India is a vast region consisting of many different ethnic identities. From North to South, East to West, thousands of different cultures exist, making India an extremely ethnically and culturally diverse area. Like any other land, the people of these individual groups have vastly different ethnic, political, and sometimes religious views. And like any other place where many conflicting views are present, conflict erupts.

Tribal conflict is especially prevalent in North East India, and many extremist and separatist groups exist there. Recently in Assam, there have been major attacks and conflict between different tribes people. The Bodos, an indigenous group in Assam, have been calling for an independent state for themselves, arguing that they no longer want to be a part of India. They are tired of all the settlers from outside coming into Assam and setting up on their land. The Adivasis, another group that migrated to Assam about a 100 years ago, oppose the Bodos in this claim, due to the fact that the Adivasis are a majority in many areas and would like to remain part of India. Conflict among the tribes leads to bloodshed in Assam every day.

Just yesterday, the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) launched an attack against Adivasis and other tribal settlers. Sixty-two people were killed as a result. Then, the Adivasis targeted a Bodo village, killing 3 people. In protests against the actions of the Bodos, police killed 5 people, after hundreds of farmers with bows and arrows closed in after curfew. Seventy lives were taken in a day.

The main question in these situations is “What is the government going to do to prevent more deaths?” Sometimes the answer is clear, but other times not so much. Following the killings in Assam, the government has spoken out about what has happened. President Mukherjee has said, “These acts of terror and violence must be put down with a firm hand”. Even Narendra Modi spoke out about what happened:

Killing of innocent people in Sonitpur & Kokrajhar is an act of cowardice. Our thoughts & prayers are with the families of the deceased.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 23, 2014

So what has the government decided to do?

Well, the government has now decided to deploy 5,000 paramilitary troops into Assam to ‘control the conflict.’ The Chief Minister of Assam, Tarun Gogoi, says,“The government has to deal with the situation very firmly.” These militants pose a risk towards the security of India. In fact, the government has mobilized the Indo-Bhutan border.

It is always interesting to see which conflicts the military gets involved in, and which conflicts they stay out of. This game of picking and choosing could prove to be detrimental to India’s overall state of being, as when only certain problems are attended to, others continue to get worse.

What are your opinions on the situation? Let us know in the comments.

[Image Attribute: IANS]