Jawaharlal Nehru laid down the policy of Integration to five principles (1957) in his foreword note to Verrier Elwin’s book, called “The Philosophy of NEFA” (NEFA – North East Frontier of Assam).
The tribal panchasheela as enunciated by him as follows:
1. People should ‘develop along the lines of their own genius‘ and we should avoid imposing anything on them. We should try to encourage in every way their own traditional – arts and culture.
2. Tribal rights in land and forests should be respected.
3. We should try to train and build up a team of their own people to work, administration and development. Some technical personnel from outside will, no doubt be needed especially in the beginning. But we should avoid introducing too many outsiders into tribal territory.
4. We should not over-administer these areas or overwhelm them with a multiplicity of schemes. We should rather work through and not in rivalry to their own social and cultural institutions.
5. We should judge the results not by statistics or the amount of money spent but by the quality of human character that is evolved.
