Arunachal Pradesh (;, ) is a state in northeast India. It was known as the North-East Frontier Agency until 1972, after which it became a union territory under the name Arunachal Pradesh. It became a state on 20 February 1987. Itanagar is its capital and largest town.
It shares international borders with Bhutan in the west, Myanmar in the east, and a disputed 1,129 km border with China's Tibet Autonomous Region in the north at the McMahon Line. Nearly four-fifths of Arunachal Pradesh is claimed by China as Southern Tibet as part of the Tibet Autonomous Region; China occupied some regions of Arunachal Pradesh in 1962 but later withdrew its forces.
As per the 2011 census, Arunachal Pradesh has a population of 1,383,727. With only 17 inhabitants per square kilometre, it is the least densely populated state in India. It is an ethnically diverse state, with predominantly Monpa people in the west, Tani people in the centre, Mishmi and Tai people in the east, and Naga people in the southeast of the state. About 23 major tribes and 100 sub-tribes live in the state, including Nocte, Adi, Nyishi, Singpho, Galo, Tagin, and Apatani. The Nyishi are the largest ethnic group in the region. The Mishmi tribe has three sub-tribes, namely Idu-Mishmi, Digaru-Mishmi, and Miju-Mishmi.
Etymology
Arunachal Pradesh means Land of the Dawn-Lit Mountains, which is the sobriquet for the state in Sanskrit. The term was coined during the formation of the state. Prior to the year 1972, it was called North-East Frontier Agency.
The People's Republic of China (PRC) does not recognise Arunachal Pradesh, and claims the land to be part of Tibet, calling it Southern Tibet ( pinyin: Zàngnán). In ancient Tibetan texts, eastern Arunachal Pradesh and some parts of Tibet were called Lhoyü while the residents were called Lhobha people, while Tawang district and West Kameng district in western Arunachal Pradesh were called Monyul.
History
Very little ancient history is known about the region apart from the northwestern corner and the areas bordering current Assam. The northwestern regions came under Monpa and Tibetan control, while the plains and foothills were under the Chutia kingdom. After the fall of the Chutia state, Ahoms occupied certain sections of the plains while the hill tribes occupied the rest of the plains and the foothill region.
Chutia Rule
The foothills and the plains of Arunachal Pradesh fell under the control of the Chutia kings of Assam in the medieval period. Historian Nityananda Gogoi reconstructed the kingdom as having, at times, included parts of the hilly region of present-day Arunachal Pradesh, "inclusive of Itanagar", together with adjoining territories of the Brahmaputra valley extending westward as far as Bargang near Biswanath. He cited similar marks on stones found among archaeological remains at Sadiya, on the Buroi River, and at Naxapahar, near the confluence of the Bargang and Dikai rivers, as supporting this reconstruction. Gogoi further concluded from the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century inscriptions of the Chutia rulers that the dynasty centred at Sadiya or Sadhayapur ruled an "extensive country" comprising parts of Upper Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
The Chutia presence in this region appears to have been strongest in the foothills, river valleys and adjoining plains of the Lohit, Dibang, Siang, Subansiri, Dikrong, Borgang and Kameng systems, rather than in the steeper interior hills. Historical sites scattered across present-day Arunachal Pradesh like Bhismaknagar (Lohit district), Rukmininagar (Lower Dibang Valley district), Gomsi (East Siang District), Malinithan (Lower Siang district), Ramghat-Taraso (Papum Pare district), Ita Fort (Papum Pare district), Naksaparvat (Pakke-Kessang district), Manabhum fort (Namsai district), etc. belong to the Chutia period.
After the fall of the Chutia kingdom in 1524, many of these former frontier settlements and fortified sites appear to have declined or been abandoned, as the Ahom kingdom incorporated the Sadiya region partially, but did not establish the same degree of direct control over the adjoining plains, foothills and inner hill tracts. Ahom authority in the annexed Chutia territories also remained contested for several decades after the conquest, as the Chutias continued organising revolts. Over time, tribal communities from the surrounding hills expanded into these sparsely occupied or abandoned plains and foothill zones.
In the following centuries parts of the Sadiya plains were assigned to the Mishmis, while the Namsai plains were settled by the Khamtis with the permission of the Ahom king in the mid-18th century. Miris likewise moved in considerable numbers from the hills into the plains of Assam; by the early nineteenth century, this migration was continuing. In 1826 a large group of Mishmis from the Lohit Valley migrated to Sadiya and were allowed to remain there. Traditions of the Idu Mishmi likewise describe a southward migration through the Dibang and Lohit valleys, These later movements indicate that several areas which had earlier formed part of the Chutia frontier zone were gradually reoccupied by hill and trans-frontier communities after the collapse of Chutia power.
Monpa Rule
Northwestern parts of this area came under the control of the Monpa kingdom of Monyul under Tibet, which flourished between 500 BCE and 600 CE. The Monpa and Sherdukpen keep historical records of the existence of local chiefdoms in the northwest as well.
