Gopinath Bordoloi was made the Chief Minister of independent Assam who insisted on the welfare of the tribal communities and to conserve their culture and tradition.83 The issue of migration was very prominent in the hills as well as in plains tribal areas. But, when Saadulla ministry came into power in 1943 wastelands in the districts of Nowgong, Darrang and Kamrup was made available to the immigrant laborers from Bengal. In the year 1946, when Bordoloi ministry came to power again, he cleared the grazing and forest reserves from the illegal encroachers. But, due of resistance from the immigrants and fear of retaliation from Assamese villages, the government had to go slow on the issue of migration and hence tribal land alienation continued. However, after Indian independence, the Bordoloi ministry amended the Assam Land and Revenue Regulation, 1886 to create reserved tribal belts in different parts of Assam (Misra, 2012). There were also initiatives to create autonomous councils for hill tribes of Assam to resolve the problem of migration in undivided Assam.
District, North Cachar Sub-Division, Mikir Hills and the Naga Hills District. The report was submitted on 28th July 1947 to Ballabhbhai Patel, the Chairman of Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights. The report dealt with ‘aspects relating to the administration of the tribal areas, to provide special features of these areas, like land, forest, courts, finance, control of immigration, mines, legislation, representation, services etc’.84 The committee also recommended that the hill people feared about their security of land and exploitation by more advanced people and from immigrants (Mishra, 2012).
After amendments and debates, the draft was adopted by the Constituent Assembly on 7th September 1949. The first draft was incorporated in the Eighth Schedule. The draft was prepared by Shri B. N. Rau. The president of the Drafting Committee, while considering the matter on 13th February 1948 incorporated the Sixth Schedule of the constitution of India. While framing the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India, views of the premier of Assam, Shri Gopinath Bordoloi, were taken not only because of his Chairmanship of the Sub-Committee, but also because he was also known to be compassionate to the hill people and had studied very closely the condition of the tribal people. These areas were entirely excluded and communication between the plains and the hills were very tough. Officials of those regions assured the people their autonomy and independence. During the investigation, it was found that the people of the hill areas were comfortable with isolation and separation of hills from plain areas of Assam. Therefore, the
84 See, Report of the North-East Frontier (Assam) Tribal and Excluded Areas Sub-Committee. Source- Appendix 13 of Sixth Schedule to the Constitution of India- A Study by B. L. Hansaria, Jyoti Printers, Guwahati, 1983.
Bordoloi Committee confronted with the question on what methods should be applied to hill areas to integrate the hill tribal communities to plain areas.85
It was found that there were certain efficient local institutions among the hill tribes for their own administration, it would have been wrong to destroy such local institutions.
Such institutions worked for village administration and the settlement of any disputes that arose arises in these areas. So, the committee considered not to destroy such traditional institutions and decided to bring them under the broad principles of local governance by granting separate administrative structures. At that time, the proposal for an autonomous district was accepted by the committee and the various tribal leaders. The report of the Sub- Committee considered giving a chance to the tribals to develop themselves in their own way.86 The Bordoloi Committee Report recommended for autonomy/ decentralization in the hill areas for the proper administration, and accordingly, autonomous hill district councils were set up in Assam in 1952.
The Constituent Assembly took the recommendations from the Bordoloi Committee, discussed and debated and considered the matter on the dates of 5, 6 and 7 September 1949.87 Accordingly, the Sixth Schedule was implemented for the hilly tribal society and was incorporated in the constitution along with articles 244 and 275. Later on, amendments were made to extend the Sixth Schedule to other areas in the Northeast with the recommendations, views and comments of the Advisory Council for Autonomous districts
85 See, Constituent Assembly Debate relating to the Sixth Schedule on 5th to 7th September, 1949. Source- Appendix 12 of Sixth Schedule to the Constitution of India- A Study by B. L. Hansaria, Jyoti Printers, Guwahati, 1983.
86 See, Report of the North-East Frontier (Assam) Tribal and Excluded Areas Sub-Committee. Source- Appendix 12 of Sixth Schedule to the Constitution of India- A Study by B. L. Hansaria, Jyoti Printers, Guwahati, 1983.
87 See, Constituent Assembly Debate relating to the Sixth Schedule on 5th to 7th September, 1949.
of Assam and the state government of Assam.88 The aim of the Sixth Schedule was to meet the aspirations of the people of the area and on the other hand, to assimilate the tribal people with the mainstream country (Hansaria, 1983). Dr. B. R. Ambedkar felt that the tribal of Assam were different from the tribal population of other parts of India and to retain their distinctiveness, they should have different administrative structures.89 Therefore, despite many criticisms, Ambedkar supported the views of Gopinath Bordoloi and left the provision for a different administrative structure for the hill tribes of Northeast India.