India's Northeast Policy: Continuity and Change

Abstract

Northeast India is the home of numerous ethnic nationalities. B.G. Verghese describes the region as another India, the most diverse part of a most diverse country, very different, relatively little known and certainly not too well understood, once a coy but now turbulent and in transition within the Indian transition. Even though the Northeastern region shares certain problems like ethnic unrests, insurgency, immigration, drug trafficking, communication gap, etc., there are severe intra-regional differences in socio-economic issues and ethno-political aspirations. Not only the hills and valleys are at different level of socio-economic development; the urban and rural areas of the valley exhibit social and economic disparities. The region is in fact, one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse region in Asia and each state has its diverse cultures and traditions. J.B. Fuller wrote in 1909 that, The province of Assam at the far northeastern corner of India is a museum of nationalities. The diversity of the region has been one of its uniqueness and a paradise for anthropologists and ethnographers. However, this diverseness makes it extremely difficult to formulate a policy that can be followed uniformly throughout the region, although the region is often mistaken as a homogenous entity of tribals settling in the hills. Since independence the Indian government has adopted several policies towards the region. Many of these policies have changed in the past decades. Scholars of the region often question as to how a country have a policy towards its own. However, it is true that the Indian government has adopted several policies towards the region since independence and many of these policies have changed in the past decades. The Government of India's policy toward its Northeastern region is examined in this essay.