According to Tibetan chronicles, Monyul was ruled by Gongkar Gyal, descendant of an exiled Tibetan ruler named Lhase Tsangma, the brother of Tibetan king Ralpacan who arrived in Monyul in 837 A.D or earlier. A descendant of Gongkar Gyal became the ruler of the Trashiyangtse region of Bhutan, and Gapde Tsan, another descendant, was the ruler of the Khorwong Valley in Thembang town (now West Kameng district, Arunachal Pradesh).
Later, the second son of Gongkar Gyal, Wongme Palde, who returned to Tibet owing to the poverty in the Khorwong Valley, came back to Monyul to become its ruler. The Rgyal rigs text written in 1668 or 1728 contains a record of taxes collected. Taxes were paid via coins, foodstuffs, or livestock from the area around present-day Kameng district and Tawang district.
The Monpas () ་known to the Chinese as Menba were responsible for trade between Assam and Tibet and held the Koriapar Dooar at Sonitpur district of Assam. The Monpa chiefs were subordinate to the ruler of Tawang, who in turn was subordinate to the Government of Tibet or Ganden Phodrang in Lhasa. The Tibetan government at Lhasa appointed Tibetan officials called Gellongs to supervise the local Monpa chief. The Monpa chief who looked after the Duar were called Tsorgon, a position created in the 16th century.
According to historical Tibetan text, this region of the state of Arunachal Pradesh known as Lhoyu came under the control of Tubo Kingdom or Tibetan Empire in the 7th century CE.
In the 17th century, the 5th Dalai Lama Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso (1617–1682), who achieved political supremacy over Tibet in 1642, imposed a tax called Khrey on Monyul and instructed the construction of fortresses in the Monpa area called Dzong which served as centres for administration and tax collection. The fortresses built were Dirang Dzong, Taklung Dzong and Gyangkhar Dzong to collect tax from the Dirang Monpa, Kalaktang Monpa and Tawang Monpa respectively. The officials who collected the taxes were called Dzongpon. The tax was carried to Tawang Monastery and then to Lhasa via Tsona city (present-day China). Arunachal Pradesh fell under Kham () and Ü-Tsang () cultural region of Tibet which also includes the Brahmaputra River watershed.
The 6th Dalai Lama Tsangyang Gyatso (1683–1706) was born in Tawang and died in Amdo (present-day China) on his way to Beijing after being kidnapped by the Mongol forces under Lha-bzang Khan, the last ruler of Khoshut Khanate on the approval of Kangxi Emperor of the Qing dynasty. Before his death the 6th Dalai Lama instructed the construction of notable buildings like Tromzikhang in Barkhor, Lhasa.
Tribal Chiefdoms The inner hill regions of present-day Arunachal Pradesh were largely outside the direct administrative control of the valley-based kingdoms of Assam and Tibet. These areas were inhabited and governed by numerous tribal communities, each with its own systems of customary law, clan authority, village councils, chiefs or priestly institutions. Political organisation varied from region to region: some communities were organised around hereditary chiefs, while others followed more decentralised village-based or clan-based systems of governance.
In the western and central parts of the state, groups such as the Nyishi, Apatani, Tagin, Galo and related Tani-speaking communities maintained their own autonomous social and political institutions. Among several of these groups, village councils and clan elders played an important role in settling disputes, regulating land use, organising rituals and maintaining relations with neighbouring communities. Although these societies were not usually organised as large territorial kingdoms, they controlled distinct ecological zones, trade routes and settlement clusters in the hills.
In the eastern and south-eastern parts of the state, communities such as the Adi, Mishmi, Singpho, Tangsa, Nocte and Wancho also maintained independent or semi-independent chiefdoms and village polities. Some of these communities had closer contact with the plains of Assam, while others were connected with the hill regions of present-day Myanmar and Tibet. The Nocte and Wancho areas, for example, had hereditary chiefs, while many Adi and Mishmi groups were organised through village councils, clan heads and ritual specialists.
These tribal communities interacted with neighbouring states through trade, tribute, warfare, diplomacy and ritual exchange. Salt, beads, metal objects, cloth, livestock, forest products and agricultural produce moved between the hills and the plains. The foothill passes and river valleys therefore functioned as contact zones between the tribal communities of the interior and the larger political powers of the Brahmaputra Valley, including the Chutia, Ahom and later colonial administrations.
Despite these interactions, the interior hill communities retained a high degree of autonomy. External states generally exercised stronger influence over the foothills, trade routes and frontier settlements than over the deeper hill regions. The political history of Arunachal Pradesh before the colonial period was therefore not shaped by a single kingdom or centralised authority, but by a combination of frontier states, local chiefdoms, village republics, clan territories and shifting networks of exchange.
Historical Sites
The main archaeological sites of the state include: