ABSTRACT
In Chapter 6, the full-fledged impact of a global war is witnessed in North East India with the arrival of allied troops and the transformation of the region as a frontline in the war against Japan. The difficulties encountered by foreign soldiers in acclimatizing themselves to the harsh environment and in building the required infrastructure are highlighted. The negligence of this eastern frontier throughout colonial rule is brought into sharp focus. However, this chapter also brings home the realization that war has innumerable shades and colours. Apart from the extreme difficulties faced by the people through various wartime policies, including requisitioning and ‘denial,’ it also opened the region from the closure of the past, widening the exposure of the people and fielding in opportunities for suitable jobs—skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled alongside trade and business contracts that were hardly available before the war. Indeed the war years proved to be a boom period for many people, with an unprecedented inflow of cash within the province. The huge presence of Anglo-American soldiers in the province also exposed the people particularly in the remote and isolated corners to a world they had never imagined to exist.
