Hill Area Committee (HAC) of Manipur Legislative Assembly : An assessment
- Part 1 -

Prof Gangmumei Kamei *

Manipur Legislative Assembly Building :: Pix - TSE

Manipur is a multi-ethnic state of which the tribal constitute 32 percent of her population. At the time of granting statehood to Manipur in 1972, the Indian Parliament provided the Hill Area Committee of the Manipur Legislative Assembly to provide legislative protection to the interest of the hill areas.

A rapid appraisal of the working of the Hill Area Committee (HAC) during the last 40 years has unfortunately shown that it has failed to act as an effective committee, to protect the interest of the hill people. A brief assessment of the working of the HACs is given below:

1) "Tribal Area" and "Hill Area" under the Indian Constitution and the Loss of Manipur

The Fifth Schedule and Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of the India provide the mechanism for the administration of the Scheduled Tribes and they refer to two areas. One is called the Tribal Areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and some selected areas of Mizoram under the Sixth Schedule. The tribal areas of Manipur are included in the Schedule Areas but not covered by the Tribal Areas of the Sixth Schedule.

Article 371 (C) of the India Constitution provides a special provision for the legislation and the administration of the hill areas of Manipur in the form of Hill Area Committee. According to the Manipur Legislative Assembly (Hill Area Committee) Order 1972, "the Hill Areas" mean the areas specified in the First Schedule of the Order. The First Schedule mentions the hill districts and sub-divisions therein created by the Government of Manipur from time to time as the Hill Areas. The term Hill Areas has a historical background. During the colonial period, "The Hill Tribes" was used under the Rules for the Management of Hill Tribes, 1935.

This rule was the application of Chin Hills Regulation of 1896 in spirit but not in letters. At the time of India's independence, the term "Hill Tribe" was substituted by the term "Hill People" in the Manipur Hill People's Regulation, 1947 and the Manipur State Constitution Act, 1947. Even in the composition of the 53 Member Assembly, 18 seats were reserved for the hill areas. After the Merger of Manipur to the Dominion of India as per the Order of the President of India in 1950, the term Schedule Tribes was used to mean any Naga, any Kuki and any Lushai tribes.

The Schedule Tribes were fragmented to 29 tribes in 1956 and 33 in 2003. In the Parliament (1952), Territorial Council (1957), Territorial Assembly (1963) and State Assembly (1972) seats were reserved for Scheduled Tribes. However, the Government of India or the State Government stick to the term "Hill Areas" in the legislation like Manipur Hill Areas Village Authorities Act, 1956, the Manipur Land Revenues and Land Reform Act, 1960, the Manipur Hill Areas Councils Act, 1971 or the Manipur Hill Areas Autonomous District Council, 2000 (since repealed in 2006).

Crucial to this issue of Hills Areas or Tribal Areas is the population who are the tribal people or the Scheduled Tribes. The tribal people populate the Area…, therefore, it is appropriate to adopt the term, "Tribal Area" in the administration of district or subdivision inhabited by the Scheduled Tribe population.

2) Evolution of Administration in Tribal Areas

i) The Traditional Tribal Polity

Prof Gangmumei Kamei (Ethnicity and Social Change, 2007, page 174) writes, "The tribal people of Manipur, both the Nagas and the Kuki-Chins had developed their own polity. However, their polity did not grow beyond the village level. They did not develop into tribe level polity formation. Therefore, the village is the autonomous political, social, economic and cultural entity. There are two kinds of polity.

Among the Nagas, there is a sort of democratic type of political system, which was described by colonial writer as "small republics". Among the Kuki-Chins, the chieftainship is the main political system. The rulers of Manipur recognized this traditional polity during the pre-colonial period.

During the British rule, the polity formation was adopted as a unit of regular administration. In the post-independence period, the laws of Manipur diluted the traditional polity but the people themselves still continue to profess their customs and tradition which form the core of their polity.

The traditional polity has a clear cut boundary of the village; there was a well-regulated land ownership system, a judicial system and other social institutions based on customary laws. The land ownership includes the community land, clan land and individual land among the Nagas. There is the chief's ownership of land among the Kuki-Chins.

The traditional polity has eroded due to the Indian legislations relating to crime, forest and revenue and with the emergence of private property in the tribal society. The tribal customary laws are very powerful guiding principles in the perpetuation of the polity in tribal villages."

It has been observed that throughout the pre-colonial period the traditional tribal polity either of the Nagas or the Kuki-Chins continued to be form of administration. The Meitei monarchy or the State did not interfere and the villages were autonomous political entities which were outside the jurisdiction of the administration of the State of Manipur except in the villages along the trade routes.

ii) Tribes under the Colonial Rule

After the British conquest of Manipur in 1891, the Hill Areas came under the rule of the British Political Agent who acted on behalf of minor Raja Churachand Singh. The British introduced the system of indirect rule. Under this system, the British did not rule the hill tribes directly. They did not interfere in the internal affairs of the tribal villages. They introduced the Hill House Tax of Rs 3 per household per year. They made the chiefs or the headmen of the villages responsible for the administration of the villages.

Though Raja Churachand Singh was handed over the administration of the State of Manipur, his jurisdiction was confined to the valley and he was not allowed to administer in hill areas. In 1913, a British ICS officer was appointed as the President of the Manipur State Durbar and he was entrusted in his discretion to look after the hill areas.

Therefore, the President of the Manipur State Durbar (PMSD) was the most important colonial officer to look after the hill areas. The British created hill sub-divisions after the Kuki Rebellion (1917-1919). The British Government ultimately framed the Rules for Management of Hill Tribes in 1945. During the Second World War, Manipur became a battle field between the invading Japanese forces and the Allied Forces (1942-1944) and the administration in the hills collapsed.

After the war, there was a spontaneous growth of political consciousness among the people of Manipur including the hill people. Due to public pressure, the Maharaja of Manipur introduced two important legislations, namely, the Manipur State Constitution Act and the Manipur Hill People's Regulation in 1947.

To be continued..