Governing Their Way: Traditional Self-governing Institutions Among the Tai Khamtis of Arunachal Pradesh

Abstract

Democracy has the quality of governance as it encourages people’s participation in decision-making and provides ample space for a transparent and egalitarian society based on equality, freedom and justice. Many democratic institutions have the qualities of internal governance, which broadens the idea of transparency, accountability, equal participation, responsiveness etc. The traditional self-governing institutions also have similar internal and external qualities to a democratic institution. Notably, many tribal communities in the north-eastern part of India have several such institutions working enormously in establishing democratic temperament and quasi-judicial activities, which are otherwise the prime functions of a modern democratic institution. The Khamtis are also not an exception. Khamtis are the prime ethnic dwellers of the eastern part of Arunachal Pradesh under the district of Namsai. They have their self-governing traditional institutions, which still have been actively performing their role in the administration of the village and the tribe. Many of the village-level decisions have been taken by the self-governing institutions along with the modern democratic institutions based on customary laws. Hence, it is interesting to study how the traditional institutions are rooted in the community life of the Khamtis and the present status of those institutions with the deepening of modern democracy. This study applied a case study method for the collection of information.