Dima Hasao Peace Pact

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About the agreement-

• The Assam-based insurgent group was represented by Dimasa National Liberation Army (DNLA)/Dimasa People’s Supreme Council (DPSC) — which operates in the Dima Hasao district.
• The agreement will put a complete end to insurgency and with this, there are no more armed groups in Assam.
• Under the agreement, the DNLA representatives have agreed to give up violence, surrender including the surrender of arms and ammunition, disband their armed organisation, vacate all camps occupied by DNLA cadres and join the mainstream. 
• As a result of this agreement, more than 168 armed cadres of DNLA surrendered with their weapons and joined the mainstream.
• Dimasa Welfare Council will be set up by the Government of Assam to protect, preserve and promote a social, cultural, and linguistic identity to meet political, economic and educational aspirations and will ensure speedy and focused development of the Dimasa people residing outside the jurisdiction of the Autonomous Council.
• The MoU also provides for the appointment of a Commission under Paragraph 14 of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution of India to examine the demand for the inclusion of additional villages contiguous to the North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council (NCHAC) with the Council.
• It also provides for necessary measures to be taken by the Government of India and the Government of Assam to rehabilitate the surrendered armed cadres of DNLA. 
• To this effect, a Special Development package of ₹500 crore each, will also be provided by the Government of India and Government of Assam over a period of five years, for all-round development of NCHAC as well as Dimasa people residing in other parts of the State
• The DNLA was established in April 2019 seeking a sovereign territory for the Dimasa tribals and launched an armed insurgency to achieve its goal.

Who are Dimasa tribes?

• The Dimasa people are an ethnolinguistic community presently inhabiting in Assam and Nagaland states in Northeastern India. 
• They speak Dimasa, a Tibeto-Burman language. This community is fairly homogeneous and exclusive, with members required to draw from both parents’ separate clans.
• The Dimasas form a “sealed” society—every member drawing his or her patriarchal lineage from one of the forty two male clans (sengphong—”holder of the sword”) and the matriarchal lineage from one of the forty-two female clans (jalik or julu). These clans are distributed among twelve territorial “sacred groves” called daikhos.
• The Dimasas are one of the oldest inhabitants of the Northeastern part of India and is one of the many Kachari tribes. 
• Following political problems in the 18th century, the Dimasa ruler moved further south in the plains of Cachar and there took place a division among them–with the hills Dimasa maintaining their traditional living and political exclusiveness, the plains Dimasas have made no attempt to assert themselves.

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