Northeast India

India's Internal Security Outlook: Progress but Still Areas of Concern

by Bibhu Prasad Routray

Published as a RSIS Commentary, No. 002/2012, 3 January 2012

In spite of some improvements, internal security remains a critical area of concern for India in the new year. The... more In spite of some improvements, internal security remains a critical area of concern for India in the new year. The government's ability to end extremist violence and craft a counter-terror architecture continues to be hampered by bureaucratic inertia, inter-ministerial and inter-departmental rivalry and political division.

India's Northeast Region in 2011: Declining Violence and Distant Peace

by Bibhu Prasad Routray

Published in Times of Assam, 21 December 2011

2011 was the year of consolidation of the "absence of violence-phenomenon" that has dawned in India's... more 2011 was the year of consolidation of the "absence of violence-phenomenon" that has dawned in India's Northeast for the past few years. Most parts of this rebellious region have reported declining trends in armed violence. Many of the mature insurgency movements, which appeared to be intractable for a long time, have run out of steam. Cooperation from neighbouring Bangladesh has managed to achieve what the decades-long military, development and political initiatives by the Indian government could not. And yet, the goal of establishing durable peace in the region, looks some distance away. This year end assessment is an attempt to survey the ongoing peace processes in the region in terms of their proximity to final solutions.

Linking Northeast India with its Neighbouring Countries: Ethnic Perceptions and possible Ethnic Consequences

by T Haokip

Paper present at International Seminar on From Land Locked to Land Linked: Northeast India in BIMSTEC, 8-9th April 2010, NEHU, India

Since the end of Cold War and the resulting spread of globalisation, the world has witnessed an increasing trend... more Since the end of Cold War and the resulting spread of globalisation, the world has witnessed an increasing trend towards regional integration. Regional integration is stimulated by cross-border activities on a sub-regional level. With the growing trends towards regional integration, the Government of India enunciated the Look East Policy in 1991 with the aim of developing multifaceted linkage with the countries of East and Southeast Asia. With an endeavour to reinforce the Look East policy and link the Northeastern region to the dynamic economies of East and Southeast Asia, India join several sub-regional groupings. BIMSTEC is one of such sub-regional groupings and is considered to be an important step towards linking the geographically contiguous member countries.

To facilitate trade and improve infrastructure in the region, India open border trade at Moreh, Champhai and Nathula, and built the Indo-Myanmar Friendship Road connecting Tamu and Kalaymyo-Kalewa. There are several other projects on highways, railways, transit project, optical fiber network, etc. linking Northeast India with its neighbouring countries. Several of these projects pass through Moreh and the border town has a special place as the first and only thriving trading point in the region. The vicinity of Moreh is inhabited by the Kukis on both side of the international border. In this paper an attempt is made to study the perceptions of the Kukis on such linkages and its possible consequences.

5 Hindu nationalists and federal structures in an era of regionalism

by Katharine Adeney

Upper Jurassic radiolarians from the Naga Ophiolite, Nagaland, northeast India

by Alan Baxter

Alan T. Baxter, Jonathan C. Aitchison, Sergey V. Zyabrev, Jason R. Ali

Radiolarians, extracted from cherts collected from an ophiolitic mélange near Salumi, Nagaland, NE India, have... more Radiolarians, extracted from cherts collected from an ophiolitic mélange near Salumi, Nagaland, NE India, have well-preserved tests and can be assigned to the Upper Jurassic (Kimmeridgian–lower Tithonian). These are the first well-preserved and clearly imaged radiolarians reported from the Naga Ophiolite. They are significantly older than fossils previously reported from this mélange, and their ages are similar to those determined radiometrically from associated igneous units.

Conceptualising Northeast India: A Discursive Analysis on Diversity

by T Haokip

Bangladesh e-Journal of Sociology, , Volume 8, Number 2. July 2011, pp. 109-120.

Northeast India is often illusively constructed, even by policy makers and social scientists, as a homogeneous entity... more Northeast India is often illusively constructed, even by policy makers and social scientists, as a homogeneous entity of misty mountains inhabited by tribes who professed Christianity. The Siliguri corridor, which connects mainland India with the rest of the Northeastern states, is regarded as the “Mongoloid Fringe”, from where the land of the mongoloid races starts. However, in reality, the region is as diverse as India in terms of race, ethnicity, culture and also religion. This paper traces the background of how all the states of the Northeastern region came to be clubbed together as “Northeast” and attempts to explain that the diversity of the region has to be taken into account to understand the problems associated with it. Various policies adopted by the Indian government towards the region are also analysed in brief for better understand of the region.

