ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a critical account of the nature of princely regime in Tripura, the demographic and socio-economic changes that took place in the State since the late eighteen century, and the implications of the same for the rise of various brands of radical politics by the different tribal groups in the State. The State of Tripura occupies a narrow strip of land on India's North East, 182 km long and nowhere more than 112 km in width. Tripura was an ancient tribal kingdom. The Rajmala, the surviving chronicle of the Tripur dynasty, suggests that this tribal kingdom was founded in the fifteenth century. Tripura has experienced demographic upheavals which resulted in the major transformations in the newly emerging rural class structure. The chapter describes the administrative structures of the State as well as the hierarchical feudal social structures. Economic structure requires little stress that Tripura's socio-economic structure underwent radical changes thanks to those exogenous factors mentioned above.
