| Summary/Abstract |
As India was inching towards freedom, the idea of a Crown Colony for the hills of North East (NE) India germinated in the minds of the departing colonial rulers. This article outlines the secret proposal of a British-administrated Crown Colony and the circumstances prevailing in the remote borderlands of India at that point. This Crown Colony would have included all tribal areas of NE India as well as the contagious tribal areas of Burma. As such, most of the tribal areas of the NE, mainly the hills of the province of Assam, were classified as ‘Excluded’ or ‘Partially Excluded Areas’ and the British administrators, having developed an admiration for the tribal people due to their long association, were reluctant to put them under far-away Delhi. Therefore, a Crown Colony, like Singapore, Hong Kong, Aden or Gibraltar, on the eastern periphery of India, consisting of tribal areas from Indian and Burma, ruled by benign and tribal-loving British administrators, was achievable. The idea gained considerable traction in the British bureaucracy, from Delhi to Whitehall, and some support among the tribal people. The plan finally did not succeed but was a near miss. It would have significantly changed the map of India and Burma, and challenged the very idea of a diverse India. The article is a narration of this Crown Colony that never was.
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