be noted that the people living in these are primarily different from North Western and South Indians, in terms of language, customs, traditions, religion, history and even physical looks.
They do not have Dravidian features of the Tamils neither do they have the Aryan features of the Kashmirs, instead many of them look like Chinese, Mongols and some even share features with Pygmies. Many tribes live in thick dense forests and hardly enjoy the benefits of the city life.
Apart from these Norther-Eastern States, there are many other areas, termed 'Scheduled Areas', these are small tribal areas found in the States of Bihar, Orrisa, Himachal Pradesh, Gujrat, Rajistan etc.
There are further regions classified as Special Category States (SCS) but they do not have any special provisions in the constitution