Traditional Ideas and Institutions of Democracy in India’s North East

Abstract

This article explores the traditional ideas and practices of indigenous democracy among the tribal communities in North East India. Traditional institutions of governance in the region are repudiated today as autocratic and authoritarian, or at best oligarchic. This oversight is imminent unless their cultures and customs, which are closely linked to their institutions of governance, are examined. In most traditional tribal institutions at the grassroot level, there is either a direct participation of all adult male or a representative system in which each clan or sub-clan is represented in the village council. Thus, one finds pre-modern roots of direct and representative democracy in the traditional polity of indigenous communities in the North East. The article identifies ‘consensus’ as the heart of tribal democracy and argues for the strengthening of indigenous democracy for deepening democracy in India. However, more democratic reforms of the traditional institutions are needed to particularly include women and the ‘others’. The findings contribute to the growing literature on the pre-modern roots of modern democracy.