The recent eviction drive by the Govt. of Assam to clear 11,000 bigha of land is a bold step undertaken under CM Himanta Biswa Sarma not ignoring the involvement of religious politics and loopholes it had but certainly such a step was needed to tackle the issue of influx of illegal immigrants. The govt. of Assam and people should take care that the genuine Tribal indigenous people of the state are not denied justice. There must be a post-eviction examination process to review, access and give a door for the grievance of the genuine citizens irrespective of religious belief and affiliation. Hope the govt. of Nagaland would learn from these moves and take measures to combat the illegal immigrants issue in the state. The only govt. that tried to deport the illegal immigrant was undertaken under the Dr. S.C Jamir govt. though it was unsuccessful but at least the govt. tried to stop the influx of illegal immigrants. But in the present context, govt. seems to be doing nothing concrete to deport these immigrants once and forever.
As per Assam Accord, the illegal immigrant who entered Assam after 24 March 1971 has to be deported but sadly even after detecting almost 2.6 lakh of illegal immigrants in Assam post 1971 war it could not be able to deport due to appeasement politics and vote bank politics. After the partition, the influx of immigrants increased particularly from East Pakistan. By 1961, Assam had rehabilitated almost 16.4 lakh population. The East Pakistan Liberation War 1971 had led to an increase in population percentage in almost all the Northeastern states.
The population of Bangladesh in 1970 was around 76 million that reduced to around 70 million post 1971 Bangladesh war, the reason of this decrease owe to two factor- immortality rate during War and population displacement due to inhuman torture meted out to the civilians by the Pakistani army and Northeast became the best destination for these illegal immigrants. The unchecked on this influx is the cause and reason of the burnt the Tribal population are facing today.
The Northeastern state saw an increase from 104 lakh illegal immigrants in 1951 to approx… 200 lakh in 1971 (20 million) and an explosion to almost 456 lakhs by 2011 (40.5 millions) Assam alone saw a jump from 80.3 lakh in 1951 to 311.7 lakh in 2011, nearly 400 % increase. Similarly Nagaland saw an increased population growth of nearly 900 percent, From 02.2 lakh in 1951 to 19.8 lakh in 2011. One of the main reasons that fueled the explosion of the miya population is the uncontrolled birth rate. A normal number of any miya laborer household, the minimum children in a family would be 4-5, the number of children range between 4-10 in a family. This may be because of the preference of land owner for the farm cultivation requires the family with enough manpower to do agricultural farming works and therefore to do farming, the more number a family has, the more advantages it had to acquire agricultural land since manual labour is the primary option of livelihood in the initial years for these immigrants that would provide land house and protection from its land owner, education becomes the secondary but over a period of time. The children of these farmer had moved into business sector and thus in many parts of Dimapur the farmland are left uncultivated due to the shortage of agricultural labourer and thus the land owner lost its negotiating power over the land and its resources and the quantity of paddy rice to be given to the owner are negotiated on the basis of farmer agreement will or else the farmer give threat of leaving the field, due to shortage and need to cultivated the farm. The agricultural owner succumbed to the dictate of the farmers while some found a replacement for fresh immigrants. In the earlier years, they engage into agricultural activities and once they become familiar with the local areas, they shift to business. The Naga economy today is in the hands of the outsiders that include both domestic migrants and illegal immigrants.
Assam saw an increase of Muslim population from 24 % in 1871 to 35 % by 2011. As per data from 2011 census almost 60 % of Bangladesh population live Below Poverty line and almost 25% of Bangladeshi population are displaced every year. Assam and Tripura bore the brunt of illegal immigrants, Tripura is a gone case and Assam, Nagaland and Arunachal states are in the pipeline to be the heaven for illegal immigrants. Various civil bodies as CSO, DNSU, WSYF, NSF, Tribal and students bodies has issued an advisory at the local level on the influx of illegal immigrants. As per the sources around 24-25 July, around 300 vehicles entering Nagaland were intercepted by the authorities.
