It is a good sign that the governments of Assam and Mizoram have reaffirmed their commitment to continue to promote and maintain peace and harmony and prevent any untoward incidents along the inter-state border. The reaffirmation was made in a meeting of minister-led delegations from both sides held in Aizawl on Friday. The people of Mizoram and Assam share a lot of things in common, starting from food habits to festivities to their respect for neighbours. Nowhere in history can one find any reference to the hill people engaging in any war or armed contest with their plains brethren. But certain policies adopted by the British to forcibly occupy traditional territories belonging to different Lushai chiefs created situations where the people of the plains became unwarranted victims. The Lushais, like all other communities in the region, fought tooth and nail to protect their land from the colonial powers. Mizo Hills were formally declared as part of British India by a proclamation in 1895. The north and south hills were united into the Lushai Hills district in 1898, with Aizawl as its headquarters. Upgraded into a Union Territory in 1972 as Mizoram, the latter was made a full-fledged state on February 20, 1987. While the boundary of the erstwhile Lushai Hills district was notified on March 9, 1933, Assam and Mizoram today share a 164.6 km inter-state boundary. While the Government of Assam sticks to the March 9, 1933 notification regarding the boundary of the erstwhile Lushai Hills district, the Mizoram government’s stand is that the boundary of Lushai Hills was demarcated on the basis of a document of 1875 under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation of 1873. While this document was further modified in 1933, the Mizoram government considers the 1875 demarcation “acceptable” because “it had the consent of the then tribal chiefs, unlike the 1933 re-drawing on the basis of which it was declared a union territory in 1972 and then a state in 1987.” These differences have caused some serious friction in the past. But the best thing is that while both sides have agreed to forget the misgivings, they have, in Friday’s discussion, also declared their common intention to continue to promote and maintain peace and harmony and prevent any untoward incidents along the inter-state border. Most importantly, Friday’s meeting has already been described as a significant step towards finding mutually acceptable solutions to the border disputes between the two states. Additionally, the delegations from both states have jointly agreed that the cooperation of the people living on both sides of the states is extremely crucial for a peaceful solution to border disputes.