Assam-Mizoram border encountered firing over a territory dispute, which spotlights the long-standing inter-state boundary issues in the Northeast, particularly between Assam and the states which were carved out of it. Mizoram borders Assam’s Barak Valley and the boundary between present-day Assam and Mizoram is 165 km long. Both states border Bangladesh.
Residents of Lailapur village in Assam’s Cachar district clashed with residents of localities near Vairengte in Mizoram’s Kolasib district. A similar clash took place on the border of Karimganj (Assam) and Mamit (Mizoram) districts in October 2020. Mizoram civil society groups blamed the “illegal Bangladeshis” (alleged migrants from Bangladesh) on the Assam side.
The boundary issue between present-day Assam and Mizoram dates back to the colonial era when inner lines were demarcated according to the administrative needs of British Raj. The issue could not be settled once and for all when the state was created in independent India. The result is both states continue to have a differing perception of the border. Mizoram was granted statehood in 1987 by the State of Mizoram Act, 1986.
Assam became a constituent state of India in 1950 and lost much of its territory to new states that emerged from within its borders between the early 1960s and the early 1970s.
The Assam-Mizoram dispute stems from a notification of 1875 that differentiated Lushai Hills from the plains of Cachar, and another of 1933 that demarcates a boundary between Lushai Hills and Manipur.
During colonial times, Mizoram was known as Lushai Hills, a district of Assam. Mizoram believes the boundary should be demarcated on the basis of the 1875 notification, which is derived from the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation (BEFR) Act, 1873. Mizo leaders have argued in the past against the demarcation notified in 1933 because Mizo society was not consulted.
The Assam government follows the 1933 demarcation, and that is the point of conflict. According to an agreement between the governments of Assam and Mizoram, the status quo should be maintained in no man’s land in the border area. In the Northeast’s complex boundary equations, clashes between Assam and Mizoram residents are less frequent than they are between other neighbouring states of Assam, like with Nagaland.
