1998 observed me as a twenty two year old, having an immersive experience in the paradoxical setting of Assam. While the rolling hills and breathtaking tea estates - the very beacons of serenity - found me in a state of inexplicable bliss, the political instability ravaging the state had me in the grip of a singularly unsettling environ of fear and horror. One dark evening, just a few yards away from the hotel where I was staying, all hell broke loose. An Improvised Explosive Devise set by the militant ULFA Group went off and wreaked havoc all around the hotel’s vicinity. While the reverberations of the blast shook the room, a deep shudder rattled my very bones. Keen to escape to a more benevolent and less dangerous environ, I arranged a sturdy SUV and began an escapade to the hill station of Darjeeling along with a couple of friends. Little did we realise that we had signed up for an experience to remember – or forget! Forced to travel at a pace that could accommodatingly be described as a pedestrian, we were accosted by roads that were removed by a degree or two from their actual epistemology. Jagged and ripped-open remnants of cement, stone and soil, contrived with potholes and uneven surfaces jolted and jarred our progress. Serpentine convoys of the Indian army sandwiched us as they trudged along at a snail’s pace in their monster trucks. Connectivity has always been the bane of Northeast and it turned out to be our Achilles Heel. By the time we reached the magnificent municipality of Darjeeling, after navigating past towns named Siliguri, Jalpaiguri and New Jalpaiguri, it was a full 14 hours and my enthusiasm had all but waned.

But the Northeast of today is undergoing a paradigm shift and for the better. As Ashish Kundra enlightens his readers in an arresting manner, courtesy of his book, A Resurgent Northeast: Narratives of Change, the blight of connectivity is fast fading to be a disturbing relic of the past. It is not just connectivity that is putting the Northeast on the path toward progress. A whole panoply of developments capturing within its ambit economic, social, political, cultural and civic spectrums finds the Northeast of today within the crosshairs of burgeoning development and inescapable visibility. Kundra brings an unbiased and cogent perspective to his narrative. Having spent two stints in the Northeastern states of Assam and Mizoram in various capacities as a Civil Services Officer, he has had a ringside view of both triumphs and tribulations experienced by the Northeastern States. The exasperating fatigue of apathy is countered by the refreshing outcomes of the benevolent polity.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself has led the targeted development of Northeast India in an unrelenting fashion. While addressing the golden jubilee of the Northeastern Council the Prime Minister termed the eight states ‘Ashta Lakshmi,’[1] as he laid out a vision embedding an eightfold path for their development. This vision which entails significant investment in critical areas such as infrastructure and active Public Private Partnership Models is a far cry from the post-Independence policy for the Northeast that was emblematic of a Nehruvian naivete and signified a tale of two halves. While one half was characterised by an attribute of innocuousness, the other half was marred by an attitude of absolute ignorance. Banking heavily on the outsourced wisdom of Oxford-educated anthropologist, Verrier Elwin (Elwin was appointed Advisor for Tribal Affairs), Nehru formulated five guiding principles, popularly known as “Panchsheel”[2] for aiding and abetting the progress of the Northeast.

Although formulated with noble intent, irrational execution ensured that the Northeast experienced a disconnect from the mainland for decades. The far-flung states were rendered asunder from the rest of India. Some of the states found themselves in the wake of a rigid missionary culture that represented a far-flung approach from its milder Christian variant. Elwin himself acknowledged and lamented over this pernicious development that considered everything that wasn’t Christian to be ‘heathen.’ “Dance and song, even the weaving of lovely textiles and the traditional tribal institutions have perished before their intolerance. The tribals have been taught to despise their past and as a result, a strong inferiority complex has been created … the idea that the converts are “saved” and all non-converts “damned” has tended to create a feeling of separateness from the rest of their country.”

Independent Bangladesh brought its own convulsions to the Northeastern region as an influx of migrants in the form of Bengali Hindus altered the very demography of Assam and Tripura thereby severely endangering tribal rights, language, culture and property. The decade beginning with the middle 80s added to this overflowing cup of woes by raising the dreaded hood of insurgency. Uncontained violence and unconstrained bloodshed racked Assam, Mizoram, Nagaland and Manipur. The draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) was imposed on all the Northeastern States and this measure had its own unintended consequences. Allegations and counter-allegations by and against the armed forces of untold atrocities and wanton horror filled the national dailies.

