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Governing the Borderlands: Democratic Politics, Law and Institutions in Northeast India book cover

1st Edition

Governing the Borderlands Democratic Politics, Law and Institutions in Northeast India

Edited By Durga Prasad Chhetri Copyright 2027
344 Pages 5 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book develops a conceptual framework to better understand governance issues, and theoretical tools to grasp the variety of empirical realities observed in practice in Northeast India. Drawing from the study of cases of governance, law and institutions in India’s Northeast borderlands, it provides an exploratory space for creative thinking and to encourage a wider, deeper and more nuanced... Read more

Introduction: Rethinking Governance from the Margins

Durga P Chhetri

PART I

Genealogies of Rule: Law, Violence and the Making of Borderland Governance

1.         Governing the Borderlands: Origins of Law and Autonomous Institutions in India’s Northeast

Samir Kumar Das

2. Law, Citizenship and Democracy

Anupama Roy

3.         Framing the Tribal: Ethnic Violence in Northeast India

Ashild Kolas

 

PART II

Ethnicity and Vernacularisation of the State

4. Governance in the Tribal Hills: Lessons from the Experiences of Governing ‘Gorkhas’ in Darjeeling Hills 

Prabhat Kumar Datta

5. Engaging the State: Ethnic Patronage and Cultural Politics in the Eastern Himalayan Borderland

Mona Chettri

6. Examining Traditional Governance and Tribal Polity of the Kukis in the Hills of Contemporary Manipur

Ngamjahao Kipgen

7.         What’s in a ‘Tribe’? Claims making and the Dynamics of the Naga National Movement

Madhumita Das

 

PART III

Territory, Sovereignty and the Politics of Autonomy

8.         Federalism and Cultural Pluralism: Reflections on Northeast India

Ranju R Dhamala

9.         Contested Boundaries: The Assam-Mizoram Border Dispute in Northeast India

Jangkhongam Doungel

10. District Autonomy in Northeast India: Hopes and Realities

M. Amarjeet Singh

 

PART IV

Reconfiguring Democracy: Institutions, Media and Political Transformation

11. Weapon of Masses: Social Media and Governance in Sikkim

Bhim B Subba

12. Traditional Institutions and Democratic Governance in Meghalaya: A Critical Assessment

T.T. Haokip

13. Governance and Democracy

G. Palanithurai

14. Electoral Politics and Political Transformation in the Borderlands: Four Decades of Democracy in Sikkim

Durga P Chhetri, Mary Bal and Tenzing Doma Bhutia

Afterword

Beyond Exceptionality: Democracy and the Crisis of Governability in the Borderlands

Rumki Basu

Biography

Durga P Chhetri is Professor and Chairperson at the Department of Political Science, Sikkim University, Sikkim, India. He also serves as Director of the University. His research foci include governance, decentralisation and federalism, gender studies, social justice, social theory and social exclusion/inclusion. He is the author or co-author of many scholarly articles and book chapters as well as five books, including Making Democratic Decentralization Work in South Asia (co-edited: 2025), Gender, Power and Democracy in South Asia (2019), Divided Spaces: Discourse on Social Exclusion and Women in India (2014), Decentralised Governance and Development in India (2012), and Politics, Society and Development: Insights from Sikkim (2012). He is on the editorial board of the Indian Journal of Political Science, which publishes the high quality, cutting-edge research in all areas of political science. He is the recipient of the India’s National Young Political Scientist Award 2017.

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