The Bodoland statehood demand, which was thought to have ended with the signing of the Bodo Peace Accord in January 2020, has been rekindled by a new students’ association. The Bodo National Students’ Union (BoNSU) has sent Prime Minister Narendra Modi a memorandum asking for a separate state for the Bodo people through the Kokrajhar district head.
In February of this year, the union was created. The Bodos are primarily unsatisfied with the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR), according to BoNSU president Bonjit Manjil Basumatary, because it is not meant to meet their goals. “Only the construction of an independent Bodoland State would bring the Bodo people’s hopes to fruition. “As a result of the government’s failure to preserve their lands, indigenous people are becoming guests in their own backyard,” he stated.
It would be impossible to maintain the land, identity, economy, culture, and language without a separate state, he added. “Aside from establishing the Bodoland State, the Centre should expedite the formation of a Bodo regiment in the armed forces, the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the inclusion of Bodos living in the hills in the Scheduled Tribe list,” Mr. Basumatary said.
The Bodos are the northeast’s largest plains tribe. Some of them live in Assam’s Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao hill districts, where they do not have the same status as other hill tribes.
Bodoland demand ended with Bodo Peace Accord
The demand ended with the Bodo Peace Accord, also known as the BTR Accord, signed on January 27, 2020, according to Pramod Boro, the current chief of the Bodoland Territorial Council. He was the president of the All Bodo Students’ Union at the time, which had led the Bodoland statehood struggle for more than four decades, and was a signatory to the agreement.
In the northeast, there are numerous statehood movements that have been dormant for a few years. The demand for statehood in Bodoland is expected to have a cascading effect on the other movements. Eastern Nagaland in Nagaland, Garoland in Tripura, Twipraland in Tripura, Kukiland in Manipur, and Kamtapur in Assam and West Bengal are among them.