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How diversity of the North East can be fruitfully transformed into India’s strength

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The legendary Nari Rustomji, whose name would forever be taken with great reverence for his service to the North East once wrote rather sagely that “India’s dilemma in inheriting the frontiers from the British was that she found herself having to deal with a multiplicity of tribes of whose way of life and thinking she had little knowledge and even less experience.”

The proclamation of the administrator, scholar and thinker, unfortunately, continues to be true even 40 years after he penned—or published—the above in his piece-de-resistance “Imperilled Frontiers: India’s North-Eastern Borderland” in 1983. It is unfortunate that there is neither a quest for knowledge about the North East—save sundry seminars and conferences on the region (especially in the high offices and think tanks in Delhi)—nor is there an eagerness to learn. To that end, the “Imperilled Frontiers” would continue to be characterised as a “Forgotten Outpost” of a distant empire. It must also be noted that there is growing derision for such attitude.

In an event, the most important aspect that should occupy the “observer” of the frontiers is the manner in which a threat to established order and territory is being engendered in the eastern extremities of the country. Indeed, it can be traced back to a time when the urge to expand first came into humankind’s repertoire to dominate. The dappled ethnic identities that constitute the North East have always sought their “acre of space” and have as a result come into conflict with other identities. Indeed, the manner in which ethnic contiguity militates with artificial geographical boundaries has compounded the issue of territory. However, the multi-dimensional battle space that the region—despite apparent contradictions—has transformed itself into has witnessed a pattern that seems to be at odds with the concept of contested territoriality.

Therefore, if there is the issue of territory in Assam whereby ULFA, NDFB, DHD and of late the Islamists are seeking overlapping areas, an unarticulated non-confrontationist posture between such groupings is being witnessed which has not engendered conflict. Indeed, there have even been instances of ground alliances between ULFA and NDFB in the past despite the fact that the territories for which they are waging against the Indian State overlap and crisscross one another. This aspect is in evidence even in Manipur where NSCN (IM)’s claim over territory that they covet in the state conflicts with the Valley-Based-Insurgent-Groups who would never countenance the Balkanisation of Manipur.

Yet there is a cooperation between the two which—once a resolution to the Naga issue is cobbled out—would witness militating conduct as a result of the territory that NSCN (IM) is coveting. The conflicts that would erupt as a result would be one of internecine war inside the North East. Indeed, it would engender an even more protracted and complex conflict situation for Delhi—than the one that characterises itself at present.

The phenomenon of conflict vs. territoriality in the light of the cartographical dissonances that engender various conflicts in the North East and ones that would come into conflict even after “comprehensive resolutions” with the Indian state are anvilled are, therefore, fraught with danger. The manner in which conflict spills over territorial imperatives and enters into the twilight zone of intra-regional conflict in the North East would witness an emotional space vs. territory that would be subjected itself to gross inconsistencies. It would exacerbate the already existing divide in the fragile “enchanted frontiers”.

On the other hand, the various ceasefires in the North East have become increasingly mired in delays, hindrances and controversies. It appears that adequate attention was not paid to the pre-ceasefire stage. The tearing hurry to enter into ceasefire agreements (perhaps to inform the rest of India that peace has returned to its northeastern appendage!) is proving to be ineffective.

Ceasefires without forethought are also leading to the construction of back-to-back designated camps all over the North East, from Moreh to Kokrajhar. This could witness the emergence of a “coalition of the willing” among various insurgent groups. The prolongation of such ceasefires could bring such groups together in a new resolve. With arms, ammunition, recruitment, camps abroad and ideology intact, it could be a matter of time before the common denominator of anti-Indianism translates itself into a full-fledged insurgency movement and one that erupts from within the region. It is not known whether the observers of such business have any inclination of such a possibility.

In a decade that witnessed turbulence marked not only by security concerns from across the two extremities of India’s borders but non-orthodox dissonance by way of an upsetting interior design that has been intimidating to the accustomed temperament of India. A quiet tone that continually counsels both calibrated methodology and remedy is the need of the hour, especially in the time of distress that may soon overcome India’s national security.

While it cannot be immediately discerned whether the caution and direction that needs to be heeded seek a course correction exercise that has to retrace the nation’s innards as a welfare state or one which in the concluding words of India’s foreign minister, S Jaishankar in his book The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World states (is) “moving discernibly towards an era of greater disruption, stronger nationalism, sharper competitiveness and a questioning of rules and regimes”. The one fact that seems to be resonating across the length and breadth of India—particularly the sensitive North East of the country—is that the lack of comprehension, piecemeal resolution and even alienation as a result of the preceding two aspects necessitates clarity of analysis.

After all, much of the dissonance for the disorder in the North East could have been prevented if timely action was taken by Delhi. The buck, therefore, stops squarely at the door of the State, and even its surrogates in the various governments in the region that should have been implementing welfare centrist policy for the North East instead of seeking to be “Holier than the Pole”. The growing hostility in the region—presently beneath the surface (as statistics never speak the truth and, therefore, a lessening of fatalities cannot be tomtom as a return to peace)—should clearly be discerned and acted upon.

Rampant corruption, poor governance, failure in the public distribution system, price rise, failure to manage flood, blatant propaganda, self-aggrandisement and the inability to adopt correct strategies for conflict resolution by the state governments would soon be egging on divisiveness. This would in turn give rise to an anti-India agenda which the nation can do well to avoid.

The people of the North East are carefree, accommodating and even forgiving by nature. But there have been instances when constituencies in the frontiers have rebelled against the tyrannical imposition of aspects that go against their customs, sentiments and mores. Tughlaqism is alien to the light-hearted people of the region. Superimposition will be resisted. Indeed, it would give rise, as it has already, to non-cooperation and even derision of an elected government. The message that must emanate and percolate to every nook and cranny is that the state would be sympathetic to sentiments, especially those that are rooted to the very soil that brought forth the denizens of the land.

In the past apathy and disregard had given rise to vigilantism among the populace and even forces that waged war with the Indian state, albeit one that could not succeed. But the state is a state, and even if wayward members of its parish make mistakes, the wisdom is that Vox Rex is Vox Dei. Mistakes, therefore, must not be repeated. The failure to rein in the corrupt as also to have an inclusive society could be a veritable “call to arms” by people who may feel that enough is enough. This has to be avoided at all costs.

The North East is not only a flower garden that the rest of India should take pride in but an expanse whose diversity it must utilise to showcase to the world. The magnanimity with which it does not merely govern its people, especially in the periphery, but actually embraces them as equal partners in the country’s national building exercise would be both educative and endearing.

The author is a conflict theorist and bestselling author. Views expressed are personal.

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