ABSTRACT
A feature of the present situation in Assam and other areas of the North-East (NE) region, as indeed in many other parts of the country, is the increasing concern on the part of the various groups that go to make the Indian nation about a perceived threat to their ‘identity’. The situation in the NE region provides some of the most explicit instances of this trend towards the denominationalization of Indian society and eventually, the Indian state system itself. The people are distinct, separate and in some respects, even unique in that they have a history and memories, a language and literature, a culture and an ethos that is their own, though not necessarily in contradiction with and opposition to the larger pan-Indian identity. But official policy since independence has been to curb and curtail the pluralistic tendencies, subsume them into an enforced-from-the top Indian identity.
