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The North-East Frontier Agency (now Arunachal Pradesh) becomes a union territory, today in 1972. Until then, it had been considered a part of Assam under direct Ministry of Home Affairs control
Recognized on 21st Jan 1972
Arunachal Pradesh, the land of ‘dawn-lit mountains’ is one of the Northeastern states of India. Forming the northern part of the northeastern region, it is the largest of these states by land. But not always had this been a state - the process of state-making took some time and a lot of effort was put in by local people, the governments of the state and the centre to make possible.
The region has been (and is) populated by various indigenous peoples - the Monpa in the West, the Tani in the centre and the Tai in the east, with the Nagas in the south.
In 1912-13, by coercion and cajoling, the British government had consolidated this land under the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA), a border state with little regard to normal state lines except for military-defence purposes against possibly Tibet.
By 1914, Sir Henry McMahon had signed a deal with the Tibetan government and drew the McMahon line for the Tibetan-Indian border, which placed the NEFA firmly in the hands of British India. However, the Chinese government never agreed to this position, especially the new communist People’s Republic of China.
It stated that the Tibetan government was illegitimate and hence the treaty could not apply, leading to the bitter Sino-Indian war of 1962.
The NEFA had been governed not by the central government as a whole or any representative body, but by the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Home Affairs in the post-Independence era. However, by 1967, a new Agency Council was in place to help with better administration as challenges and demands of representation grew.
NEFA was still considered a semi-independent part of the Assam state till the 21st of January, 1972. When the NEFA became a Union territory of India, and its charge would change to a chief commissioner. It would still take decades for full statehood to come.
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