Insurgency in the North East

The first principle

The North East is joined to the rest of India by a strip of land only about 20 kilometres wide, and almost all of its boundary is with other countries. Its many communities, each with its own land, language and history, came into the Indian Union with fears of being swamped by outsiders and ruled from far away. Insurgency there has always been a demand about identity, land and autonomy carried by armed groups that could find shelter across a porous border, so it has been settled mostly by political accords, while force has only created the space for talks.

The core

The roots

• Geography and isolation. Partition cut the region's old routes to the sea through Chittagong and left it linked to the mainland only through the Siliguri corridor in north Bengal, while hills and poor roads kept markets small and the state thin on the ground.
• Identity and land. The British kept the hill communities apart through the Inner Line of the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation 1873 and the excluded areas of the Government of India Act 1935, and after 1947 many feared losing land and culture to migrants and a distant majority.
• Migration. Large scale migration into Assam and Tripura changed the demographic balance and fed movements against outsiders, above all the Assam movement of 1979 to 1985.
• A porous border. The 1,643 kilometre border with Myanmar runs through forested hills, with the same communities living on both sides, so armed groups could set up camps and buy weapons across it.

The main insurgencies

• Naga. The Naga National Council led by A Z Phizo declared independence on 14 August 1947 and took up arms in the 1950s. Nagaland became a State in 1963 and a faction accepted the Constitution in the Shillong Accord of 1975, but those who rejected it formed the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) in 1980. The NSCN (Isak Muivah) has observed a ceasefire since 1997 and signed a Framework Agreement with the Union on 3 August 2015, but a final settlement has stalled, largely over its demand for a separate Naga flag and constitution.
• Mizo. After the bamboo flowering famine of 1959 left the Mizo hills feeling neglected, the Mizo National Front led by Laldenga rose in revolt in 1966. The Mizo Accord of 30 June 1986 brought its leaders into elected government, and Mizoram, a State from February 1987, has stayed peaceful ever since.
• Assam. The Assam Accord of 15 August 1985 ended the agitation against illegal migration and set 24 March 1971 as the cut off date for detecting foreigners. The United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), formed in 1979, fought for a sovereign Assam; Bhutan's Operation All Clear of December 2003 destroyed its camps there, and the faction in talks signed a settlement in December 2023. The Bodo movement for a separate homeland ended through accords in 1993, 2003 and 2020, the last creating the Bodoland Territorial Region.
• Manipur and Tripura. Valley based groups in Manipur, the oldest being the United National Liberation Front (UNLF, 1964), sought independence, while Tripura saw tribal insurgency after migration reduced the indigenous people to a minority; the UNLF signed a peace agreement in November 2023, and the National Liberation Front of Tripura signed one in 2019.

AFSPA

• What the law does. The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958 (AFSPA) applies only in an area declared disturbed under its Section 3, by the Governor of the State or by the Union government, which gained this power in 1972. There, Section 4 lets an officer use force, even causing death, after due warning against those breaking prohibitory orders, and arrest and search without a warrant, while Section 6 bars prosecution without the Union's sanction.
• What the courts said. In Naga People's Movement of Human Rights v Union of India (1997) the Supreme Court upheld the Act but held that a declaration should be reviewed every six months and the army's list of dos and don'ts must be followed. In Extra Judicial Execution Victim Families Association v Union of India (2016), on alleged fake encounters in Manipur, it held that the Act gives no absolute immunity and that excessive force must be investigated.
• The critics. The Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee (2005) recommended repealing the Act and moving the needed powers into the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, as did the Second Administrative Reforms Commission in 2007, but neither was adopted.
• A shrinking map. AFSPA was withdrawn from Tripura in 2015 and Meghalaya in 2018, and the Union has cut disturbed areas in Assam, Nagaland and Manipur since April 2022. From 1 October 2026 it covers Manipur except 13 police station areas in five valley districts, nine districts and parts of five others in Nagaland, and three districts and parts of a fourth in Arunachal Pradesh.

Dimensions

• Ethnic. Many conflicts are between communities rather than against the state, such as the Naga and Kuki clashes of the 1990s.
• Political. Statehood, Sixth Schedule councils and special provisions such as Article 371A for Nagaland and Article 371C for Manipur were the main tools that turned armed demands into constitutional politics.
• Economic. Few jobs and dependence on government spending kept young people available to armed groups, and extortion became an economy of its own.
• External. Groups used camps in Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar at different times; Bangladesh's action against these camps after 2009 and Indian strikes on camps across the Myanmar border in June 2015, after an ambush in Chandel district of Manipur killed 18 soldiers, cut this support.
• Border and crime. Drugs from the Golden Triangle, arms and smuggled goods cross the Myanmar border, and after Myanmar's military coup of 2021 tens of thousands of refugees came into Mizoram and Manipur.
• Rights. Long use of AFSPA, and incidents such as the mistaken killing of civilians in an army operation at Oting in Nagaland in December 2021, keep demands for its repeal alive.

