Word: tripura
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...jackal still wails in Tripura, but a hundred villages are silent. Ever since native tribesmen sacked scores of Bengali immigrant settlements in the northeastern Indian state a fortnight ago, the stench of dead bodies has filled the air. In the worst massacre, in the village of Mandai, the tribals first demanded money, then corralled the Bengalis in the village market. The horrified settlers were forced to watch while tribesmen armed with guns, spears and heavy scythes called daos put the torch to dwellings and butchered their occupants. "There was blood everywhere," says Haradhem Seal, 20, a Bengali barber whose entire...
...welcomed the Bengali Hindus when they fled across the border from predominantly Muslim Bangladesh in 1971. But they soon clashed. The tribals traditionally farm the land for a few seasons, then move on. The Bengalis stake out an area and work it continuously. Thus with 1.3 million Bengalis in Tripura, there was simply no longer enough land to go around. Moreover, while the Bengalis acquired increasing political and economic power, the tribesmen, outnumbered 2 to 1, seethed with frustration at becoming a minority in their own state...