Manik Sarkar, the Chief Minister of Tripura from 1998 to 2018, did not even harbour an iota of the doubt when elucidating the main cause of such terrible hostility. “The primary reason for the sustenance of insurgency in northeastern states is underdevelopment and backwardness … Regrettably, the attitude of Union Government in the last 68 years of Independence has also not been very encouraging”.

However, the Northeast is now in the throes of a new dawn that has as its buzzwords inclusivity, assimilation, empowerment, and development. A slew of high-profile infrastructure projects has put an end to the isolation experienced by the Northeast, thereby enabling meaningful assimilation and engagement with mainstream India. Bogibeel bridge the second longest rail-cum-road bridge in Asia, opened to the public in December 2018. The Donyi-Polo airport, (named after the sun and the moon gods) was inaugurated on the 19^th of November 2022, by PM Modi. A sprawling bridge honouring the legendary poet laureate of Assam, Bhupen Hazarika, now looms large over the Logit River. Spanning nine kilometers this wonderous convenience connects Assam with Arunachal Pradesh. The Indian Railways also has taken great strides in bringing together the Northeast and other states. While an overnight journey already links Itanagar with Guwahati, there are grandiose plans afoot for a trans-Asia railway project that when completed will link Agartala in Tripura and Akhaura in Bangladesh. The 15-kilometre stretch, is expected to be completed by June 2023.

The geography of these States has some treacherous terrains that have also demonstrated a trait of indefatigability that makes them tower over and thrive even in the most inhospitable of physical climes. Sikkim for example has found an opportunity in its high-altitude landscape by becoming a pioneer in ‘homestays’ for tourists. More than 700 homestays, graded under the gold, silver and bronze categories, were set up under a government-sponsored rural tourism programme. Sikkim also has the enviable distinction of being the world’s first fully organic state. This laudable achievement was unveiled on 31 December 2015, thereby culminating in a penance of more than a decade. The driving force behind this initiative was none other than the intrepid Chief Minister of the State, Pawan Kumar Chamling. A farmer by profession, Chamling altered the very contours of agriculture in the State with organic transition experiments modeled on the lines of those practiced in Australia & New Zealand.

The Eaglenest sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh is a memorable tribute to one man’s unyielding belief, unbudging determination and uncompromising dedication. Ramana Athreya, a Pune-based astronomer-turned-conservationist, started a community-led conservation cum ecotourism initiative in 2006, with a paltry grant of Rs 15 lakh. Eaglenest today is a redoubtable bird sanctuary boasting more than a whopping 700 bird species within an unbelievably limited acreage of 200 square kilometres. The ‘Farm Connect’ programme in Assam uses ‘urban commandoes’ – a group of enthusiastic youth – to bridge the divide between farmers and consumers. Social media tools such as Facebook and Instagram are liberally employed for spreading awareness. The purveyor of this scheme, Samir Bordoloi was bestowed with the Ashoka Fellowship in 2019 and has bagged several national and state awards. His organization, the Society for Promotion of Rural Economy and Agricultural Development, Northeast (SPREAD-NE), a private agricultural extension, enlists youth in agriculture while promoting organic practices.

These stellar achievements have also opened up the spigot of private funding, thereby complementing the Budget and other State specific grants and devolvement that is the prerogative of the Central Government. As Kundra informs his readers, Imphal Angels, founded in 2018 by Niranjan Singh in Manipur, provides a digital interface between angel investors and aspiring start-ups. The Central government has also instituted created a Rs 1 billion Venture Capital fund that is managed by the Northeastern Development Finance Institution (NEDFI). This fund as of date has committed Rs 450 million for twenty-one start-ups.

