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Seven sister states
The Seven Sister States are the contiguous states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura in northeastern India.
Contents
- Seven sister states
- History
- Ethnic and religious composition
- Insurgencies
- Origin of Land of Seven Sisters sobriquet
- References

These states cover an area of 255,511 square kilometres (98,653 sq mi), or about seven percent of India's total area. As of 2011 they had a population of 44.98 million, about 3.7 percent of India's total. Although there is great ethnic and religious diversity within the seven states, they bear similarities in the political, social and economic spheres.

History

When India became independent from the United Kingdom in 1947, only three states covered the area. Manipur and Tripura were princely states, while a much larger Assam Province was under direct British rule. Its capital was Shillong (present day Meghalaya's capital). Four new states were carved out of the original territory of Assam in the decades following independence, in line with the policy of the Indian government of reorganizing the states along ethnic and linguistic lines. Accordingly, Nagaland became a separate state in 1963, followed by Meghalaya in 1972. Mizoram became a Union Territory in 1972, and achieved statehood - along with Arunachal Pradesh in 1987.The indigenous tribes of North Eastern India are the Bodo, the Nishi people, the Garo people, the Nagas, Bhutia and many others.
Ethnic and religious composition

Except for Assam, where the major language is Assamese, and Tripura, where the major language is Bengali, the region has a predominantly tribal population that speak numerous Sino-Tibetan and Austro-Asiatic languages. Meithei, the third most spoken language in this region is a Sino-Tibetan language. The large and populous states of Assam, Manipur and Tripura remain predominantly Hindu, with a sizable Muslim minority in Assam. Christianity is the major religion in the states of Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya.
Insurgencies

The region has suffered from insurgency and intra-tribal warfare, including terrorism, for decades; from 2005 to 2015 about 5,500 have died from political violence. The Indian government passed a law, the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 that applies to just the seven states and grants security forces the power to search properties without a warrant, and to arrest people, and to use deadly force if there is "reasonable suspicion" that a person is acting against the state; a similar law applies to Jammu & Kashmir.
Origin of "Land of Seven Sisters" sobriquet
The sobriquet, the 'Land of the Seven Sisters', had been originally coined to coincide with the inauguration of the new states in January, 1972, by Jyoti Prasad Saikia, a journalist in Tripura in the course of a radio talk show. He later compiled a book on the interdependence and commonness of the Seven Sister States, and named it the Land of Seven Sisters.
It has been primarily because of this publication that the nickname has caught on.