Arunachal’s minority CM has half his tribe in China
Kalikho Pul, the ninth chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh, has a few firsts. He is the first Congress CM in India to be installed with support from arch-rivals BJP, and the first from south-eastern Arunachal Pradesh belonging to one of the smallest ethnic groups —Kaman Mishmi.
He is also the first CM with many members of his tribe living in China. Anjaw, Pul’s home district bordering China, has ethnic groups such as Zakhring whose population is barely 1,000. The Kamans are thrice this number but fewer than the Idus and Digarus, the other two in the greater Mishmi group with an estimated total population of more than 30,000. Across the border, in southern Tibet, the Kamans are called Geman Dengs. About 1,500, the Dengs are one of several ethnic groups not recognised by Beijing.
Arunachal Pradesh has 26 major tribes and 100 sub-groups, and among the smallest are the Sherdukpens who practise Buddhism. Prem Khandu Thungon, the state’s first CM from 1975 to 79, was from the same community, which then had 2,000 members. But, considering the frontier state’s average decadal population growth of 26%, Pul’s community is believed to have fewer members.
According to the Indigenous Faith and Cultural Society of Arunachal Pradesh, Pul is a minority among minorities on the religious count too. The Kamans follow Amik Matai, an indigenous faith distinct from the Nani Inyata faith of the Idus and Jab Malo of the Digarus. Adherents of these and other faiths such as Donyi-Polo, Rangfrah and Nyezi-no are 26.2% of the population in Arunachal Pradesh (2011 census), the largest religion being Christianity at 30.26%. “Miniscule nature-worshipping communities are in the true sense India’s minorities, though the term is invariably used for mainstream religious groups,” Assam-based Ramkui Newme, head of an indigenous faith called Heraka, told HT.