Government of Arunachal Pradesh

Evolution

On 15th August 1947 when India became an independent nation, North East Frontier Agency commonly known as NEFA became an integral part of the Union of India. It was administrated by the Ministry of External Affairs with the Governor of Assam acting as agent to the President of India. The administrative head was the Advisor to the Governor.

In 1972, the NEFA became a Union Territory when Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister and acquired the name of Arunachal Pradesh. After 3 years, in 1975, it acquired a legislature. And finally, on 20th February 1987 Statehood was conferred on Arunachal Pradesh when Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister and it became the 25th State of the Union of India.

Arunachal Pradesh, area-wise, is the largest state of the NE region of India. It forms a complex hill system of Shivalik and Himalayan origin and is criss-crossed by numerous rivers and streams. The state shares a total of 1630 kms of international boundary with neighboring countries; 1030 kms with China, 160 kms with Bhutan and 440 kms with Myammar.

The McMohan line defines the international boundary between India and China. Administratively, the State is divided into fifteen districts. Capital of the State is Itanagar in Papum Pare district. Itanagar is named after Ita Fort meaning fort of bricks, built in 14th century AD.

PT. Nehru’s Philosophy

It was Pt. Nehru who gave his philosophy for the development of NEFA to bridge the hiatus between the mainstream India and isolated people of Arunachal Pradesh. This state has been most peaceful state in the North Eastern region of the country. Pt. Nehru gave five fundamental principles for the administration of tribal areas. The principles are:

People should develop along the line of their genius and we should avoid imposing anything on them. We should try to encourage, in every way, their own tribal rights and culture.

Tribal rights on land and forests should be respected.

We should try to train and build up a team of their own people to do the work of administration and development. Some technical personnel from outside the state will no doubt be needed especially in the beginning but we should avoid introducing too many outsiders into the tribal territory.

We should not over-administer these areas or overwhelm them with multiplicity of schemes; we should rather work through and not as rivals to their own social and cultural institutions.

We should judge not by statistics or the amount of money spent but by the quality of human character that is evolved.

Administrative Systems

Arunachal Pradesh is not a linguistic state. It is an ethnic state inhabited by colourful tribal people of diverse culture and lifestyle. All of them have their own unique culture and traditions. They also have customary laws and a time tested dispute resolution mechanism. The disputes in tribal societies are resolved by a system of administration of justice founded on customs and customary laws of each tribes by the Village Council.

It is most gratifying to remember that the inhabitants of this tribal state have the spirit of democracy inherent in their traditional laws, which further strengthen by the above mentioned five fundamental principles given by Pt. Nehru for administration of tribal areas.

Though, there were no written rules for administration of tribal villages, but the customs and traditions were almost compatible with the modern concepts of jurisprudence. The tribal councils in NEFA were functioning on the lines of the system evolved for parliamentary democracy, which is in vogue now a days.

This is well illustrated in the utterances of the leaders of the councils Kebang/Buliang/Mela/Abela of different communities in their traditional speeches, which they recite at the beginning of their meeting. ” Villagers and brethren, let us strengthen our custom and our council, let us improve our relations, let us make the laws straight and equal for all, let our laws be uniform, let our customs be the same for all, let us be guided by the reason and see that justice is done and the compromise reached that is acceptable to both parties.

Let us decide while the dispute is fresh, lest the small disputes grow big and continue for the long time. We have come together for a council meeting and let us speak in one voice and decide our verdict. So let us decide and mete out justice.” The council derived their authority from the expression of the will and power of the people. They had the support of both social and supernatural. Thus the concept of parliamentary democracy is not new to the tribal society.