ABSTRACT
An Islamic party, the Anjuman-e-Islamia, led by a rich contractor Abdul Barik, alias Gedu Miah, had managed to win the support of some leading palace nobles like Durjoy Karta for his plans to merge Tripura with East Pakistan. Tripura is now a red rag to those who seek to protect the rights of indigenous peoples in India's troubled North-east. In Tripura the post-colonial strategy of dealing with ethnic conflict has focused on two elements: pacification and development. The Bengali migration had started gathering momentum from the beginning of the twentieth century. Hence, on the eve of Partition, the indigenous tribes of Tripura were not as decisive a majority as the tribes of the neighbouring Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), where Bengali-speakers were less than two per cent of the population in 1947. The Communist Party of India (CPI) was into its armed struggle phase with B. T. Ranadive at the helm.
