Dima Hasao

Dima Hasao ; District ডিমা হাছাও জিলা
State	Assam
Administrative headquarters :	Haflong
Area :	4,853 km²
Residents :	213,529 (2011)
Population density :	44 people / km²
Website :	nchills.gov.in

Dima Hasao ( Assamese : ডিমা হাছাও Ḍimā Hāchāo [ ˈdima ˈhasaʊ ]; North Cachar Hills until 2010 ) is a district in the Indian state of Assam . The administrative seat is in Haflong . Dima Hasao district is one of the of the so-called tribal peoples ( tribals populated) parts of Assam: About two-thirds of the residents of the district are indigenous people, mainly Dimasa , Naga and Kuki . Because of this, Dima Hasao has the status of an autonomous district.

geography

Landscape near the village of Khobak in the Dima Hasao district

The district of Dima Hasao is located in southern Assam on the border with the states of Nagaland , Manipur and Meghalaya . Neighboring districts are Karbi Anglong and Nagaon (Assam) in the north, Peren (Nagaland) in the northeast, Tamenglong (Manipur) in the southeast, Cachar (Assam) in the south and Jaintia Hills (Meghalaya) in the west. The area of the district is 4,853 square kilometers. This makes it the third largest district of Assam in terms of area.

The entire district is mountainous and rugged. It is occupied by the Barail Mountains , which separate the Brahmaputra plain in the north and the Barak valley in the south. The highest mountains are the Jhingtubum (1867 meters), Nairakula (1422 meters) and Hemelowa (1367 meters). Most of the elevations reach 600–900 meters. In the vicinity of Haflong the break-off to the Shillong Plateau is very clear and abrupt. The most important rivers are the Kapili, a tributary of the Brahmaputra, with its tributaries Diyung and Mahur, and the Jatinga, which flows south to Surma.

South of the district capital Haflong, the phenomenon of massive bird “suicide” occurs during the monsoon months. On moonless nights, the animals fall through the fog onto the valley floor of Jatinga. The Jaintia ( Synteng ), in the valley since 1905, saw the birds as a gift from God and killed them. This bird murder fell by 40 percent after protests by ornithologists . Indian scientists explain the phenomenon through strong winds and changes in the magnetic field in the valley water as a result of the monsoons, so that the birds, around 44 species, lose their orientation and fly to light sources.

history

The rock temple in Maibong dates from the time of the Kachari Kingdom

The area of the Dima Hasao district was part of the Kachari kingdom in earlier times . The Kachari Rajas , who belonged to the Dimasa ethnic group , originally had their capital further north in Dimapur . After the conquest of Dimapur by the Ahom , the defeated retreated to the mountainous country and chose Maibong , located in what is now the Dima Hasao district, as their new capital. In 1706 Maibong was also taken by the Ahom ruler Rudra Singh . The Kacharis then crossed the Barail Mountains and settled in the plain around Khaspur . In 1790 the ruling family professed Hinduism . In 1819, Burma, expanding westward, conquered the Kachari kingdom and forced its ruler Gobind Chandra to flee. After the British , who now ruled over Bengal , defeated the Burmese in the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824-1826), they reinstated Gobinda Chandra. After he died in 1830 without an heir, his territory fell to the British in 1832 according to the Doctrine of Lapse . The northern part of the former kingdom, meanwhile, was under the control of a usurper named Tularam. In 1854 this area was also annexed by the British.

The newly acquired area was incorporated into the Assam Province of British India as the Cachar District . The subdivision North Cachar, established in 1880, corresponded to today's Dima Hasao district. After Indian independence, the area was detached from the Cachar district in 1951 and merged with parts of the Sivasagar , Nagaon and Khasi and Jaintia Hills districts to form the United Mikir and North Cachar Hills district. In 1970 this was again divided into the districts of Mikir Hills (since 1976 Karbi Anglong ) and North Cachar Hills. In 2010, the North Cachar Hills district was renamed Dima Hasao after the largest Dimasa ethnic group. This led to protests by the non-Dimasa population, who called for the Dimasa-dominated part to be split off as a separate district.

population

According to the 2011 census, the Dima Hasao district has 214,102 inhabitants. With 44 inhabitants per square kilometer, the district is very sparsely populated. The district is predominantly rural. Of the 214,102 residents, 151,613 people (70.81%) live in rural areas and 62,489 people in urban communities.

