ABSTRACT
What is clear from each of these chapters is that the provisions of the Sixth Schedule are alive, well and fully functioning across the Northeast of India. From the icy frontier with China in Sikkim to the tropical borders with Bangladesh and Burma, and everywhere in between, this is the system by which daily life is regulated for millions of citizens in this corner of the nation. These provisions are not some theoretical hypothesis, a high-minded idea thought up in Delhi half a century ago in an attempt to deal with troubled tribal areas, but a practical and pragmatic reality that functions in the here and now. Indeed, in some ways, in their present formation, the provisions enshrine tribal law in such a way as to make it more ‘real’ to those who are covered by its parameters than the mainstream system is for those subject solely to it; it is more tangible, more accessible and more likely to be experienced than the apparatus of the alternative, formal judicial system with its courts and lawyers, wholly alien to the vast majority of people in this region, and of course, relatively alien to the majority of citizens beyond the Northeast for whom it is the only form of law.
