COMMENTARY

The Reality of North-East as an Entity

S Thianlalmuan Ngaihte

In spite of the fact that north-east is a commonly used term at all levels of discourse, there are some who still have problems with it. This article is an attempt to show that north-east or pan-north-east has become a legitimate term that one has to reckon with.

S Thianlalmuan Ngaihte (stngaihtes@gmail. com) is an independent researcher based in Shillong.

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iversity is a state best exemplied by a salad bowl. The distinct character of each item is clearly visible, though the different ingredients are placed in a single bowl. Diversity, in fact, tells the totality of a set or system. North-East (NE) India represents a mosaic of diverse geographical features inhabited by different peoples with distinct ethnic markers. Howsoever diverse the region appears to be, the NE as an entity has been constantly shaped and reinforced by certain features, issues, and agendas. The rst thing that comes to mind is the geographical location of the region. Connected with the rest of India by just a 22 km land corridor in Siliguri referred to as the Chickens Neck, the region served colonial interests by acting as a frontier region of British India administered under the Bengal province until 1894.1 It was considered as merely a peripheral space perceived as inhabited by poorly administered and unadministered tribals with distinct ethnic and cultural markers. This perception continued to colour the imagination of Indian leaders for some time, even after the postcolonial period. The cultural proximity that the people of the NE have with those of southeast Asian countries, coupled with little contribution to the Indian exchequer/ economy, resulted in the lack of serious policy thinking and implementation from the political mandarins in Delhi. The terminology NE got a boost in post-Independence India when Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru created the North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) in 1951.2 However, the region captured more serious attention of Indian leaders in the wake of the Indo-China border war of 1962. This war transformed the policy perspective of the Indian state towards the region. Though the balkanisation of the then Assam state in 1971, which resulted in the emergence
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of new states based on ethnic lines, shows the internal contradiction within the NE periphery, it did not devalue the emerging pan-NE (PNE) concept. Instead, subsequent developments stand to legitimise the NE as an entity. This is clearly illustrated by the emergence of a number of secular and nonsecular organisations and institutions, which bear witnesses to the ultimate stamping/sealing of the PNE concept. At the ofcial level, the North Eastern Council (NEC) was created in 1971 by an Act of Parliament and the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (MDONER) was constituted in September 2001. The establishment of higher institutions of learning like the North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) in 19733 and presence of academic bodies like the North East India History Association (NEIHA) and North East India Political Science Association (NEIPSA), to mention a few, testies consolidation of the NE concept in the academic sphere. Existence of umbrella organisations like the North East Student Organisation (NESO), Council of Baptist Churches in North East India (CBCNEI), and North East India Christian Churches (NEICC) further symbolises legitimisation of the NE as an entity at all levels of discourse. To further supplement my argument, let me take up two contrasting events of August 2012. First, we have the success story of Mangte Mary Kom at the London Olympic Games 2012, and then a different account of conict in Bodoland, Assam. A careful reading of the two incidents brought to light certain common messages to the fore. Koms success catapulted the NE story into the spotlight of the country. Her achievement not only generated solidarity and pride among the people of the region, it also awakened many Indians to the region. One can also discern common feelings generated in the aftermath of the Bodoland incident in Assam. A conict between the Bodo community and the perceived illegal immigrants took a different turn with the problem snowballing into an issue between the NE people and other Indians (read as Indian Muslims), generated by hate messages and propaganda by some anti-national elements. People with
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mongoloid features become selected targets and victims of racial proling. The incident cast a negative image on Indias secular/diversity credentials. The fear psychosis that gripped north-easterners resulted in their exodus from Indian metropolitan cities. The incident testies the sense of alienation felt by the NE people. The NESOs call for a 12-hour NE bandh on 6 September 2012 on the issue of the exodus of NE people from other states and against the inux of illegal migrants in the region is another point that deserves to be noted. The bandh, fully supported by the respective constituents student organisations, paralysed normal life with important business centres, educational institutions, and central and state government ofces closed. An issue of this kind no longer involves a compromise of what it means to be a Karbi, a Meitei, or a Naga (McDuie-Ra 2012: 77). Critics may question the genuineness of the collective consciousness generated by social and/or political events because of the supposedly temporary nature of the forces or events. What deserves to be noted is the awareness on the part of the people as belonging to a particular region or group (here, as one among the NE) created by such events. We know that nothing is permanent in this world. Solidarity, collective consciousness, and conicts are temporary, and identity too is not static. Depending on the context and situation, they take different forms and shapes and the intensity keeps on alternating. Nevertheless, the imprint ingrained in the minds of the people or in the eyes of an observer (especially people who are not part of the group) by such forces is another striking point to be noted. Reading Scholarly Writings The role of academia in reinforcing the NE identity is no less signicant. One can see the diverse representation of the NE in the writings of scholars and academicians. At one National Colloquium, the NE has been dened as a distinct political, ethnic, cultural and geographic entity (IIAS 2012). In total contrast to this, some scholars who critique the apologists stand on the NE as one composite unit, rather see it as an illusive construct that resulted in
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serious administrative mishandling and totally misconceived notions about the complexities of the region by the Indian state (Misra 2000: 3). It is a region where the people repeatedly challenge the Indian nation-building process based on the one nation theory. In a similar but different language, some consider the NE as a coinage that explains the relation of unequal power and politics between the centre and the perceived periphery. The resultant outcome is the centres indecisiveness in settling the problems of the region (Biswas and Suklabaidya 2008: 11). For some, Durable Disorder is what characterises the politics of the region (Baruah 2005), and for others the NE is Indias Troubled Periphery, which has its roots in the process of its integration into a constituent region of the republic (Bhaumik 2009). A very interesting, but striking, policy adopted by the Indian state on the NE is seen in how New Delhi deals with the local regimes of corruption and repression. Instead of dealing rmly with the emerging local regimes of corruption and repression, New Delhi tolerates and even supports localised autocracy as a means to manage security threats (Lacina 2009). Even then, the NE (as also Jammu and Kashmir) has been the region where one witnesses Indias state of exception (to use Giorgio Agambens term) in the form of the enforcement of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958. For too long, all voices of protest including genuine articulations of the region had been designated as law and order problems. The question is, whether such policies really benet the Indian state. Instead, it shows the myopic attitude of the Indian state towards the region. Citing the case of the decades old political movement of the Naga, Samir Kumar Das (2010: 344) retorted, It is indeed unfortunate that New Delhi took over four decades to recognise the uniqueness of the Naga issue and the issue began to be viewed as political only in the new millennium. In such a situation, it is no wonder that scholars presentation of the region was dominated by the centre-periphery paradigm. Recent writings further added new dimensions to the NE concept. One very interesting development emerged with
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the launching of the Look East Policy (LEP) by India. Drawing inferences from LEP, the NE is (re)conceptualised as transcending the political boundaries of the region. To quote Das (ibid):
The new geopolitical imagination set off by the new policy thinking envisages a space that apparently refuses to be bound by the present geography of the Northeast as much as it promises to spread across the international borders to the countries of southeast Asia through such frontline states as Myanmar and Bangladesh. I propose to call this imagined space the extended Northeast and argue that the way the space is imagined in ofcial circles sets in motion many new imaginariesThe extended Northeast as being ofcially imagined now has a mnemonic effect so to say insofar as it offers a signicant cue to the alternative modalities of imagining the extended Northeast.