The Dima Hasao district is one of the areas of India that are populated in large numbers by members of the "tribal population" ( scheduled tribes ). They included (2011) 151,843 people (70.92 percent of the district population). This is the highest percentage in the state of Assam. There are only 4,337 Dalits ( scheduled castes 2.03 percent of the district population) in the district.

The majority of the population is made up of people who were born in the district. 188,386 people (87.99 percent of residents) were born in the district. A total of 5,444 people were born in other Indian states (including 1,181 people in Meghalaya, 884 people in Bihar, 786 people in Manipur, 774 people in Tripura and 399 people in Nagaland). Of the 503 foreign-born people, 297 are from Nepal and 112 are from Bangladesh.

Population development

As everywhere in India, the population in the Dima Hasao district has been growing rapidly for decades. The increase in the years 2001–2011 was 13.8 percent (13.84%). In these ten years the population increased by around 26,000 people. The following table illustrates the development:

Significant places

There are a total of four places in the district that are classified as towns and notified towns.

District population by gender

As is common in India, the district always had more male than female residents. But until recently, the male surplus was above average, even by Indian standards. Among the youngest residents (32,414 people under 7 years of age), the proportions are 16,480 men (50.84 percent) to 15,934 people (49.16 percent) women.

Distribution of the population by gender in the Dima Hasao district
	1961 census		1971 census		1981 census		1991 census		2001 census		2011 census
	number	proportion of	number	proportion of	number	proportion of	number	proportion of	number	proportion of	number	proportion of
TOTAL	54,319	100%	76,047	100%	-	-	150.801	100%	188.079	100%	214.102	100%
Men	29,087	53.55%	41,314	54.33%	-	-	81,196	53.84%	99,822	53.07%	110.802	51.75%
Women	25,232	46.45%	34,733	45.67%	-	-	69,605	46.16%	88,257	46.93%	103,300	48.25%

District population by language

Various Tibetan Burman languages are spoken among the tribal population . A pidgin language based on Hindi , called Haflong Hindi , is used as the lingua franca between the different tribes . The official language is Assamese , the main language of Assam.

Dimasa is the most widely spoken language in the district. However, it is only the majority language in Zilla Maibong with 72.25 percent of the population. In the three other Zillas, the proportion is between 9.57 percent in Mahur and 34.91 percent in Umrangso.

In second place is Bengali. The proportion of this language is between 4.43 percent in the Zilla Mahur and 16.22 percent in the Zilla Haflong.

The Zilla Mahur is linguistically very mixed. The main language there is Zemi with 37.54 percent of the population - followed by Hmar with 19.60 percent of the population and Kuki with 16.83 percent of the population. Karbi / Mikir (18.76 percent of the population) and Nepali (12.46 percent of the population) are strongly represented in Zilla Umrangso. In Zilla Haflong, Hmar with 12.23 percent of the population and Nepali with 6.96 percent of the population are significant minority languages. And in Maibong District, 12.82 percent of the population speaks Bengali as their mother tongue. The most widely spoken languages are shown in the following table:

year	Dimasa		Bengali		Zemi		Hmar		Nepali		Kuki		Karbi / Mikir		Hindi		Assami		Total
year	number	%	number	%	number	%	number	%	number	%	number	%	number	%	number	%	number	%	number	%
2011	76,492	35.73	25.171	11.76	20,657	9.65	16,375	7.65	13,615	6.36	10,902	5.09	9,542	4.46	6,713	3.14	4.014	1.87	214.102	100.00%
Source: 2011 census result

Population of the district by confession

Today a majority of the population is Hindu. Because immigrant Hindi as well as the majority of the Bengali and Dimasa are Hindus. Hindus are in the majority in three of the four zillas - Haflong, Maibong, and Umrangso. In Zilla Maibong there are almost only Hindus, in Zilla Umrangso with 74.69 percent of the population three out of four residents are Hindus. A slight majority of the population in Zilla Haflong is Hindu. In contrast, the Hindus in the Zilla Mahur are in the minority with 31.49 percent compared to the Christians. The majority of the Tibetan Burmese ethnic groups living there are Christians. The Christians have proportions between 4.29 percent of the population in Zilla Maibong and 63.29 percent of the population in Zilla Mahur. Other religious communities are only weakly represented and mostly immigrants from other regions of India. The following table shows the exact religious composition of the population:

