ABSTRACT

Northeast India is a multifaceted and dynamic region that is constantly in focus because of its fragile political landscape characterized by endemic violence and conflicts. One of the first of its kind, this reader on Northeast India examines myriad aspects of the region – its people and its linguistic and cultural diversity.

  • The chapters here highlight the key issues confronted by the Northeast in recent times: its history, politics, economy, gender equations, migration, ethnicity, literature and traditional performative practices.

  • The book presents interlinkages between a range of socio-cultural issues and armed political violence while covering topics such as federalism, nationality, population, migration and social change.

  • It discusses debates on development with a view to comprehensive policies and state intervention.

With its a nuanced and wide-ranging overview, this volume makes new contributions to understanding a region that is critical to the future of South Asian geopolitics. The book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of contemporary Northeast India as well as history, political science, area studies, international relations, sociology and social anthropology. It will also appeal to those interested in public administration, regional literature, cultural studies, population studies, development studies and economics.

Chapter 31 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at https://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license. 

chapter |25 pages

Introduction

part I|25 pages

Armed political violence

part II|28 pages

The extraordinary law and its impact

part III|44 pages

National questions

chapter 5|12 pages

Assamese nationality question 1

chapter 7|12 pages

Narrating the nation in Manipur

Reproduction of a historical question 1

part IV|25 pages

Land and territoriality

chapter 8|12 pages

Land and ethnicity

A study of Manipur and its neighbourhood 1

part V|33 pages

Migration and ethnicity

chapter 10|15 pages

Illegal Bangladeshi migration into the Northeast

Policy making, politics and road blocks 1

chapter 11|16 pages

Employment, unemployment, job aspiration and migration

Some reflections of Tangkhul migrants to Delhi 1

part VI|27 pages

Federal politics

chapter 12|12 pages

Salvaging autonomy in India’s Northeast

Beyond the Sixth Schedule way 1

chapter 13|13 pages

Autonomy for tribal communities in India

A study of the Northeastern states 1

part VII|35 pages

Locating civil society

chapter 15|12 pages

Civil society and democracy

Absence of the sovereign in Northeast India 1

part VIII|28 pages

Tradition and modernity

chapter 18|12 pages

In the name of a flyover

Development, resistance, politics 1

part IX|31 pages

Popular culture

chapter 20|10 pages

Problematizing cultural appropriation

Tangkhul folk-blues and socio-political aspirations 1

part X|34 pages

Literary trends

chapter 24|10 pages

Differing resistances

Mediating the Naga struggle in Easterine Iralu’s A Terrible Matriarchy and Temsula Ao’s These Hills Called Home 1

part XI|33 pages

Women and gender

chapter 25|16 pages

The politics of gendered resistance

Body and agency 1

chapter 26|15 pages

‘We have got things to say’

Beyond the nationalizing narrative of the Bodoland movement 1

part XII|43 pages

State and development policies

part XIII|44 pages

Critiques of development discourse

chapter 30|13 pages

Understanding underdevelopment

State of economy in the Northeast 1

chapter 31|17 pages

Re-imagining the Northeast in India, again

Did geography sidestep history in Vision (2020)? 1

chapter 32|12 pages

Post-development, democratic discourse and dissensus

A critique of Vision 2020 1