Assam-Meghalaya border dispute | The people caught between two States

Villagers of six areas of dispute between Assam and Meghalaya were asked to give their consent for inclusion in either State towards ending a 50-year-old boundary dispute. An agreement between the States has led to friction between the ‘Meghalaya supporters’, mostly Garos, and the ‘Assam supporters’, mostly non-Garos, reports Rahul Karmakar 

Malchapara did not have a reason since July 2021 to hold the melkhol nok, a kangaroo court that settles local disputes. This Garo tribal village had been too glued to a dispute far removed from its jurisdiction — along the Assam-Meghalaya border 7 km away — to handle petty issues all these months.

The opportunity to hold court came a week before Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Meghalaya counterpart Conrad Kongkal Sangma met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi to seal a “historic” boundary deal. It was not to sort out any domestic or social issue, but to extract an apology from 65-year-old Starson Marak for “selling his soul” to Assam.

The border settlement followed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) the two Chief Ministers had signed on January 29 to resolve six of the 12 disputed sectors along the 884.9-km border between the two States. Deemed to be less complicated, these six sectors were chosen to be resolved first when the two Chief Ministers and Shah met in the Meghalaya capital, Shillong, in July 2021 to end the boundary dispute hanging fire for five decades.

Marak, 65, is one of the oldest residents of Malchapara, located about 85 km southwest of Guwahati. His belief that Malchapara’s future lies with Assam had dragged him to the melkhol nok. “I was born in Assam and would like to die in Assam. I apologised in the people’s court because some of our people wanted me to apologise for betraying the community by insisting on not agreeing to be part of Meghalaya,” Marak said.

Winath Ch Sangma, who had egged the villagers on to hold the court, said Marak and a few elders misled the members of a government-appointed committee that came calling in October 2021 to seek the opinion of the villagers. “Time may have run out for us to be with Meghalaya, where we belong emotionally, ethnically and geographically. But we are not giving up,” he said.

Malchapara and the adjoining Salbari village, in Assam’s Kamrup district, are a part of Gizang, one of the six disputed sectors taken up for resolution in the first phase. Gizang is sandwiched between two other disputed sectors – Tarabari to the west and Hahim to the east. Many residents believed that the five principles the two States had considered for resolving the boundary dispute would automatically keep Malchapara and Salbari within the redrawn map of Meghalaya after the final settlement. The five principles are historical facts, ethnicity, administrative convenience, the willingness of people, and contiguity of land preferably with natural boundaries.

“We were stunned when our Chief Minister (Conrad Sangma) told the State Assembly on March 16 that a majority in Malchapara want to go with Assam. As Garo people, it is but natural for us to be in Meghalaya where the Garos are one of the three principal tribes,” Jewash Sangma, a Malchapara resident said.