PERSPECTIVE OPEN ACCESS an Account

Chakravorty. Space and Culture, India 2018, 6:3 Page | 170 https://doi.org/10.20896/saci.v6i3.376 PERSPECTIVE OPEN ACCESS An Account of the Meyor Community of Arunachal Pradesh Mridul Kumar Chakravorty† Abstract At the heart of this research is a description of the Meyor community, one of the least known tribes of the world. Geographically, this community is found in the Walong and Kibatoo circles of Anjaw district of Arunachal Pradesh. Drawing upon ethnographic research, supplemented by interviews, this article aims to describe an account of this hidden tribe. Keywords: Meyor, Zakhring, Ethnographic Observation, Anjaw District, Arunachal Pradesh, India † Independent Researcher, Email: [email protected] © 2018 Chakravorty. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Chakravorty. Space and Culture, India 2018, 6:3 Page | 171 Introduction organisation (BRO), now known as General Meyor is one of the hidden frontier tribes Reserve Engineer Force (GREF). At the same geospatially found amidst the rugged landscape time, one can argue that the elements of the of Walong, a cantonment and an administrative second category are also visible amongst the town and Kibatoo circle in Anjaw district, Meyor community. This article aims to portray Arunachal Pradesh of India’s North East. One the challenges of the community. The article can, of course, imagine as to how the begins with a brief background with North East sequestered habitation of this rarely known India in general and Arunachal Pradesh in tribe are shaped by terrain, topography and particular. translocation. By translocation, I mean that this Background tribe is believed to have migrated from the Needless to mention that the whole North East northern part of Tibet to settle in the Dri Valley India is home to 357 ethnolinguistic (Chakravorty, 2015; Choudhury, 1978; Singh, constitutional communities (Bhattacharyya, 1995). According to the Tribal Welfare 2018a; 2019; Taher and Ahmed, 2001). It is Committee, 1952, Government of India (GOI), "connected to the mainstream India by a there are four categories of tribes. They are: narrow corridor (Siliguri corridor or Chicken’s tribal communities (adhering to traditional neck) of 33-km width on the eastern side and patterns of life); semi-tribal communities 21-km on the western side, covering (although these communities have settled approximately 7% (or 255,036 sq.km) of the down in rural areas by engaging in agriculture total geographical area of the country” and other allied activities, but by living amongst (Bhattacharyya, 2018a: 37; 2019; Fernandes the Hindus, who follow a jati-varna system, the and Barbora 2002a, b; Taher and Ahmed 2001). tribal communities have also considered Arunachal Pradesh is the 29 states of India and themselves as a form of castes by engrossing shares international boundaries with Myanmar themselves into the concepts of purity and (erstwhile Burma) in the east, Tibet in the north pollution, that are keys to the jati-varna and Bhutan in the west. At the time of India’s system); acculturated tribal communities (these independence in 1947, the political map of communities have migrated to urban and semi- North East India comprised of undivided Assam urban communities in order to work in formal including North East Frontier Agency (NEFA) organisations); and assimilated tribes (these and the princely states of Manipur and Tripura groups have assimilated into the wider world (Bhattacharyya, 2019). Although, NEFA was and have now detribalised themselves) created in 1954; the Arunachal Pradesh was (Tizianna and Baldizzone, n.d.). In the light of carved out of NEFA as a Union Territory in these categories, Meyor tribe, perhaps, broadly 1972, and subsequently, on 20 February 1987 fall under the first category, as our observation Arunachal Pradesh was granted the status of reveals that, being a frontier tribe, their the full-fledged state. Table 1 outlines a brief habitats have suffered from encroachments by statistics of the state (Census of India, 2011). activities of Army and Border Roads Table 1—Arunachal Pradesh: Population, Growth Rate, Density, Sex Ratio and Literacy Rate in NE Region The area in Sq. Km Population Growth Density Sex Ratio Literacy (Person) Rate per sq. Km (females (%) '000 males) 83743 1383727 26.03 17 938 65.38 Source: Census of India, 2011 Out of the total geographical area of 83743 is a detailed demonstration of forest cover in sq.Km, forests cover stands at 79.96%. Table 2 the state of Arunachal Pradesh and its Chakravorty. Space and Culture, India 2018, 6:3 Page | 172 comparison to with the Indian nation as a researched except for some information whole. It should be noted that all the states of published in the Gazetteers of Lohit district and North East India have more than 33% of forest the series titled People of India (Aiyadurai, cover— Mizoram (86.27%); Manipur (77.69%); 2011; Chakravorty, 2015; Choudhury,1978; Meghalaya (76.45%); Nagaland (75.33%); Singh, 1995). It remains well documented that Tripura (73.68%); Sikkim (47.13%); and Assam the communities dwelling in the fiercely contested (35.83%). volatile international borderlands/margins of One can undoubtedly imagine that because of North East India are looked upon with an element its remote locations covered by forests in of ambiguity and often considered as migrants or addition to being one of the frontier states refugees (Aiyadurai, 2011; Chakravorty, 2015; hindered not only academic research but also Sarkar, 1996). The following section describes the origins of the Meyor tribe. lacked historical enquiry (see, Aiyadurai, 2011). Hence, the Meyor community is highly under- Table 2—Forest Cover of Arunachal Pradesh and India Geographical Very Moderately Open Total Percentage Percentage Area Dense Dense Forest Forest of Change Area Forested since 2015 Area Arunachal 83,743 20,721 30,955 15,288 66,964 79.96% -0.23% Pradesh All-India 3,287,469 98,158 308,318 301,797 708,273 21.54% +0.21% Source: India State of Forest Report, Forest Cover 2017, Forest Survey of India, retrieved 31 December 2018 from, http://fsi.nic.in/isfr2017/isfr-forest-cover-2017.pdf Meyor or Zakhring various factors including poor health and As per the demography of Arunachal Pradesh is nutrition(Tizianna and Baldizzone, n.d.). Using concerned, the state is home to 26 major tribes four criteria— decreasing or near constant, pre- in addition to over 100 sub-tribes.1 There is a agricultural economy, extremely low level of perception that Zakhring and Meyor are now literacy and a general state of social the same tribes, although earlier, they were backwardness, the GOI prepared a list of the two different tribes. They identify themselves ‘lowest layer’ amongst the tribes and identified as Charumba and practice Mahayana-sect of 74 tribes. Although there is no rigorous Buddhism (Aiyadurai, 2011; Barua, 1995; evidence, there is a perception that over the Chakravorty, 2015). One has to note that the years, the Zakhrings and Meyors have development policies of India are based on assimilated as Meyors with an aim to seek the Five-Year Plans of the Planning Commision of benefits of the development programmes of GOI instituted in 1950, which has now been GOI (Chakravorty, 2015). replaced by NITI Aayog. During the fifth (1974- There are many narratives as to the origins of 79) and the sixth(1980-85) five-year plans, the the Meyors and Zakhrings. As stated in the GOI realised that each tribe is different and so introduction section, during 1906-07, a large the development requirements of each tribe group of immigrants crossed the Indo-Tibetan should not be the same (Tizianna and border to settle permanently in the Dri valley. Baldizzone, n.d.). However, statistics unravelled Adverse cold and hostile climate forced them that the population of many politically and to migrate northward, and as a consequence, economically weaker tribes have dwindled for many of them lost their lives. In addition, the Mishmi tribe ambushed the Zakhrings and 1 List of notified Scheduled Tribes, retrieved 30 Meyors with bows and arrows, albeit Zakhrings September 2017 from, and Meyors defended themselves with guns. http://censusindia.gov.in/Tables_Published/SCST/ST%20 Nonetheless, only 90 Zakhrings and Meyors Lists.pdf Chakravorty. Space and Culture, India 2018, 6:3 Page | 173 survived “who somehow managed to reach and Methodology settle at Mayu, and those who were captured The study is based on ethnographic methods by the Mishmis were enslaved and sold to the (LeCompte and Goetz 1982; LeCompte and Adis. The [Zakhrings and Meyors] moved Schensul 2010), and informal interviews further southward and ultimately settled in the selected randomly using snowballing and in Walong area (Choudhury,1978: 55). In his book, consultation with the Meyor Development My Hill So Strong, Jean Kingdon-Ward (1952), Society from 14 villages considering a tried to distinguish the Zakhrings/Meyors from proportion of the population and at least 50 the Tibetans (see, Chakravorty, 2015). There is knowledgeable elders along with village Gaun another narrative as to the origin of Meyors— Burahs (village heads), teachers and community some believe that the Meyors escaped from leaders. the Zayal district of Tibet as the Dzongpon of Rima imposed taxes on them, in this way, free Study Area themselves from the oppressive Tibetan The state of Arunachal Pradesh comprises of 22 authorities. However, after their immigration to districts. According to district Census 2011, out the Lohit district, they faced hostilities and of 640 districts, Anjaw, the study area is the raids in their settlements by the Mishimis, who second least populated districts in India; Dibang were then at fierce conflict the people of the Valley, another district of Arunachal Pradesh is Zayul district forcing many to move from the the least populated district of India.2 Anjaw is Walong area to Rima.

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