President Droupadi Murmu and PM Modi extended greetings to Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram on their statehood day ,which is every year observed on 20th ,February.Amit Shah,Congress Chief Malik Arjun Kharge ,Congress leader Rahul Gandhi ,Arvind Kejriwal also wished them a happy statehood day.
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The animation films in indigenous folk stories from Arunachal Pradesh under the department of Indigenous Affairs will also be launched, and a report of Unsung heroes of Arunachal Pradesh who fought against the British is likely to be released.This would be the her ist visit to the state after assuming the office .
Mizoram became the 23rd state of India with the 53rd amendment of the Indian constitution on 29th February,1986.
While as Arunachal Pradesh became 24th state of India by the 55th amendment in the Indian constitution in 1987.During the British period ,Arunachal Pradesh was called North eastern Frontier province until 1972 when it was named Arunachal Pradesh by making it a union territory.
Arunachal Pradesh’s capital is Itanagar and there are 26 major tribal groups in the state , 65% of the population is tribal .It is the largest state in the Northeast in area wise .It finds a mention in the literature such as Kalika Puran and in the epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata.
Mizoram contains the highest population of tribals in india ,Mizo and English are the official languages. According to the India state forest report of 2019,Mizoram has the maximum forest cover as % of its own geographical area that is 85.4%.
Demand for Autonomy in the northeast:
The northeast contains 7 states also called the seven sisters of India( Arunachal Pradesh (Itanagar), Assam (Dispur), Nagaland (Kohima), Meghalaya (Shillong), Manipur (Imphal), Mizoram (Aizwal), and Tripura) .The region has only 4% of the country’s population and a small corridor of about 22kms connects the region to the rest of the country .The region shares boundaries with China , Bangladesh and Myanmar and serves as India’s gateway to Southeast Asia .In the 1970s and 1980s ,there was widespread movement going on in the region demanding separation from India . Mizoram was one such case which posed a threat to the sovereignty of India .Until 1970s and 1989s ,most of the states which exist today in the northeast were parts of Assam except Tripura and Manipur .They also wanted to get the statehood within the Indian union. The demands for political autonomy arose when the non Assamese felt that the Assam govt was imposing Assamese language on them. There were opposition and riots within the state .Leaders of major tribal communities wanted separation from Assam. They formed the Eastern Indian tribal Union which was later converted to All party hill leaders conference in 1960.They demanded a tribal state to be carved our of Assam.The central govt has to carve out states of Meghalaya, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh. Tripura and Manipur were also upgraded to states.
History of Mizoram’s statehood:
After independence,the mizo hills was made an autonomous district with Assam.Some mizos believed that they were never parts of British India and therefore did not belong to the Indian union.But the movement for succession gained popular support after the Assam govt failed to respond adequately to the Great Famine of 1959 in the Mizo hills.This angered the people and it led to the formation of Mizo national front under the leadership of Laldenga .
In 1966,the MNF started an armed campaign for independence, started a two decade long battle between Mizo insurgents and the Indian army .
The MNF fought a Guerrilla War ,got support from Pakistan govt and shelter in the East Pakistan.The Indian security forces responded to it with a series of repressive measures. At one point ,been Air force was used and these all made people angry and alienated from the rest of India .At the end of two decades ,Laldenga came back from Pakistan and started negotiating with the Indian govt.Rajiv Gandhi steered these negotiations to a peaceful conclusion.
In 1986,an accord was signed between Rajiv Gandhi and Laldenga in which Mizoram was granted full statehood with special powers and the MNF agreed to give up the secessionist movement and Laldenga took over as it’s Ist CM .
