The Treaty of Yandaboo and the Question of Self -Determination in Assam from the perspective of International Legal Regimes

Abstract

The article interrogates the claim of ‘sovereign right’ by certain sections of the Assamese people on the basis of the historic Yandaboo Treaty, concluded between the British and the Burmese on 24 February 1926 where Assam was not a party to it. It intends to examine legality and relevance of the Treaty of Yandaboo from the perspective of international laws to address the present sub-national driven self-determination movement in Assam and argues that under any legal circumstances the question of Assam’s territorial sovereignty as claimed by the insurgents and radical intelligentsia is not tenable. The article argues that at the time of India’s independence, under the leadership of Provincial Congress, Assam had already exercised the right to self-determination by choosing to unite with the Indian Union without any mass resistance. The article concludes that rather than ‘claiming territorial sovereignty’, the people of Assam should stand for its ‘political and economic rights’, for achieving internal self-determination which may be a way forward to resolve the long-standing political problem in the region within the framework of Indian federalism.