The indigenous people of the state, commonly known as Twipras were mainly highlanders and practiced shifting cultivation because they were unaware of plain land cultivation by ploughs. Tripura kings had repatriated many Bengali cultivators from East Bengal in the plains of Tripura for tilling lands. Later, many tribal communities who were earlier nomadic, had learned the use of ploughs and tilling system in the plains. The kings had also given prestigious settlement to Bengali intellectual people in the state for absorbing them in administration.

The state had a very close trade and commercial relation with the people of the East Bengal. The place where I stay is known as Melarmath. It means a field for organising fair. The then Tripura Kings used to organise big fair annually in the place where the traders of East Bengal participated with their goods of different kinds. The fair used to extend even up to one week .Even some times it was extended for about one month. People from far-flung areas of the state used to come to the fair to buy and sell their goods. The traders used to come to Agartala to come to attend the fair either by riverine routes or on foot . The most interesting part of the fair was that if, in case, the traders could not sell their products, the King used to buy it to support the growth of economy in the state. The Tripura Kings had their Zamindari in Chakla Roshanabad comprising the Sylhet, Comilla and Noakhali districts of East Bengal. Their Zamindari in Chakla Roshanabad was the main source of earning revenue. Noted singer , Sachin Debbarman, a member of the royal family of Tripura, was educated in Comilla and also stayed there to learn music from different teachers in East Bengal.

During the liberation war, Tripura again became a very important place for the Bengali nationalists. Many people from there had taken refuge in the state and many camps of liberation armies were set up in the country. Interestingly, while the entire trade and commerce of the state were controlled by the people of East Bengal before partition of India . The situation had changed completely after independence. It may really sound bad for many of us to hear that Bangladesh has always failed to take advantage of long border with neighbouring India. But, it is true. The Indo-Bangla border is about 4,100 km long but since Independence, India has taken advantage of the border by exporting its commodities. It has expanded its market throughout Bangladesh but the latter is yet to create markets of its own in any part of India. A trade imbalance between the two country has always remained an uneasy point of arguement between the two countries. Where India exports items worth Rs 500 crore annually, it imports goods worth Rs 50 crore only. Besides Indian illegal traders are exporting items of several crores taking the advantage of the proximity to border. And the amount of item under unofficial business is much more than official trade. Now the question has come why has Bangladesh has not been able to engulf Indian market? India is industrially more developed than Bangladesh. Moreover it is difficult for Bangladesh to export its items because Indian mainland markets are not in proximity. It takes more than six hours to reach Benapole from Dhaka and 15 hours from Chittagong. So in case of export of items from Bangaldesh, the transhipment cost within the country goes high. So, it is not cost effective to send popular items from any part of the country to Mumbai, Delhi or any Indian mainland market. Now question comes how Bangladesh can be benefitted in creating markets for its products.

Let us look at the northeastern states of India. The region is formed with seven states-Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram and Tripura. The region is land-locked and is connected with the mainland India by a narrow strip of 22 km stretch, commonly known as the "Chicken neck". The region has two per cent border with the mainland and the rest is linked with international border, mainly with Bangladesh. Eighty-four per cent of the total land in the northeast is in proximity with Bangladesh. Moreover, the rate of industrial development in Bangladesh is much better than the growth rate of the region. Last five years average statistics shows that Bangladesh has exported items worth Rs 17 crore per year through Tripura border and imported items worth Rs one crore only. The people of northeastern region are crying hoarse for a transit route through Bangladesh because the region is like an island and want a corridor to reach the mainland. The Dhaka-Agartala bus service was test run last month and the services is likely to be launched commercially very soon. If it is launched, people from the region in general and people from Tripura in particular will be benefited and would also boost the tourism industry in Bangladesh. If transhipment facility through Bangladesh is opened, it would be beneficial for both the countries. It takes 5 to 8 days to carry goods from Calcutta to Agartala via Guwahati. If goods can be carried through Bangladesh, it would take only one day to reach Agartala and two days to ach Guwahati. So Agartala may become the Gateway to North East. President of Tripura Chamber of Commerce, Mr M.L. Debnath says, an assessment by the chamber indicates that 1000 to 2000 trucks could be utilised for transhipment of Indian goods everyday and Bangladesh can earn about Rs 2000 crore per annum.

FREE TRADE ZONE : Free trade zones between the two countries has become the need of the hour .Within five km radius of the border in both the sides there should be market complex where people from both the countries would come to sell and buy their products and the tariff structure of both the countries should be equal and in minimised level. If free border zone is created, Bangladesh will be benefited because variety of products and amount of products would be much more than the products in Tripura. Tripura being the second largest rubber growing state in the country, it can export natural rubber sheet to Bangladesh. In spite of the huge production, any rubber based industry has not come up in Tripura as yet. Beside rubber, Tripura is also blessed with huge reserve of natural gas .But due to communication bottleneck and absence of investors, gas based industry could not come up in a big way. Recently the North Eastern Electrical Power Corporation (NEEPCO) is funding for setting up of a 500 mega watt gas-based power project at Sonamura . The unit, which would be the largest of its kind in the region, is likely to be operational by next few years. As there has not been much of industrial development in the tiny northeastern state, a 500 MW power station would make us self-sufcient, but would also enable us to sell power to any neighbouring state or country.