The NE is also comprehended as a region where the borderlands are yet to be decolonised, as India inherited the colonial administrative boundaries that had ethnied the indigenous communities (Piang: 2013). The Indian leaders seem to have no concrete policy to correct the mess it had inherited from its colonial ruler. Another dening marker of the region is the presence of peripheral units within the NE periphery as well as within the different states. A clear manifestation of this is seen in the assertion or articulation of ethnic politics, the pivot around which much of the politics of the region revolves. The assertion of ethnic identities and movements is not conned to the larger communities or nationalities; many of the smaller communities in the region are also asserting and articulating their rights, interests and identities (Ngaihte 2013; Srikanth and Ngaihte 2011). The point is, apart from the voices of the dominant communities/nationalities of the region, there are also a number of voices that hardly reach the corridors of Delhi. Many of them have to silently bear the ill-treatment or indifferent attitude meted out to them (Haopkip 2012: 85). The politics of tussle between the peripheral voices and the locally dominant centre was clearly noted by David Vumlallian Zou (2010: 59), when he wrote,
Indigenous tribal elites in the hills of Manipur were sensitive to their relatively vulnerable status vis--vis the special status of other hill tribes of the north-east. They also readily perceive real or imagined threats especially linguistic chauvinism of the dominant
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Hindu Meitei community that tends to forget the cultural diversity of Manipur.