DC Dimapur and DC Chumoukedima has also issued an advisory to the people on the influx of illegal immigrants. It is now the responsibility of both the govt. and civil societies to work hand in glove to protect the land from the influx of illegal immigrants by implementing ILP.
Now what is ILP- ILP simply means Inner Line Permit, a pass legalizing to enter the state, ILP is applied not only in Nagaland but in other Northeastern states as Arunachal Pradesh. There is a confusion with the common people why Northeast people can go to Delhi ,Mumbai and other states freely but why people from other states have to get ILP when they enter North eastern states. In order to find an answer, we need to understand History. Every state has evolved out of a certain socio-political arrangement and it is the responsibility of the central govt. to honor, safeguard and protect that agreement, as such Nagaland also has its historical evolution. Nagaland has its past and has different issues as the rest of other states have their own unique issues and problems to tackle with. Naga Sovereignty and the ILP are some of two unique issues Nagas and Nagaland have been dealing with over the years. It must be clear to everyone that the Nagas were the first in the Northeastern states and even among the tribals to assert its status of Independence post- India Independence in 1947 fighting for separate Naga Nation.
The resistance movement of the Nagas started not post India independence but it goes beyond hundreds of years and centuries since the Ahom intrusion into the Naga territories in the Patkai hills in around early 13th century of the then eastern hills of present Arunachal Pradesh of Changlang Tirap Longding inhabited by the Naga tribes of Wancho, Tangsa, Tutsa, Nocte tribes. These Naga tribes fought back the intrusion of outsiders but were defeated due to superiority of the weapons of the Tai Ahom forces, however the Nagas never surrender and constant conflict continues and battle was fought over the century when their sovereignty were challenged by the Ahom kings to live freely from the outsider control, the significant development was that Ahom never tries to control the Nagas but rather developed a friendly relationship and Nagas live independently over the centuries of 600 years of Ahom kingdom in Assam.
When the Indian princely states, princes and kings were against the British Colonization, the Naga at the same time were fighting against the British intrusion into the Naga Hills, As INC negotiate with the British for India Independence, The Nagas were negotiating for Naga Independence through the years between 1918-1946 and thus when British left Naga Hills, the Nagas declared Naga Independence on 14th August 1947.
The British left the Naga Hills with an unsettled Naga issue without the transfer of power to Nagas and India post-independence forcefully occupied the Naga Hills against and without the consent of the Naga people, that led to the years of Indo-Naga conflicts from 1954-1957. So in order to bring a Peace, a peace initiative began and there was an agreement between the Naga civil leaders and the Indian govt. (but to an exclusion of the Revolutionary groups as Naga National Council). As a result this peace initiative led to the development of 16th Point agreement under Naga Peoples Convention held in between 1957-1960 and the Govt. of India accepted the proposal of 16th point demanded by the Naga Civil body under Naga People’s Convention.
The Naga civil body demanded that the Nagas will only become a part of India if 16 point agreements are granted; the Inner Line Permit was also one point of demand in the agreement. Consequently, India agreed and accepted the 16 point demand of the Nagas.
ILP was thus come to be implemented in Nagaland state post statehood in 1963. However, one must remember that ILP was already in application in Naga Hills during the British administration from 1873 under Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation Act, where Inner Line Permit system was enforced in various hills districts to protect the Tribal culture and tradition of Northeast hill tribes. The British were well aware that if Naga Hills were left freely open to outsiders, the Naga Hills would be infiltrated by the outsiders since the Naga population at that time in 19th century was below 1 lakh population, when Nagas submitted the Memorandum on Naga Independence in 1929 to Sir John Simon.
The population was just around 1 lakh 2 thousand only. The British were well aware that if outsiders started pouring into the Naga Hills, The Naga would rise in rebellion against the British govt. to protect its hills from outsider intrusion as Nagas were totally against the intrusion of outsiders into their territory.
