ABSTRACT
The formal launching of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) and the impending assumption of office by the interim territorial council has given a fillip to the fears and anxieties of the considerable non-Bodo population in the BTC areas to mobilizes an agitational programme once again. Such anxieties are being expressed, and threats of disruption are being held, despite the fact that the BTC, like the earlier Bodoland Autonomous Council (BAC), falls well short of the original demand for a full-fledged separate state of Bodoland, articulated way back in March 1987 when the Bodoland agitation began, with a strikingly provocative slogan, ‘Divide Assam Fifty Fifty’. Pending elections to the BTC, an interim executive council is to be appointed by the governor of Assam. Further discussions over the inclusion of the remaining 82 (or 70) villages in the BTC are to be held after the formation of the interim territorial council.
