ABSTRACT
The region known as North-East India has not been static but changing slowly. Since the colonial period, however, the changes have been unprecedented, stimulated by forces outside the region such as the colonial administration, new forms of trade, commerce, economic enterprises, Christianity, modern education, etc. These forces opened up avenues of employment and labour that had hitherto been either conspicuously absent or present in a very elementary form. These changes were accelerated in post-Independence India due to the growth and expansion of the state administration on the one hand, and the state’s concern for the economic, social and infrastructure development of the region on the other. This chapter attempts to understand employment and labour in the historical context and highlights their changing character and forms.
