Autonomous District Council under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India while empowering the hill tribes of North-east India kept the plain tribes of Assam out of its purview assuming that the plain tribes would gradually assimilate with the non-tribals. In contrary to such presumption, the Bodos, a plain tribe of Assam started mobilization for territorial autonomy. In 2003, the provision of the Sixth Schedule was extended to form Bodoland Territorial Council in the four districts of Assam, the area known as Bodoland Territorial Region. BTR comprises of only 33.5% ST population and 66.5% are the non-tribals i.e., Koch-Rajbongshis, Assamese-Hindus, Assamese-Muslims, Bengali-Hindus, Bengali-Muslims. Therefore, introducing such arrangements of empowering the Schedule Tribes (90% of the STs are the Bodos) has led to marginalization and counter-ethnic mobilization among the other communities who share the same space. The present paper tries to analyze counter-ethnic mobilization as a consequence of the formation of ADC in a multi-ethnic society. It identifies three factors of counter-ethnic mobilization in BTR i.e., incidences of violence, insecurity, and the question of deprivation. It also analyses the non-Bodo identity formation in the process of such mobilization. The study is based on both primary and secondary data. Primary data are collected from the members of ethnic organizations and political parties using a semi-structured interview schedule. The present paper is divided into three parts—the first part discusses the formation of BTC in the context of the Bodoland movement. The second part discusses counter-ethnic mobilization and the factors of such mobilization. The third part discusses the formation of non-Bodo identity as an integral part of the political scenario of BTR.
