Tripura

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TRIPURA, the tiny state which lies in the south-west corner of the north eastern region of the country, is presented here with all its unique features. Firstly, the author deals with the royal dynasty of Tripura which contributed a good deal to establishing a cultural bridge between the Bengalees and the Tripuris. Secondly, one sees how Tripura's generosity towards the battered victims of partition offered friendship to these ill- fated people. Finally, the state, though burdened with enormous problems like excessive population, a declining land-man ratio, and of late tribal militancy with no sign of abatement, seems determined to encounter and conquer all its difficulties, thereby paving the way to its prosperity and progress. The rich folk traditions, customs and culture of the Tripuris are all brought out in vivid colours by the author.

S.N. GUHA THAKURTA, was Professor & Head Department of Economics and Dean, School of Social Sciences at the North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong. He is the author of Contract Labour in Construction Industry (Firma KLM Private Ltd., Kolkata, 1980) and has to his credit numerous papers published in professional books and journals. Professor Guha Thakurta has also been associated with International Institute for Development Studies (IIDS), Kolkata, as Economic Consultant and Project Director.

My long and memorable association with Tripura was in a way responsible for accepting the offer of writing a book on Tripura under the NBT's 'India-the Land and People' series. I confess that initially I felt hesitant to take up the job, for the book encompasses certain topics in which I cannot claim to have any expertise. However, some came to my rescue, and I could to some extent draw upon their expertise to enrich the book. Foremost among them are Mr. S.N. Sen, formerly Deputy Director-General, Geological Survey of India, North Eastern Region, Shillong, who has significantly contributed to the writing of the chapter on Physiography, Geology and Mineral Resources, and Dr. Jagadish Gan Chaoudhuri of M.B.B. College, Agartala, who supplied me some essential ingredients as well as a few photographs for the book. I am indeed very much grateful to them. I am equally grateful to Professors Bijan Krishna Choudhury and Satyabrata Bhattachary, both of Bir Bikram Government College, Agartala, for sending me some very useful journals; to Messrs Sen & Sen, Photographer and Artist, Agartala, and the Directorate of Information and Publicity, Government of Tripura for permitting to publish some of their photographs in the book, and to Shri Sidheswar Sarma, Cartographer in the Geography Department of North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) for the map. I would also take this opportunity to record my sincere thanks to Professor S. Homchoudhury of NEHU who has gone through part of the manuscript and advised some improvement and to Miss Alpana Nag for preparing the index for the book. Needless to say that none of them is in any way responsible for the views expressed in the book or for any blemishes it may suffer from. I have selected a broad theme for the book so that it may be of some interest to the general public. The tiny State of Tripura that lies in the south-west corner of the north- eastern region of our country is a territory with certain unique features. First, the royal dynasty of Tripura had contributed a good deal in establishing a cultural bridge between the Bengalees and the Tripuris-a contact which grew in strength over the years. The contact was manifested in adopting Bengali as a State language at a time when the elite of India was too much pre-occupied with the lustre and grandeur of English education. (The present Government has in terms of its commitments to the tribals, recognised Kak Barak as the second language of the state). Second, Tripura's generosity (for whatever historical reasons) towards the battered victims of partition is a supreme gesture of friendship to these ill-fated people. Third, the state is burdened with enormous problems like population explosion in the 'fifties, a vulnerable geographical location, communication bottlenecks and lack of infrastructure, very little supporting resources and mounting unemployment problem.

It is perhaps in conformity with human nature to take a pessimistic view of the present difficulties; the present author is no exception to this. Yet, however, faltering at times it might appear, the state seems to be determined to confront the difficulties with that sense of stubborn and robust optimism which alone could lead it to progress, and without which its very survival may be enmeshed with further difficulties.