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North-East India: Demography, Culture and Identity Crisis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

B. P. Singh
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Extract

The management of public affairs in northeast India has been in focus in the regional, national and world press in recent years. Much of the attention has been confined to insurgency, the ‘foreign nationals’ issue, tribal ‘uprisings’, ‘brutalities’ committed by the security forces, ‘involvement’ of foreign agencies in the area, political ‘horse-trading’ and floods. There has been no analysis of the economic, cultural and demographic factors which have acquired different nuances in the wake of the rapid modernization taking place in the region since the 1950s and which have a decisive say on the formulation of policies and the efficacy of institutions of governance in northeast India. This paper proposes to offer some facts and reflections on these aspects.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 21 , Issue 2 , April 1987 , pp. 257 - 282
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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References

1 The stories of the Indian epics: Ramayana and Mahabharata, are centred around the personality of Rama and Krishna. These stories are popular possessions of every village and hamlet, every town and centre of pilgrimage throughout the length and breadth of India.

2 The Kamrup Kingdom was founded by Pusyavarman in the fourth century A.D. and reached its peak of strength and glory in the reign of Bhaskaravarman in the seventh century. A Hinduized Indo-Mongoloid empire was achieved in Assam in the seventh century.

3 The Ahoms belonged to the Tai race of Southwest China and came to Assam from Burma.

4 Bhuyan, S. K., Anglo-Assamese Relations 1771–1826 (Gauhati, 1949), p. 57.Google Scholar

5 By 1973–74, in 37 tribal belts and blocks of Assam about 2,000 hectares of periodic patta land changed hands from tribals to ineligible non-tribals. About 1,000 hectares of government land were encroached upon by non-tribals in these areas. See the book, Tribes of Assam Plains published by Government of Assam (Gauhati, 1980), p. 11.Google Scholar