Traditional Tribal Institutions and Inclusive Development: Perspectives on Empowerment and Mobilization

ABSTRACT
Dr Biswajit Mohapatra Dept Of Political Science North-Eastern Hill University,Shillong

The North Eastern part of India, is not only known to be the region inhabited by a multitude of diverse tribal communities ,Significantly most of these communities do have self-governing village councils and are organized as tribal chiefdoms now as they used to have during the late British period. Though the idea of Nation and State formation was almost absent both in the most advanced area of the region, ruled by the Ahoms and in the rest of the region, preceding the arrival of the Britishers, yet one sees that the region underwent albeit slow change in the direction of development and sharpening of identities in the context of diffusion of ideas of identity politics. The fulfillment of the aspirations of tribal communities within the broader framework of a democratic political system engaged the attention of our leaders during the freedom struggle. When India attained independence, the framers of the Constitution supported the notion of tribal self-rule.for the tribal communities for tackling the problems unique to the region and also to preserve the democratic traditions and cultural diversity of its people, The Sixth Schedule to the Constitution of India, was incorporated to enable the tribal communities to continue with their own systems of governance, which had gained local acceptance over the years. Over the last several decades, the systems of local-governance promoted under the Sixth Schedule have served to guarantee political dominance for these socio economically backward groups, assurance of better local governance at the community level, better economic development and ethnic security for those who feel threatened by large scale influx of illegal migrants and settlers from other parts of India. It was believed that all these social groups would easily have equal access to the services provided by the State and equal opportunity for upward economic and social mobility as being self ruled .They would further pursue a model of inclusive development, with the emergence of educated elites, whereby they can prevent any kind of discrimination against any section in the society, as STs, have historically been quite disadvantaged and vulnerable. Though various efforts, have been made to strengthen these instruments of political government within the framework of Indian Constitution, yet the prevailing practice of self-governance in the region has failed to confront the forces advocating disintegration. The future prosperity of the States of North East India can be assured in political terms, only if we continue with the practice of self-governance to defeat the forces seeking separation.

.Despite the provision of protective measures and developmental efforts, the tribal societies at present characteristically continues to manifest increasing tribal alienation on account of decreasing economic resources ,particularly land and forest, common property resources, escalating atrocities connected with assertion of rights by certain groups, meagre advancement through planned development efforts and above all being threatened with displacement and dispossession from their livelihoods due to growing clout of market forces The prevailing scenario in the region certainly has become a cause for concern and probably demands a reworking of strategies in terms of a major shift towards entrusting, enabling and empowering the tribal people to be able to look after their own welfare and address issues of development by their own initiative with the greatest degree of individual community independence in terms of decision-making and implementation for the greatest good. In my proposed paper I propose not only to carry out an analysis of the situation which has contributed towards misgovernance,corruption as well as underdevelopment and common frustrations in this region and also present some viable strategies for promotion of good governance by way of increased responsiveness, accountability and transparency in the exercise of the functions of traditional authorities besides doing away with the constraints of identifiable group,viz women, youth, elders, disabled to participate and take decisions on issues of development within their societies.