The Northeast of India
Rohan Rajesh
When people think of India in their mental maps, most will probably see a peninsula jutting out from the underside of Asia into the Indian Ocean. They may see the land bounded by the Himalayas to the north and the Indus to the west. Frequently missing in this cartography is a landlocked section of India, consisting of seven states, separated from the rest of India by a thin strip of land between Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan and surrounded by those countries as well as Tibet and Myanmar. Colloquially and in policy circles, this region is known as the Northeast. The region is at once a part of India and distinctly separate from it. Although these seven states are grouped together, the people living there are frequently more different from each other than from the rest of India. Many parts of Northeast India have seen devastating separatist conflict with the Indian government, which wants to maintain control over the region but frequently neglects it because of its minimal electoral influence. India’s relationship with these states touches on many issues, including what it means to be an Indian.
If India is diverse, the Northeast is a microcosm of that diversity. Although the region is grouped collectively, the people of the eight states – Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura – do not have a sense of nationhood. There will likely never be a country that consists of these states. For one thing, linguistically, they are incredibly diverse. Although Assamese (an Indo-Aryan language related to Bengali and Hindi-Urdu) has the most speakers in the region, innumerable Sino-Tibetan and Austroasiatic languages are also spoken in these states, while Hindi and Bengali are also influential.
These states are religiously diverse as well. In the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Nagaland, Christianity has been either the majority, plurality, or significant minority religion since British Christian missionaries began converting locals in the 19th and 20th centuries. For that reason, these states also have a fairly high level of English proficiency, which makes migrants from these states valuable in India’s burgeoning service sector. In Assam, although Hindus form a majority, Muslims form a third of the population. In Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim, Tibetan Buddhists form a significant minority and a majority, respectively.
The existence of these states also creates a racial issue in India. Many of the people living here do not look “Indian.” They tend to look like people in East and Southeast Asia. This has created serious issues in major cities where these migrants go. Shopkeepers in Delhi beat a young man from Arunachal Pradesh to death in 2014, leading to a reckoning for India on the issue of race. A lot of these issues (as usual) stem from British rule, during which the British government divided Indians along racial lines. But racial issues with the Northeast are another headache that India has to deal with to maintain unity.
Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh are the most peaceful regions in the Northeast. Sikkim is an interesting state since it was once an independent country, albeit a protectorate of India. Its monarchy and sovereignty were eliminated when the state was merged with India in 1975 via a (somewhat controversial) referendum, which followed an Indian intervention due to political turmoil in the erstwhile kingdom. Arunachal Pradesh does not have any significant separatist issues but is the subject of a major territorial dispute between India and China, which claims most of the state as “South Tibet.”
The other states have seen varying degrees of separatism. These states are covered under the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which essentially gives immunity from prosecution to Indian forces battling insurgents. In battling human-rights-violating insurgents, the Indian government has also committed egregious crimes there. In Assam, the government allegedly backed “death squads” to kill the families of insurgents to dissuade locals from joining separatist groups. In 1966, the Indian government (under the ostensibly inclusive rule of the Indian National Congress) launched airstrikes in Mizoram, the only time the Indian government has ever done so against its own citizens. To combat the same insurgency, the Indian government forced villagers into so-called Protective and Progressive Villages (PPV), a program reminiscent of the US military’s controversial Strategic Hamlet Program during the Vietnam War. Ironically, most of these strategies were taken from the colonial playbook, which the Indian Independence movement fought against.
Recently, however, the Northeast has seen a decline in deaths and conflict. Much of this has to do with the BJP’s recent push in the region. In every one of these states, the BJP and/or its allies are in control of the state government. In the 2019 national elections, the BJP decimated the opposition Indian National Congress. Why is a region with significant Muslim and Christian populations electing the BJP? A major reason is that the BJP-led government has invested significantly in this long-neglected region.
As part of the government’s Act-East policy, the Modi administration has invested significantly in infrastructure in the region to connect India to Southeast Asia. Electorally, the BJP has strategically allied with local parties while also tackling issues important in the Northeast. One of these is immigration, specifically from Bangladesh. Many in the Northeast resent the Bengali migration, be they Hindu refugees or Muslims seeking economic opportunities. In the state of Tripura, Bengalis form the majority of the population while ethnic Tripuris are the minority. This apprehension about Bengali immigration is why the controversial National Register of Citizens in Assam was so popular – it disenfranchised many people, most of whom were Bengali.
However, the BJP is experiencing difficulties too. While the NRC is popular, the same anti-Bengali politics also explain why the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was so unpopular – it would give Hindu refugees from Bangladesh a chance to stay. At the same time, the BJP’s obsession with banning the sale of beef has irked many in the Northeast, where beef is commonly consumed.
It remains to be seen how the BJP will maintain its delicate balancing act. The policies that make it popular in North India are unpopular in the Northeast, and at the end of the day, North India provides more electoral power than any other region in India. The BJP’s anti-Bengali policies in the Northeast are understandably controversial in the populous state of West Bengal, where the BJP is eagerly looking to make inroads in the upcoming legislative assembly elections. It may be that the BJP’s focus on the Northeast will be enough to prevent opposition parties from returning. But critical issues remain in the region, particularly with regards to the AFSPA. While the world’s attention is currently diverted to the farmer protests in Punjab (where AFSPA used to be under effect) and is usually focused on Kashmir (where AFSPA is under effect), rarely has any significant attention been brought to the Northeast.
Currently, the main insurgent group in the state of Nagaland is in peace talks with the government. However, the relationship is rocky, and a successful peace deal does not mean the insurgency will go away. If the two sides can pull of the deal, it could signal peace in the region and potentially more investment.
But the issue of who is an Indian will always remain. One way to solve the issue is by getting students to study the cultures and histories of all Indians. National history curricula in India tend to focus on the history of Delhi and the surrounding areas, and the Northeast will rarely find mention. Expanding the curricula will help all Indians feel Indian while mitigating racial antagonism. Inclusivity is important, particularly for countries as diverse as India. That’s a lesson India needs to learn, not just for the Northeast but for every separatist headache that the Indian government can never seem to solve.