ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that while State-initiated development in India's Northeast since Independence is invariably couched in nationalist rhetoric, it has set off a kind of ethnic politics that is widely considered as being characteristic of the region. On the one hand, in the face of a collapsing consensus on development regardless of the ecological impacts, nationalist rhetoric sought to rediscover itself and rebuild the consensus increasingly through military means. On the other hand, the development has turned out to be a source of dissension and division within and among ethnic communities. In neither of these cases was the development perceived by the masses of people as the desired goal. The study, however, argues that, unlike ethno-ecologism which is marked by a community's concern for survival by way of restoring and upholding the organic connection, eco-ethnicism subordinates ecological concerns to the abiding objective of owning and exercising control over resources, ignoring in effect their ecological impact.