The Northeast is also an irrepressible and inveterate breeding ground for natural athletes. Because of the inevitable toughness that life demands, an element of sinewy strength, unending determination and a strong physique determines the citizens of these States. The exploits of the legendary Mary Kom, Baichung Bhutia, Sunil Chettri and Jeje Lalpekhlua have spawned an entire sporting generation that is capable of standing toe to toe and slugging it out with any of their compatriots, not just within India, but across the Globe. The stunning scalps by the likes of Mirabai Chanu in the Olympics bear ample testimony to this fact.

The health infrastructure is something that requires great and urgent attention. Even though ingenious and innovative projects such as the boat clinics of Sanjoy Hazarika in Assam are providing hopes of a revival in the field of health and hospital management, the Northeast in comparison with the rest of India, sorely lags behind in terms of medical facilities. Kundra elaborates on the grim situation plaguing the States- For every 1,00,000 children born in Assam, 215 mothers die during childbirth. The state has the poorest maternal mortality ratio in the country. Just over a fifth of women receive full antenatal care in India. Even against such a low benchmark, five of the eight Northeast states are at much lower levels. In Nagaland, just over 2 percent women were covered. The average out-of-pocket expenses for delivery in a public health facility in Manipur is three times the national average…. In Arunachal Pradesh, as against a requirement of 252 specialists in community health centres, there are only 4; in Manipur 92, there are 3; and in Mizoram and Sikkim, there are none. There is scant accommodation for doctors across the Northeast, barring Manipur. In Sikkim and Mizoram, there is no accommodation for doctors, while in Arunachal Pradesh barely 4 percent of centres provide accommodation.

Women form the centripetal force in the progress of the Northeastern States. Independent, intuitive, innovative and inimitable, they are adroit in every field ranging from agriculture to entrepreneurship. A marketplace in Imphal is unique for the reason that women completely man (no pun intended) it. Known as Ima Keithel (‘Ima’ stands for ‘mother’ in the local vernacular), this is one of the most distinctive marketplaces in the entire world.

Following an inheritance model, 5000 women call out customers from their assigned spots and ply their wares that include a colourful bricolage of groceries, vegetables, utensils and clothes. Ima Keithel is also the world’s largest women-run market. Lakhimi Baruah, exasperated by the interminable and obdurate process of filling out complicated forms and queuing up for hours before being rejected (multiple times) from obtaining a loan, decided to alter the very landscape of small-scale lending and borrowing. Konoklata Mahila Cooperative Bank was the stirring outcome. Fifty-two promoters ‘popularize thrift and banking habits among women.’ Today, Konoklata Mahila Cooperative Bank is an all-women bank that successfully manages 35,000 accounts and has extended loans of over Rs 350 million to more than 12,000 women.

However, in what can only be termed as an unfortunate puzzle, women are also subject to a reprehensible degree of discrimination. The fact that in the modern era, the State of Assam had to promulgate an act called The Assam Witch Hunting (Prohibition, Prevention and Protection) Act, 2015, to eviscerate the revolting practice of targeting, branding and stigmatizing women as engaging in witchcraft is telling in itself.

The Northeastern states have all along been the unfortunate and undesirable objects of isolation, discrimination and ostracization. Looked down in a mean way as “others,” people from these States have also been subject to derogatory racist remarks such as “Chinkies” and “slanties,” both obnoxious references to their Mongoloid features. However, the past half a decade or so has seen more than just a few resplendent rays of hope. Sustained, consistent and constant attention to the needs, difficulties and upliftment of the eight states provides unflinching hope suggesting a swift and joyous end to a prolonged bout of isolation and ‘otherness.’ When this finally happens, India as a global economic powerhouse will reach the zenith of its progress for, we as citizens of this proud democracy have lots to learn from our talented brethren who call eight beautiful states, home!

Publisher: Harper Collins India Pages: 236

References

1. PM Modi Discovered 'Ashta Lakshmi' in 8 North East States, Says Sarbananda Sonowal (news18.com)
2. Jawaharlal Nehru: Panchsheel and India's Constitutional Vision of International Order - D.P. Verma, 1989 (sagepub.com

Image source: ToI