Northeast India is a multifaceted and dynamic region that is constantly in focus because of its fragile political landscape characterized by endemic violence and conflicts. One of the first of its kind, this reader on Northeast India examines myriad aspects of the region – its people and its linguistic and cultural diversity.
- The chapters here highlight the key issues confronted by the Northeast in recent times: its history, politics, economy, gender equations, migration, ethnicity, literature and traditional performative practices.
- The book presents interlinkages between a range of socio-cultural issues and armed political violence while covering topics such as federalism, nationality, population, migration and social change.
- It discusses debates on development with a view to comprehensive policies and state intervention.
With its a nuanced and wide-ranging overview, this volume makes new contributions to understanding a region that is critical to the future of South Asian geopolitics. The book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of contemporary Northeast India as well as history, political science, area studies, international relations, sociology and social anthropology. It will also appeal to those interested in public administration, regional literature, cultural studies, population studies, development studies and economics.
Introduction Part I: Armed Political Violence 1. Nationalist Ideology, Militarization and Human Rights in the Northeast 2. Armed Opposition Groups in Northeast India: The Splinter Scenario Part II: The Extra-Ordinary Law and Its Impact 3. Violence as AFSPA 1958 and the People’s Movement Against It 4. People’s Conversation on Truth, Justice and Reparation Part III: National Questions 5. Assamese Nationality Question 6. Challenges and Predicaments of Naga Nationalism 7. Narrating the Nation in Manipur: Reproduction of a Historical Question Part IV: Land and Territoriality 8. Land, People and Conflict: A Study of Manipur and its Neighbourhood 9. Politics of Land Alienation and Problem of its Restoration in Tripura Part V: Migration and Ethnicity 10. Illegal Bangladeshi Migration into the Northeast: Policy Making, Politics, and Road Blocks 11. Employment, Unemployment, Job Aspiration and Migration: Some Reflections of Tangkhul Migrants to Delhi Part VI. Federal Politics 12. Salvaging Autonomy in India’s Northeast: Beyond the Sixth Schedule Way 13. Autonomy for Tribal Communities in India: A Study of the Northeastern States Part VII: Locating Civil Society 14. Fast Forward or Living in Permanent State of Nature? 15. Civil Society and Democracy: Absence of the Sovereign in Northeast India 16. Pang-Sau or Redeeming India’s Northeast from Impoverished Constitutionalisms: After-life of an Essay Part VIII: Tradition And Modernity 17. Colonial Modernity and Plight of the Receiving Communities 18. In the Name of a Flyover: Development, Resistance, Politics Part IX: Popular Culture 19. Music, Body and Sexuality in Bihu Songs of Assam 20. Problematizing Cultural Appropriation: Tangkhul Folk-Blues and Socio-Political Aspirations 21. Poetic Discourse in the Songs of Tapta Part X: Literary Trends 22. Manipuri Literature in History 23. Growth and Development of Mizo Literature 24. Differing Resistances: Mediating the Naga Struggle in Easterine Iralu’s A Terrible Matriarchy and Temsula Ao’s These Hills Called Home Part XI: Women and Gender 25. The Politics of Gendered Resistance: Body and Agency 26. We have got things to say: Beyond the Nationalising Narrative of the Bodoland movement Part XII: State and Development Policies 27. Building Northeastern Futures, Looking East 28. Preparing the Northeastern Economy for the Future 29. Critiquing the Development Intervention in the Northeast 30. Understanding Underdevelopment: State of Economy in the Northeast 31. Re-imagining the North East in India, Again: Did Geography Sidestep History in Vision (2020)? 32. Post-Development, Democratic Discourse and Dissensus: A Critique of Vision 2020 Index
Biography
Bhagat Oinam is Professor at the Centre for Philosophy at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Concurrent Faculty at the Northeast India Studies Programme, JNU, New Delhi, India. He has worked at several institutes including the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, North Eastern Hill University, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, and Centre for Studies in Civilizations (CSC). He has been a visiting scholar at Freie Universität and Tel Aviv University, among others. In addition to several articles published in journals and anthologies, he has co-edited the volume Perspectives on Manipuri Culture (2017) under the CSC series ‘History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization’.
Dhiren A. Sadokpam is an independent researcher and journalist based in Manipur. He is currently the Executive Editor of Eastern Quarterly, a journal on India’s Northeast. Sadokpam was also the editor of the Imphal-based English daily, Hueiyen Lanpao. He has worked both in print and electronic media since 1996 and is currently engaged with independent works on media, culture and the political economy of Northeast India.