India's Northeast Policy: Continuity and Change

by T Haokip

Internal displacement, migration, and policy in northeastern India

by Uddipana Goswami

Armed in Northeast India: Special Powers, Act or No Act

by Uddipana Goswami

The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958 (AFSPA) forms the core of the Indian Government’s relationship with the... more The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958 (AFSPA) forms the core of the Indian Government’s relationship with the Northeast region. Fifty years after its inception violence in the region is increasing rather than decreasing. While the AFSPA is central to the ways the state relates to citizens in the region and has been a major catalyst for increasing violence, this paper will not treat the AFSPA as the sole instance of the Indian state’s skewed security regime in the Northeast region, but will instead argue that the act is only a symptom of a larger malaise characterised by alienation, militarisation, and a dangerous counter-insurgency strategy. The fallout has been not merely a brutalisation of the security forces, but a legitimisation of violence. A vicious cycle has been set in motion punctuated by three main dynamics: violence giving birth to more violence, brutalisation eroding ideologies, and state-sanctioned terror engendering a disregard for peaceful alternatives. It is argued that unless the Indian state bases its approach to the region on a proper understanding of the nationalistic aspirations and indigenous and ethnic identities of the people there, this cycle cannot be stopped.

Recovering Place-Based Knowledge and Cosmogenic Agency in Struggles for a Sustainable World

by Betsy Taylor

Public Folklore, Nation-Building, and Regional Others: Comparing Appalachian USA and North-East India

by Betsy Taylor

Conflict Transformation in Assam: Lessons and New Challenges

by Bibhu Prasad Routray

Published in Times of Assam, 20 June 2011

Assam is experiencing relative peace after decades. Although incidents like the recovery of an IED from a train in the... more Assam is experiencing relative peace after decades. Although incidents like the recovery of an IED from a train in the Guwahati railway station on 17 June is a stark reminder of  some of the existing problems, the State can certainly boast of having left a violent past behind. The peace talks with the ULFA, scheduled to start in July, if handled carefully, can go a long way in establishing durable peace in this previously turbulent State.

There is no harm in New Delhi displaying magnanimity and an overwhelming element of sincerity to end insurgencies politically. Even when it can not and should not provide any political largesse to the ULFA faction, it can certainly adopt measures for the economic benefit and better governance of the State of Assam. Some success in the talks would be also necessary to force the Paresh Barua group to join the peace process, or become irrelevant. Moreover, a successful culmination of the peace process would also send signals to the other insurgencies in the region and beyond that rebellions do not have to be armed and violent to be successful. Towards that extent, a comprehensive process of dialogue with all the insurgent movements in Assam presently under ceasefire, rather than separate ones with individual outfits, would not be a bad idea.

India’s Myanmar Policy: Rational Change

by Bibhu Prasad Routray

Published in V R Raghavan, ed. "Internal Conflicts in Myanmar: Transnational Consequences", (New Delhi: Vij Books India Pvt Ltd, 2011), ISBN 13: 978-93-80177-63-2

Its not available online. But I will be happy to share a PDF copy. Mail me at bibhuroutray@gmail.com

Myanmar's military ruler Senior General Than Shwe undertook a five day goodwill visit to India in July 2010. The... more Myanmar's military ruler Senior General Than Shwe undertook a five day goodwill visit to India in July 2010. The General’s itinerary included official business in New Delhi as well as visit to Buddhist shrines of Bodh Gaya and Saranath. Predictably, the visit by the 77 year old military leader came under much criticism from the Myamarese pro-democracy forums who took objection to India welcoming the military ruler and called the Indian move ‘shameless’. Irrawady, the United States based pro-democracy advocacy forum commented in its August 2010 editorial, “India’s red-carpet welcome of Than Shwe strongly indicates that no matter how egregiously his military regime manipulates the process to ensure an outcome and future government in its favor, New Delhi is likely to honor the result of Burma’s election.”  The understandable criticism of this hopelessly marginalized and outnumbered group of pro-democracy activists notwithstanding, Than Swe’s visit marked the continuation of India’s new Myanmar policy which has come out of the grove of idealism and rooting itself deep in realpolitik.

Wanted: A Policy to end Small Arms Smuggling

by Bibhu Prasad Routray

Published in Geopolitics (New Delhi), March 2011

United States boasts of 89 guns for 100 persons in the count of civilian forearm possession. The only South Asian... more United States boasts of 89 guns for 100 persons in the count of civilian forearm possession. The only South Asian country that makes high to the rather ignominious list is Pakistan with about 12 guns per 100 persons. India fares better with only 4.2 guns per 100 persons. However, this statistics is hardly a matter of solace as in terms of the actuals, the estimate of the number of privately held guns in India is 46 million, out of which only 5.5 million are registered. The rest are available to the criminals, insurgents as well as anybody interested to possess one. Impact of the proliferation has been serious for the country and the problem is only growing.

“A Historical Perspective,” Seminar, Issue 550, June, 2005, Special Issue on North-East India, Gateway to the East, Sanjib Baruah (ed.), 45-49

by Jayeeta Sharma

Politics over Peace in Assam

by Bibhu Prasad Routray

Published in Imphal Free Press, February 13, 2011

It would have been irrational to expect the first round of talks on 10 February talks between New Delhi and a faction... more It would have been irrational to expect the first round of talks on 10 February talks between New Delhi and a faction of the militant outfit United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) to produce results. The first round, described as an ‘ice breaking meeting’ in any event was only directed at ‘fixing modalities and overseeing a couple of critical aspects.’ However, even for the optimists of the extreme variety, a terrible sense of unease accompanies the negotiation process. The actual delivery capacity of the process, euphorically described as the ‘outbreak of peace in Assam’, remains severely questionable.