Identity Contestation And Development In Northeast India

India’s Northeast has long been riven by protracted armed conflicts for secession and movements for other forms of autonomy. This book shows how the conflicts in the region have gradually shifted towards inter-ethnic feuds, rendered more vicious by the ongoing multiplication of ethnicities in an already heterogeneous region. It further traces the intricate contours of the conflicts and the attempts of the dominant groups to establish their hegemonies against the consent of the smaller groups, as well as questions the efficacy of the state’s interventions. The volume also engages with the recurrent demands for political autonomy, and the resultant conundrum that hobbles the region’s economic and political development processes. Lucid, topical and thorough in analysis, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers in political science, sociology, development studies and peace & conflict studies, particularly those concerned with Northeast India.

This book offers an understanding of the expectations and challenges of Northeast India in the context of India's Act East policy. It critically examines how the policy is being pursued by the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government and analyses its relevance from local perspectives. Contributors to the book provide an examination of the differences between Look East and Act East policy and explanations of the expectations of India's neighboring countries, particularly Myanmar, towards Northeast India. They ask the following questions: a) What is to be done to integrate India’s Northeast region meaningfully into the Act East policy? What is the motive of linking this policy with these states? How is this policy received by the local communities? b) What are the challenges of the Northeast region? What are their needs and priorities? How can these states showcase their potentials to Southeast Asia and East Asia? c) What is the significance of the changes from Look to Act East Policy? Has the regime change affected the continuity in the policy? What are the short- and long-term goals? d) What are the expectations of Southeast Asia and East Asia? By addressing these questions, they bridge the knowledge gaps that exist in the understating of the the Northeast region of India vis-à-vis the Act East policy. The first book to combine a balanced view of India's Act East policy and Northeast India, it will be of interest to policy makers and academics in the fields of Development Studies, International Relations, Northeast India and South Asian Politics.

Routledge Readings on Security and Governance in Northeastern India: Resource Conflicts, Militarisation and Development Challenges presents some of the finest essays on a region that stretches across the Northeastern Himalaya, eight Indian States and many tribal and non-tribal peoples. With a lucid Introduction, this and its companion volume, Routledge Readings on Colonial to Contemporary Northeastern India offer a compelling look into the society, polity, contemporary security and developmental issues in northeast India. It covers several critical themes and unravels complexities fraught by the unique biogeography and socio-political history of the region. The fifteen chapters in this multidisciplinary volume, divided into three sections, examine land laws, conflict and resource management and local governance. It discusses the political interplay of ethnicities and resource appropriation in a modernizing, globalizing economy as well as instances of conflicts and violence in highly militarized spaces in the region. It offers an engaged and insightful look into the rural and urban human development contexts in the region from authors who have contributed significantly to the academic and/or policy discourse on the subject. This book will serve as essential reading for students, scholars, policymakers, practitioners of South Asian studies, Northeast India studies, history, development studies, labour studies, sociology, public administration, environmental studies, law and human rights, regional literature, cultural studies, geography, and economics.

Contributed articles chiefly with reference to rural development in Northeastern India; includes articles on cultural history of the region.