The theory of inseparability

THERE is one point in the report of the Frontier Enquiry Committee which deserves closer examination than it has received so far. The majority declares that it is not merely inexpedient but impossible to separate the administered districts from the tribal tracts. The minority, on the other hand, suggests a scheme by which some, at any rate, of the objections raised by the majority against separating the districts from the tracts are fully met. They propose that the five districts and the parts of the tribal tracts which are now connected with the five districts should be separated from the remaining tracts and re-amalgamated with Punjab. This is an altogether new scheme neither contemplated by the Government of India nor included in the terms of reference to the committee, but suggested to the members in the course of the inquiry. The majority has nothing very convincing to say against this proposal except that it is ‘new’ and has ‘never occurred to anybody before’. The great advantage of the new scheme is that it recognises the ‘inseparability’ of the districts and tracts in so far as it is recognised in actual practice and entails the minimum of disturbance in the present arrangements. What the majority urges against this proposal is that it would weaken tribal control by dividing responsibility in the different parts of the tribal area between two governments. If such a separation were effected, it says, it would lead to the adoption of a forward policy.