Abstract
The presumption that ethnicity is one of the drivers of insurgency has not been adequately validated empirically. Hence, an attempt has been made in this paper to empirically estimate the relationship between ethnic identity and insurgency in the context of Bodoland Movement of Assam in India. To do so, we determined a sample size of 408 using Taro Yamane’s formula. A total of four ethnic group’s viz., Assamese, Bengali, Bodo and Santhal were considered for the sample survey. Then using stratified sampling method, primary data was collected from the households of the from the four districts (Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Udalguri) of the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) in Assam, India. The BTR is an autonomously administered region under the provision of the sixth schedule of the constitution of India. Then to find the relationship between the identity and insurgency, Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modelling (PLSSEM) is used for estimation. The main finding of our study is: ethnicity acts as a major driver behind insurgency. This finding has a significant policy implication in polity management and governance particularly in a polyethnic social setting. Our finding calls for federalist accommodation of the ethnic groups as a way forward towards conflict resolution and peace building in a polyethnic social setting a la Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) in BTR.
Keywords: Assam, Bodo, Ethnic Identity, Insurgency.