In practice

Manipur as a case

• The setting. The Imphal valley, about a tenth of Manipur's area, holds most of its largely Meitei population, while the hills are home mainly to Naga and Kuki Zo communities, each with its own land laws, armed groups and fears.
• The trigger. Violence broke out on 3 May 2023 after a march by tribal students against a Manipur High Court order of March 2023 that asked the State to consider recommending Scheduled Tribe status for the Meitei community; the High Court later deleted that direction in February 2024. Hundreds were killed, tens of thousands were displaced into relief camps, and armouries were looted.
• The response. Central forces set up buffer zones between valley and hills, and the Union appointed a commission of inquiry under Justice Ajai Lamba in June 2023, while the Supreme Court formed a committee of three former High Court judges, chaired by Justice Gita Mittal, in August 2023 to oversee relief and rehabilitation.
• President's Rule. After the Chief Minister resigned, President's Rule under Article 356 was imposed on 13 February 2025, extended by Parliament in August 2025 and revoked on 4 February 2026, when Yumnam Khemchand Singh was sworn in as Chief Minister.
• Talks with armed groups. Kuki groups came under a Suspension of Operations agreement with the Union and the State in 2008, and on 4 September 2025 the two main umbrella groups signed revised ground rules for one year that affirm Manipur's territorial integrity, reduce their designated camps and move them away from sensitive areas.
• The lesson. A dispute over reservation can become an armed ethnic conflict within days when land, identity and weapons are already in play, so peace needs both disarmament and a political process every community trusts.

The Myanmar border

• The Free Movement Regime. Residents within 16 kilometres of the border on either side could cross without a visa, a concession to kinship ties. In February 2024 the Union Home Minister announced that it would be scrapped and the whole 1,643 kilometre border fenced. Since December 2024 crossing has been limited to residents within 10 kilometres of the border, who must obtain a border pass at a designated crossing point, and fencing began with a stretch of about 10 kilometres near Moreh in Manipur.

Issues and way forward

• Unfinished settlements. The Naga talks remain open more than a decade after the Framework Agreement, and every delay keeps rival claims over land in neighbouring States alive, while an accord given to one community alarms another, so any settlement needs consultation with all groups.
• AFSPA and trust. The Act should be withdrawn area by area as violence falls, as has happened since 2022, while every allegation of excess is investigated in a time bound and visible way, following the Supreme Court's 2016 judgment.
• The Myanmar border. Fencing can stop arms and drugs but also divides families, so biometric passes and well run border markets are needed to balance security and kinship.
• Development and connectivity. Under the Act East Policy (2014), the Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project and the India Myanmar Thailand Trilateral Highway aim to turn a landlocked periphery into a gateway, though both depend on a stable Myanmar.

Common confusions

• Insurgency in the North East and left wing extremism. North Eastern insurgencies were mostly about ethnic identity, autonomy or secession by particular communities, while left wing extremism sought to overthrow the Indian state as a whole through a class war.
• Ceasefire and Suspension of Operations. A ceasefire, as with the NSCN (Isak Muivah) since 1997, is a halt in fighting before political talks; a Suspension of Operations agreement, as with Kuki groups since 2008, also confines cadres to designated camps under ground rules.
• Sixth Schedule and Article 371. The Sixth Schedule creates autonomous district councils in tribal areas of four States, while Article 371A and related provisions protect whole States, such as Nagaland's control over its land and customary law.
• Disturbed area and President's Rule. A disturbed area declaration under AFSPA gives special powers to the armed forces in a place while the elected government continues; President's Rule under Article 356 suspends the State government itself.

For the exam

• Keyword bank: Siliguri corridor, porous border, identity and autonomy, Naga Framework Agreement, Mizo Accord, Assam Accord, Bodoland Territorial Region, AFSPA, disturbed area, Suspension of Operations, Free Movement Regime, Sixth Schedule, Article 371A, Act East Policy, President's Rule.
• Previous year questions: Practise the previous year questions on this topic →
• Use in an answer:
  • Introduction with data: AFSPA, once in force across much of the North East, has been withdrawn from Tripura (2015) and Meghalaya (2018) and cut back in Assam, Nagaland and Manipur since 2022, a measure of how far insurgency has receded.
  • Introduction with a judgment: In Naga People's Movement of Human Rights v Union of India (1997) the Supreme Court upheld AFSPA but required six monthly review of disturbed areas, setting the balance between security and rights that still guides policy.
  • Conclusion: The Mizo Accord shows that peace in the North East comes from bringing armed groups into constitutional politics; force can open the door to talks but cannot settle questions of identity and land.
  • Conclusion: Lasting peace in the region needs the Naga settlement completed, trust rebuilt in Manipur, a well managed Myanmar border and development that makes the North East India's gateway to the east.