Tripuri nationalism is an ideology that supports self-determination by the Tripuri people. The conflict is in essence ethnic, the Tibeto-Burman "tribals" indigenous to the region formed the clear majority of population in the princely state of Tippera, which joined the Republic of India in 1949 as the state of Tripura. Since then, the Tripuri people have been reduced to a 30% minority due to Indo-Aryan (Bengali) immigration.
The issue has led to a number of armed uprisings and terrorist activity. There was a rebellion in 1950, trying to prevent Tripuri's accession to the Republic of India, and armed conflict continued to erupt in the 1980s to 2000s. Since 1989, the armed rebellion was mostly led by the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) and the All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF). The Bengali side retaliated by forming militias of their own, such as the United Bengali Liberation Tiger Front (UBLTF), which destroyed a number of tribal villages in 2000.
The NLFT is classified by the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism as one of the ten most active terrorist groups in the world, and has been accused of forcefully converting people to Christianity.
As of 2012, the uprising seemed to have been brought under control by the authorities; There were three militancy-related deaths in 2010, and a single one in 2011, compared to 514 in 2000.
Tripuri political organizations and militant groups include:
- All Tripura Tiger Force
- Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura
- Indigenous People's Front of Tripura
- National Liberation Front of Tripura
- National Socialist Party of Tripura
- Tripura Janganotantrik Morcha
- Tripura National Volunteers
- Tripura Peoples Democratic Front
- Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council
- Tripura Tribal National Conference
- Tripura Tribal National Council
- Tripura Tribal Students' Federation
- Tripura Upajati Juba Samity
- Tripura Upjati Karmachari Samiti
Famous quotes containing the word nationalism:
“The difference between patriotism and nationalism is that the patriot is proud of his country for what it does, and the nationalist is proud of his country no matter what it does; the first attitude creates a feeling of responsibility, but the second a feeling of blind arrogance that leads to war.”
—Sydney J. Harris (1917–1986)