A Newly Constituted Autonomous Council of Assam: The Case of the Deoris

Abstract

Autonomy, the concept itself reflects the rights of indigenous groups of people, the right to self determination of a community or a region to bestow it substantial financial, administrative powers for their social upliftment, which is also referred to as self legislation. The sixth Schedule of the constitution of India provides the formation of the local institution or the Autonomous District Councils for the tribal communities of North East India. These are created to give concrete shape to the religious ethos and social customs in administrations of various spheres of tribal life. These local self governance councils are provided with legislative, judicial, and executive powers so that good tribal institutions, its culture and identity could be preserved through measures of self governance. In Assam a contemporary development among the tribe is the formation of the Autonomous Councils. At present there are six autonomous councils in Assam among which Deori Autonomous Council meant for the restoration and betterment of self identity of the Deoris, one of the scheduled tribe of Assam, is one. In this paper a humble attempt has been made to delineate about the different laws and rules of the Deori Autonomous Council for administration among the Deoris of Assam.