year	Buddhists		Christians		Hindus		Jainas		Muslims		Sikhs		Other		not specified		Total
year	number	%	number	%	number	%	number	%	number	%	number	%	number	%	number	%	number	%
2011	680	0.32	63,310	29.57	143,593	67.07	70	0.03	4,358	2.04	207	0.10	1,170	0.55	714	0.33	214.102	100.00%
Source: 2011 census result

education

Thanks to significant efforts, literacy has risen sharply in recent decades. In urban areas, over 92 percent can read and write. In the countryside, however, it is only around 71 percent. The strong differences between the sexes and the urban / rural population are typical of Indian conditions.

Literacy in the Dima Hasao district
unit	2011 census
unit	number	proportion of
TOTAL	140.873	77.54%
Men	78,559	83.29%
Women	62,314	71.33%
TOTAL CITY	50,864	92.24%
City men	27.901	95.37%
City women	22,963	88.70%
TOTAL COUNTRY	90.009	71.13%
Country men	50,658	77.85%
Country women	39,351	64.01%
Source: 2011 census result

Politics and administration

According to the sixth appendix to the Indian constitution , which provides special provisions for the tribal areas in the Northeast Indian states, Dima Hasao has an autonomous status . In 1952, the North Cachar Hills District Council was established as a local self-government body. Of the 16 members, 12 are elected and four are appointed by the government. There is no private land ownership in the tribal areas. There is also an advisory committee responsible for the development of the tribal areas.

Although the promotion of tribal population is exemplary as Indian standards, have - probably inspired by similar groups in neighboring states - formed in the last twenty years, some smaller movements for autonomy, and in some of the transition to banditry to be fluent appears (see. Separatist Organizations in Northeast India ). The Karbi Longri North Cachar Hills Liberation Front (KLNLF), which split off in 2004 from the United Peoples Democratic Solidarity (UPDS) , which had existed since 2000 , is one of the most active groups. The Dima Halam Daoga (DHD), with several factions and their more radical split-off Black Widow (BW) finally surrendered their weapons in September 2009.

The district was divided into four zillas (circles) at the last census in 2011.

Population in the Zillas
	Haflong		Mahur		Maibong		Umrangso
	number	proportion of	number	proportion of	number	proportion of	number	proportion of
TOTAL	76,721	100%	33,859	100%	53,570	100%	49,952	100%
Men	39,764	51.83%	17.305	51.11%	27,564	51.45%	26,169	52.39%
Women	36,957	48.17%	16,554	48.89%	26.006	48.55%	23,783	47.61%
city	43,756	57.03%	2.121	6.26%	6.236	11.64%	10,376	20.77%
country	32,965	42.97%	31,738	93.74%	47,334	88.36%	39,576	79.23%

Economy and Infrastructure

Due to its inaccessible location in the mountains, the Dima Hasao district is economically underdeveloped. The most important industry is agriculture, which according to the 2001 census employs 54 percent of the working population. The tribal peoples in the mountains often still operate slash and burn. The main crop is dry rice, but not enough of it can be grown in the mountainous, low-yielding landscape. Additional important crops are pumpkin, chilli, castor, ginger, millet and corn. The seeds are sown in April / May and the main harvest time is at the end of November. In 1982, 63,000 of the 489,000 available hectares were forested. Most of the district is fallow with 405,000 hectares. 4800 hectares are irrigated, but more than one harvest is brought in for every 1000. Sericulture is practiced in 205 villages . Mining and industry play a lesser role. Limestone is mined near Garampani, which is used by four cement factories in the district.

The most important traffic connection through the Dima Hasao district is the National Highway 54, which leads from Tuipang in Mizoram via Aizawl and Silchar in a north-south direction through the Barail Mountains and joins the National Highway 35 in the direction of Guwahati at Dabaka . The district is also connected to the railway network by a meter-gauge line from Silchar to Lumding .

literature

SC Bhatt (Ed.): The Encyclopædic District Gazetteers of India. Volume 10: North-Eastern Zone: Arunachal Pradesh. Assam. Gyan, New Delhi 1997, ISBN 81-212-0556-5 .