Historical reconstruction of the past of Northeast India: An assessment of colonial writings

Abstract

The paper makes a critical study of colonial writings on history of Northeast India; identifies inherent bias and prejudices, questions their reliability and validity at the backdrop of political and epistemological crisis that had gone into the creation and argues in favour of interdisciplinary approaches in the process of reconstructing the past history of the Northeast societies; which are predominantly pre-literate and do not have any written tradition. The paper examines the role of colonial ethnographical accounts; discounts projection of tribes as cultural isolates and suggests reconstructing the history in terms of shared past and shared culture; economic dependence; and precisely in the framework of interaction. The paper advocates for historical analysis of the socio-economic life; political and cultural developments on the basis of social science principles and universalism based upon the parameters of causes and effects.