ABSTRACT
This entry discusses the genesis, history, and contemporary politics of the Sixth Schedule to the Indian Constitution. It traces the rationale and reasoning of the Cabinet Mission in the wake and aftermath of India’s Independence in proposing the Sixth Schedule which builds upon colonial policies that significantly separated the hills from the plains. The entry then offers a state-wise mapping of the Sixth Schedule areas and of the autonomous institutions that govern them. It ends with discussing the limitations of the Sixth Schedule, as well as the conflicts and tensions that have emerged from it.
