Karbi Go Back, Chinese Go Back. Kheroni's Blood Needs Answer

Two dead. Forty-five injured. Internet shut down. Curfews imposed. This is what happens when a government abandons its constitutional duty to protect indigenous land rights.

The violence in Kheroni isn't a law and order problem. It's the inevitable result of decades of state-sanctioned dispossession masquerading as development.

The Sixth Schedule exists for one reason: to protect tribal communities from precisely what is happening in West Karbi Anglong. Village Grazing Reserves and Professional Grazing Reserves aren't mere administrative categories. They are the lifeline of indigenous livelihoods, the foundation of cultural survival, and constitutionally guaranteed protections; these lands are communal assets held in trust by the District Council, making encroachment a direct violation of autonomous governance.

Yet encroachment continues unchecked. The Karbi people, now a minority in their own homeland watched as their protected lands were systematically occupied. They filed complaints. They followed procedures. They waited for the law to work.

The law failed them.

The complaint of the indigenous population is, when the government wants to evict settlers from plains districts, bulldozers arrive with brutal efficiency. Thousands are displaced within hours. But when tribal communities in hill districts demand protection of their legally reserved lands, they are met with Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) meetings, bureaucratic delays, and ultimately, police violence. 

This isn't governance by Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC). It's selective enforcement based on who holds power and who doesn't.

Land Rights Are Not Negotiable

The Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) promise of "talks" rings hollow when indigenous protesters are met with force rather than genuine engagement. Dialogue cannot begin with dead bodies and injured citizens. It cannot proceed while those demanding their constitutional rights are treated as threats to public order.

The demands are straightforward: enforce existing land protections, remove encroachments from reserved areas, and give autonomous councils actual authority over their territories. These aren't radical asks. They are the bare minimum required by India's own Constitution.

What Must Happen Now

Stop treating indigenous land defense as a security problem. It is a justice problem.

Implement Sixth Schedule protections with the same vigor used to evict the powerless elsewhere. Conduct transparent land surveys with tribal participation. Fast-track decades of pending cases. And most critically, acknowledge that when indigenous peoples lose their land, they lose everything: identity, culture, livelihood, and dignity.

The Karbi community didn't choose violence. They chose hunger strikes and peaceful protest. Violence came to them when the state prioritized maintaining an unjust status quo over protecting constitutional rights.

If India claims to be a constitutional democracy that respects indigenous rights, Kheroni is its test. Every day without action is another day of failure. Every meeting without concrete outcomes is another betrayal.

The question isn't complicated: Will the government enforce the protections it has already promised in its own Constitution, or will it continue to sacrifice tribal rights at the altar of political expediency?

Kheroni is watching. Assam is watching. Assamese are watching. Indians are watching. And the blood already spilled demands an answer.

Also Read: December 16, 1971: The Day Humanity Triumphed Over Indifference