Pangi Tribe People Arrive in Delhi for Their Region's Identity

New Delhi. A delegation of the Pangwal Ekta Manch (Pangi Unity Forum) from Pangi in Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh has reached the national capital of New Delhi, demanding the restoration of Pangi assembly constituency and construction of Chehni Pass tunnel. Pangwal Ekta Manch  their two major demands. He said that his organization represents 25,000 Pangwal tribe people. Pangi is the most remote and snow-covered tribal-dominated region of Himachal Pradesh. The Pangwal tribe is an independent tribe in the 5th Schedule of the Constitution of India. It has its own distinct culture, language, dialect, geography, and history. A delegation of the Pangwal tribe, demanding to make Pangi an assembly constituency again, reached Delhi on December 10, 2023 after a three-day difficult journey. Passing through Lahaul-Spiti-Mandi, Bilaspur, Punjab, and Haryana, these people have traveled about 1000 km.

 He said that Pangi was declared an assembly constituencyduring the first delimitation in 1952. (Late) Daulat Ram, who belonged to the Pangwal tribal community, represented this consituency. However, the existence of the Pangi assembly constituency was abolished in the delimitation of 1962 and the entire Pangi region was made part of the Bharmour assembly constituency in 1966. After this, delimitations also took place in 1972 and 2002, but the Pangi assembly constituency status was not restored. From 1967 to this day, the Pangwal tribal community has not been given any political representation in the Himachal Pradesh assembly and government. For the past 60 years, the Pangwal tribal community of 25,000 population and the area spread over 1600 square kilometers have been under the political representation of the Gaddi tribal community. There are four major tribes and tribal areas in Himachal Pradesh: (1) Kinnaur, district-Kinnaur (2) Lahaula, district-Lahaul Spiti (3)Pangi, district-Chamba (4) Gaddi, district-Chamba.

He said that every community has its own distinct culture, geography, history, and dialect, and all are independent of each other's influence. Then why is the Gaddi tribe dominating over the Pangwal tribe? He also said that geographically, Pangi and Bharmour are in opposite directions. Pangi is at the northern end of Himachal Pradesh, while Bharmour is at the southern end and in between is the Sach Jot (Sach Pass) and the vast Pir Panjal mountain range area. The Pangwal tribe is an independent tribe with its own distinct history, region, culture, language, dialect, and identity. It has no resemblance to the Gaddi tribe.

He said that recently the Indian Parliament passed a historic Nari Shakti Vandan Act 2023, under which the government said in Parliament that the process of delimitation will start immediately after the Lok Sabha elections to be held in 2024. It is now clear that the ban on delimitation will be lifted by 2026 and the assembly constituencies will be reviewed again, for which a delimitation commission will be constituted. With the same hope, the people of the Pangwal Ekta Manch have reached Delhi that the old status of the Pangi assembly constituency would be restored during new delimitation process.