Abstract
This seven-chaptered book under review has picked up some important issues pertaining to recent changes in the traditional land management system and the resultant land alienation and ethnic conflict in four states representing six tribes of Northeast India. The tribes studied are Bodo from Assam, Khasi from Meghalaya, Ao and Lotha from Nagaland and Nocte and Tangsa from Arunachal Pradesh.
The intention of the book is marked off by three objectives. Basically, the focus has been the study of the offshoot of the so-called modernity and formal laws on the traditional and present land management system leading to land alienation, which has further terminated in ethnic tensions, individualisation, privatisation, class formation and growth of patriarchy. The study adequately covers the causes and consequences thereof. Finally, the authors intend to provide possible solutions to the problems of land alienation in the tribal society of Northeast India. The funding agency, the publisher, the author and the co-authors belong to the same partner institutions.
With an exploratory research design (p. 2), the authors claim to test two hypotheses (p. 7). The first hypothesis says that pushing tribal communities into modernisation without adequate preparation has many negative impacts on these societies. The second hypothesis purports that land alienation is the cause of most conflicts in Northeast India. The first chapter of the book delves into the importance of the tribal land as the symbolic treasure of their culture, economy, survival, sustenance and identity. The classificatory scheme used in the book is broad-based and interesting, such as the types of land in the Northeast and the related management systems, the nature of and factors responsible for land alienation, etc. The unity among the variety of tribes studied has been vividly taken stock of. The existence of three types of land—community land (owned by the village or the whole tribe), individual land (inherited through a record of rights, privately owned even without record) and clan land (under the control of the Chief)—indicate the differences in the land management systems, such as community management under customary law and individual ownership based on formal laws and land tenure (p. 13). The authors contend that the superimposition of formal law over customary law has resulted in land alienation and the consequent decline in the size of community-managed land (p. 14). However, on a careful reading of the data adduced, it is a moot question whether modernisation has really been imposed on the villages studied and whether the effect of formal law on their traditions has been as heavy as described therein.
The authors discuss adequately the causes of land alienation under two heads: external and internal. External causes include pre-independence land laws in Assam and post-independence land reforms in the Northeast, large-scale immigration, transfer of tribal lands to non-tribal people, land acquisition for development projects, land monopolisation by tribal elites and privatisation of Common Property Resources (CPRs) (p. 15). Internal factors include sale and mortgaging of lands to rich individuals for out-of-state educational needs of children, including for bribing officials for securing government jobs and for health and ritual needs of the family.
The second chapter details the methodology, sampling frame and tools of and challenges faced during data collection. The readers might expect the details of the sampling procedure followed (justification of the quality and quantity) in collecting data from 600 samples from the six tribes of the four states. Appreciable is the fact that per village, four tribes at proximity to and two distant from the town were chosen (p. 34). The implication of such inclusion is not covered in the study. The book relies on substantiation through available literature, including the authors’ own field components, and most sections have introductory theoretical generalisations. The literature is strewn throughout the body text of the chapters. The third chapter discusses the socio-demographic characteristics of the sample respondents, such as gender, age, marital status, educational level and sources of livelihood. This is too descriptive, as the reader would expect the authors to contextualise these variables with the nuances of land alienation.
The fourth chapter elaborates that the traditional land management practices of the tribes of Northeast India governed through customary law ensured sustainability, equity and environmental security (p. 84), which are now under threat due to recent changes. The authors appear to conflate modernisation and recent changes or have used them interchangeably. The fifth chapter discusses the ‘changing land use pattern’. 156 out of the 600 sample respondents (p. 87), who belong to Lotha and Ao tribes of Nagaland without any legal document (p. 95), had established informal control over community land. Common respondents among those who control community, village and clan land go without being understood, as only individual figures against each has been given. Ao and Lotha apart, only 114 respondents have legal documents of land ownership. When diversities are found among the six tribes studied, providing clarity over the extent of (pp. 110–111) family land and private land controlled by the respondents is felt necessary. Accordingly, there may be doubts if ‘individual ownership is replacing communal land tenure and it has resulted in new agricultural practices’ (p. 116). Only 61 respondents represent conflict within family and among clan members, excluding Bodo and Nocte (p. 97). The authors go on to conclude that daily wage has resulted in forced economic diversification due to land alienation, whereas only 34 out of the 600 sample respondents are in daily wage work. This may be indicative but not conclusive. Again, the authors argue that ‘because of its sensitive nature, the tribes do not report land alienation’ (p. 119).
The sixth chapter looks at the extent and process of land alienation experienced by each family, including the impact thereof. One may be inquisitive to know if fragmentation of inherited land among sons in the family is land alienation at all. There may be an explanation to the contrary that the acquisition of land for development projects (such as national and state highways, schools, colleges, military cantonments and expansion of township) is the major cause of tribal land alienation (p. 122). Similarly, the conclusion regarding the growth of patriarchy (p. 58) appears to be overstretched. The seventh chapter attempts to search for solutions to the tribal societies’ problems and looks for ‘a people oriented alternative development paradigm’, though not explained in too many words. The solutions, however, need to be actionable, especially while dealing with the tribal issues in Northeast India. The authors may cross-check the references and syntax errors while bringing out the next edition.
With all said, this book has a lot of fantastic field components. The present work is a valuable source material on tribal studies in Northeast India. The book contains exhaustive details on tribal culture, and the huge quantum of literature listed and used, including several of the authors’ own works, shall make future researchers’ job easy. The authors may use this framework to extend the study to the remaining four states of Northeast India, including Mizoram. From the citations, it is seen that the first author is an authority on Northeast India studies.