Genesis of the Tribal Belts and Blocks and their existential crisis with special reference to Bodo tribe in Assam: A geopolitical Approach

Assam in the north –eastern part of India is a land of diverse ethnic groups. Both tribal and non-tribal people are found to be distributed in this region. The tribal people who are living in this area have also formed a sizable share of the total population of Assam with 12.42% as per 2011 census. They have been contributing for the development of Assam and Assamese language and culture since their appearance in state of Assam. They are very simple and their life is controlled by primary economic activities namely, agriculture, fishing, lumbering etc. Though they are very poor economically, educationally and politically, but maintain distinctiveness in their socio-cultural life e.g. food habit, dress habit, language, customs and traditions, etc. But very unfortunately, the life of these people have been threatened during Colonial period which continued to independent India leading to conflicts between the tribal and non-tribal people. For the protection of tribal people tribal belts and blocks were created demarcating the tribal dominated areas of Assam. This paper tries to find out the reason behind the genesis of tribal belts and blocks and their geopolitical problems as well as a separatist tendency among the Bodo tribal group leading to autonomy movement.