What started as a peaceful demonstration outside a government office in Arunachal Pradesh turned into something far uglier on Friday. By the time police fired shots into the air and tear gas filled the streets of Bordumsa, at least one student leader was bleeding from a machete wound — and a quiet town in Changlang district had become the latest flashpoint in one of the state’s most enduring and combustible disputes.
The trigger was the Special Intensive Revision, or SIR — an election commission-driven process to update voter rolls. The controversy at its heart is a question that has simmered for years: should Chakma people who arrived in Arunachal Pradesh after 2006 be included in that process at all?
For indigenous communities and student groups here, the answer is an unequivocal no.
The All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU), along with the Bordumsa Students’ Union and several allied local outfits, gathered at the office of the Additional Deputy Commissioner in Bordumsa to make that point officially heard. They came with objections. What they got was chaos.
According to reports, tensions were already running high when representatives entered the ADC office to meet officials. Then someone — still unidentified — hurled stones. The projectiles struck a member of one of the student organisations and also damaged the ADC’s vehicle. That single act blew the lid off whatever restraint remained. Members of Chakma organisations and AAPSU activists ended up in a physical altercation that spilled outside. One AAPSU leader was attacked with a machete and sustained injuries.
Police had little choice but to step in hard. They fired in the air. Tear gas canisters were deployed. There are conflicting accounts about the sequence of events and exactly who did what first — a familiar pattern in situations like this, where the truth often comes in fragments long after the smoke clears.
The SIR process, meant to be an administrative exercise in democratic housekeeping, has exposed a raw nerve in Arunachal Pradesh that never truly healed. Indigenous groups have long viewed the presence of Chakma and Hajong communities — many of whom were settled in the state decades ago — as an existential threat to land rights, political representation, and identity. The issue of post-2006 arrivals being folded into the voter list revision took that anxiety and turned it into something immediate and urgent.
By Friday evening, security had been tightened across Bordumsa. Police said the situation was brought under control. An investigation into the violence has been launched. But “under control” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in a place where the underlying tension hasn’t gone anywhere.
This is not the first time Bordumsa has seen trouble over the Chakma question. It almost certainly will not be the last. What happened on September 4 is a reminder that when administrative processes intersect with questions of identity and belonging — and when those questions have been left unresolved for generations — a piece of paper, a hearing, even a voter roll revision, can become the spark for something far more dangerous.
The wounds from today will heal. The one that caused them won’t.