The population of Nagas in 1947 was just below 2 lakh and it was clear that Nagas would become a minority over time. ILP was an administrative system to identify and regulate the illegal immigrants from the local domestic population; it is appreciable on the part of the British govt. as when ILP under BEFRA and Chin Act regulation started to be implemented, it did not even allow the British officer to enter Naga Hills without the possession of ILP and in this way protected the Nagas from the influx of illegal immigrants.
Over a period, post India independence, there was an explosion of outsiders in Nagaland after the formation of statehood in 1963. The influx of Illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, then East Pakistan began in the Northeast after the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. Millions of refugees were dumped in Northeastern states and Nagaland was also in the list but the Naga National Council staunchly protested and rejected the proposal of dumping illegal immigrants in Naga Hills. As per 2011 census, the legal Indian Muslim population in Nagaland was around 49 thousands but the ground reality does not seem to be so. So if the legal Muslim citizen is just 49 thousand then who are those surplus bogus populations? Where did they come from? This is a big question to ponder and needs to be answered by the govt. of the day. There were only Nagas in Naga Hills, only the Naga tribes inhabit the territory of Nagas Hills. So if these outsiders are not to be called illegal immigrants then what should it be called?
As the 2021 census is still under process that may probably come only in 2031, so while the 20 years census data are under process, what are the alternative data? All the bogus population should be identified and be deported back to its origin or Should Nagas and Nagaland govt. wait till the next census to identify the illegal immigrants? Certainly these figures would increase by the time the official census data comes out in 2031. Ironic that in August 2024, the Nagaland Deputy CM Patton stated that there was no report of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in Nagaland in the NLA session in response to MLA Achumbemo raising concern on the influx of illegal immigrants in Nagaland in the year 2024. NSCN had once reported the data, that there are about 3 lakhs illegal immigrants in Dimapur. Now, after detecting, what are the Naga revolutionaries doing to tackle the issue? Just to identify, detect and impose tax and leave as it is? What are they going to do to protect the homeland of the Nagas?
The interstate transport and railway connectivity and poor administrative mechanism of checking has further made it easily accessible to different parts of the state that open a door to influx of illegal immigrants. The govt. of Nagaland has to monitor the railway, transportation station, different entry and exit. Many times, these passengers get down on the way and take a short road exit to penetrate inside the state. Without a proper fencing or boundary wall and intensive checking. It becomes easy for the immigrants to creep into the state and thus the local area bodies, land owners must also play a role in identifying the presence of outsiders in their locality and report to the administration. Illegal immigration has become a major issue in the Northeast so all legal citizens of India should cooperate in these efforts to tackle the identifying effort of the govt.
There is no threat for any legal migrant’s Indian citizen, the legal Indian can simply obtain the ILP that gives them legitimacy to reside and transact their business. If they are resisting, they are either unaware of the historical roots of the Nagas or they are one of illegal immigrants that are trying to infuse propaganda in the name of politics or people from whatsapp university.
If anybody wants to reside in Nagaland and truly care for the welfare of the state of Nagaland, they must respect the historical agreement, culture, tradition of the Nagas and assist in establishing a secure future for the future generations from these illegal immigrants, if they cannot support Nagas in their effort to secure the lands of the Nagas, they must first know its history, agreement and even after knowing, it remain a polluted mind then they are simply a snakes that must be trampled and deported to its state of origin.
The tribal indigenous of Northeast states must work together in curbing the influx of illegal immigrants in freeing Northeast from the illegal occupation of hill states, otherwise the rest of the Northeast will follow the footstep of Tripura.
Whatever problems between the tribal in the interstate boundaries can be resolved amicably among the tribals of the Hills. As some Bangladeshi leaders have already given an open statement that Bangladeshi will rule over the Northeast, in the meanwhile, people have also started demanding a miyaland for 1.4 crore miya on the other hand, a demand for the miya autonomous council in Assam has also started. Northeast people must remember that realities are born out of vision. If proper precautions are not taken, the vision may come true one day. Illegal immigrants are a time bomb for Nagaland and Northeast.
Kuknalim.
Hokato Awomi
Activist/Asst. Professor
Wednesday, August 6, 2025