Contrary to the above arguments, Duncan McDuie-Ra (2012) sees solidarity among the communities of NE migrants. He identied limited livelihood prospects, changing social aspirations and sporadic armed conicts as some of the issues that drive the north-easterner to Delhi (ibid: 69). He also sees issues like racism, violence and discrimination, and identied neighbourhoods, food, religion, and protest as the main dening markers of the NE people (ibid: 77). The media too played a crucial role in shaping the image of the region, as well as in reinforcing the PNE concept. One can see the NE news column in many of the print media in the country. A cursory look shows that the daily news items of the country analyse and report whatever incidents or issues that are happening in the region under the caption NE. Conclusions Critics may ask how a region known for its diversity can ever have a pan identity. They strongly argued that communities in the region could never come together for a larger cause. Though they acknowledge the diversity of the NE, their primary focus is on conict. The diversity of the region,

no doubt, appears to pale the apologist stand. Nevertheless, the reality is that diversity itself is what gives identity, which is different from the apologist stand. Critics may continue to question the pan-North East concept, but the fact is that it is an emerging reality that arises from an outside force rather than from within. Even then, the NE people themselves have capitalised on it; perhaps for solidarity and for gaining more prominence, knowing very well that divided they fall in a land where numbers matter. The NE identity and image of the past and the present is constantly shaped, moulded, and transformed by the common issues, problems and by its very diversity. What was initially perceived as a geographical entity has graduated into an analytical category. This has been further legitimised by the various legislative actions of the Indian state, and the peoples acceptance of the term to refer to themselves.
Notes
1 The region acquired the name the North-East Frontier Tract (NEFT) in 1914, after the Assam province became a separate unit directly administered by a governor general. The NEFT later became a part of Assam, after Indias Independence in 1947. NEFA, created during the interim period was a centrally-controlled administrative unit under the then governor of Assam. On 21 January 1972, NEFA became the Union Territory of Arunachal Pradesh, and ultimately a state (present-day

Arunachal Pradesh) of the Indian Union. North-Eastern Hill University, a central university was set up for the whole region with the primary objectives of beneting the indigenous tribals of the region.

References
Baruah, Sanjib (2005): Durable Disorder: Understanding the Politics of Northeast India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press). Bhaumik, Subir (2009): Troubled Periphery: Crisis of Indias North East (New Delhi: Sage Publications). Biswas, Prasenjit and Chandan Suklabaidya (2008): Ethnic Life-Worlds in North-East India: An Analysis (New Delhi: Sage Publications). Das, Samir Kumar (2010): Indias Look East Policy: Imagining a New Geography of Indias Northeast, India Quarterly: A Journal of International Affairs, 66(4): 343-58. Haokip, Thongkholal (2012): Is There a Pan-NorthEast Identity and Solidarity?, Economic & Political Weekly, 47(36): 84-85. IIAS (2012): Resurgent North East: Constraints and Opportunities, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, viewed on 25 October, http:// www.iias.org/Constraints_Opportunities.html Lacina, Bethany (2009): The Problem of Political Stability in Northeast India: Local Ethnic Autocracy and the Rule of Law, Asian Survey, 49(6): 998-1020. McDuie-Ra, Duncan (2012): The North-East Map of Delhi, Economic & Political Weekly, 47(30): 69-77. Misra, Udayon (2000): The Periphery Strikes Back: Challenges to the Nation-State in Assam and Nagaland, Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla. Ngaihte, S Thianlalmuan (2013): Elite, Identity and Politics in Manipur (New Delhi: Mittal Publications). Piang, L Lam Khan (2013): Ethnic Mobilisation for Decolonisation: Colonial Legacy (The Case of the Zo People in Northeast India), Asian Ethnicity, 14(3): 342-63. Srikanth, H and Thianlalmuan Ngaihte (2011): Ethnicity and Ethnic Identities in North-East India, Man and Society: A Journal of North-East Studies, Summer, 8: 125-33. Zou, David Vumlallian (2010): A Historical Study of the Zo Struggle, Economic & Political Weekly, 45(14): 56-63.

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