ABSTRACT
The Introduction traces some of the dominant trends in the writing and representation of North East India, especially since the nineteenth century. It also tries to delineate the underlying presumptions and complex practices of the ‘modern’, which often not only guided state-making practices in the region, but had also affected the multiple productions and circulation of knowledge about the region. The Introduction also highlights some of the recent trends that seek to understand the region, its history and its socio-cultural processes, in new ways. Are there possibilities of exploring the region and its complex historical and socio-cultural terrains beyond the binaries set in place by the colonial or post-colonial orders? Looking into some of the critical issues that studies on the region have raised, the Introduction indicates some of the ways in which societies in the region interacted and responded to various forms of ‘modern’ encounters. It also attempts to highlight some of the possibilities of understanding the region through new frames of analysis and underlines the importance of examining the region in relation to other wider processes of capital, geographical mapping, socio-cultural practices and historical contexts.
