Political Economy Of North East India

Development Research Focusing On North-East India(Nei) Seems To Be Limited By Isolated And Piecemeal Nature Of Empirical Studies. This Situation Throws Up A Challenge To Investigate Inot The Causal And Historicla Limkages Between Politics And Economics. T

Globalization has affected a change across the regions of the world and India is no exception. The national economy has become far more integrated with the global economy now. However, there are large parts of the underdeveloped regions that suffer from endemic underdevelopment. The north-eastern region is one such region. The relevance of Globalisation in the context of the North-Eastern Region of India has additional implications in terms of social and political integration. The most important characteristic of the north-eastern region is that all the constituent units (states) are relatively closed ethnic groups. All the states in the region share porous international border. Consequently, both product and factor markets in these states have some international dimension. Given the socioeconomic and geopolitical dimensions in the region, the prevailing pattern of development in these states has also culminated in the form of social unrest and degradation of economic values. This clearly implies that the development policies and programmes have fallen short of meeting the social and economic aspirations of the indigenous population in the region. In this context, the question that arises is how the forces of Globalization and economic growth could be combined together to address the implicit and most relevant questions associated with migration, unemployment and development of trading activities in the perspective of North-Eastern Region of India.

This book examines the structural changes in the labour market in North-East India. Going beyond the conventional study of tea and agricultural sectors, it focuses on the nature, pattern and structure of work and employment in the region as well as documents emerging shifts in the labour force towards farm to non-farm dynamics. The chapters explore historical developments in employment patterns, labour market policies, issues of gender and social-religious dimensions, as well as point to growing forms of casual, informal and contractual labour across sectors. Through large-scale data and detailed case studies on unfree labour in plantations and those employed in crafts, handloom and the manufacturing industry, the book provides insights into labour and employment in the region. It also delves into the temporal and spatial dimensions of non-farm employment and its relationship with rural income distribution and labour mobility. By bringing interdisciplinary perspectives from scholars working on North-East India, this work fills a major gap in the political economy of the labour market in the region. The volume will be useful to scholars and researchers of development studies, North-East India studies, labour studies, economics, sociology and political science as well to those involved with governance and policymaking.

Contributed papers presented at a national seminar organized by North East India Council of Social Science Research in Shillong, India.

Developmentalism as Strategy: Interrogating Post-colonial Narratives on India’s North East critically examines the post-colonial developmental trajectory of the Indian State at its northeastern periphery. Due to its unique historical geography, India’s North East has been systematically marginalized and was imagined as ‘underdeveloped’. The dominant narrative of India’s economic nationalism has largely acted as a strategy within the North East in the context of resource appropriation and national security, and producing new arrangements of knowledge, power and practices. Adopting a methodological approach of interdisciplinarity, this book attempts to understand the exceptions to India’s dominant development policy as applied in the North East. In the changing dynamics of political economy of development in the region, the book further examines the subsequent transformation of the narrative of the North East from a ‘geographic marginality’ to a ‘natural gateway’, and explores the alternative to such mainstream development approach by raising debates in India’s North East.

'Too often analyses of East Asia are written by outsiders. the great merit of this broad ranging and well-conceived collection is to showcase original perspectives from China, Korea and Japan. As such, it is a welcome addition to the existing literature.' - Mark Beeson, the University of Birmingham, UK