Tripura

Before 1949, the Tripuri people ruled their kingdom under the Manikya dynasty for over six centuries. They were the majority in their own land. Then came partition, then refugees, then a demographic inversion so complete that indigenous people became minorities in their ancestral home.

The Manikya kings traced their lineage to the 14th century, ruling territory that once stretched from Assam's Cachar Plains to Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts. When Britain departed and Pakistan formed, Hindu Bengalis fled East Pakistan's Muslim majority. Tripura, sharing 856 kilometers of border with what would become Bangladesh, absorbed wave after wave. Partition in 1947 brought the first refugees. The 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War brought more. The mathematics were brutal. Tripuri tribes who once dominated now comprise 31% of the population.

The response was insurgency. The Tripura National Volunteers and other groups demanded a tribal homeland, attacking Bengali settlers through the 1980s. The violence was substantial but ultimately contained. By 1988, most groups had accepted increased political participation in exchange for ending armed resistance. Autonomous district councils gave tribes some governance over their areas.

What emerged was an uneasy coexistence. Bengali became the dominant language. Hindu temples and mosques marked the landscape. The state capital Agartala grew into a Bengali-majority city just 2 kilometers from the Bangladesh border. The Tripuri retreated to hills and reserved areas.

Yet Tripura found economic niches. Rubber cultivation expanded, making the state one of India's major producers. Natural gas reserves attracted investment. The state's location, surrounded by Bangladesh on three sides, transformed from isolation to opportunity as India pursued cross-border trade and connectivity with Southeast Asia.

As 2026 approaches, Tripura offers a cautionary tale about demographic transformation and a hopeful one about accommodation. The violence has largely ceased. Development metrics exceed many Indian states. But the Tripuri culture that produced six centuries of Manikya rule now survives in scheduled areas and cultural festivals rather than in political dominance.