Northeast 101

  Racism against the Northeast people in Indian metropolitan cities is construed in two ways: based on “race” and based on cultural differences and general ignorance about it. Those fighting against racism, including government agencies, student collectives, social activists, and lawyers, believe cultural ignorance is the most crucial factor. If cultural ignorance indeed underlies racism, an important question follows: what exactly constitutes “Northeast culture(s)”? Drawing on extensive fieldwork in Delhi, I suggest that there is no singular answer. Instead, understandings of Northeast culture vary depending on who articulates them—whether government agencies, campus-based student collectives, or community associations. In the National Capital Region, five broad types of cultural celebrations can be identified: community festivals, campus-based Northeast cultural events, government-sponsored annual Northeast Festival, irregular/one-time cultural events such as Ishan Manthan , and ...

  Language and region are often treated as key markers of difference in Indian society, and they frequently overlap. Yet, despite this diversity, much of Indian society shares common features, particularly around religion and caste, which cut across regional and linguistic boundaries. It is against this shared social framework that tribes in India came to be understood and defined. Rather than being conceptualized primarily through their own distinctive characteristics, tribes were often positioned in contrast to what was seen as the Indian “mainstream.” While their specific features were acknowledged, they were not central to the theoretical framing of tribes. Difference Between Caste and Tribal Societies A major concern for sociologists and social anthropologists has been explaining the differences between caste and tribal societies, especially in relation to social change. Most scholars have argued that this difference is structural rather than absolute: tribes are distinct with...

Manipur The present Manipur is geographically divided into the hills and the valley. The valley constitutes 10% of the total geography and is inhabited principally by the Meitei and other communities, who constitute almost 60% of the population of the State. Most Meitei people have followed the Bengali Vaishnavism form of Hinduism since the 18th century; around 15% follow Deobandi Sunni Islam, and more than 10% follow the indigenous Sanamahi religion. While there are religious differences among Meiteis, they are ethnically the same. Socially and under the Indian reservation system, they fall under the general/Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) category, mostly Brahmins and erstwhile royal and aristocratic families, Other Backward Classes, and the Scheduled Castes, exclusively made up of the Loi community. None of them is categorized as a tribe. Meiteis represent 40 out of 60 legislative assembly seats and dominate all other spheres of life: political, cultural, economic, and social. ...

  At the core of the political issue in the region is the conceptual confusion about how we categorize caste and tribes as distinct social groups. In India, tribes have been officially defined by certain traits since the 1950s, including being primitive, having a unique culture, being geographically isolated, being hesitant to interact with outsiders, and being considered backward. However, the way “tribe” is defined in Indian sociology and politics does not align with its global understanding. There is a tendency to view tribes as “static” and “timeless” despite the fact that many of their traits have changed significantly over time. Instead of seeing tribes and castes as a simple binary or as a continuum, Sumit Guha, in his book Tribe and State in Asia , argues that tribalism is a recurring political phenomenon throughout history, not just a relic of the past. He emphasizes the need to reject notions of linear social progress and simplistic views of tribes as “peaceful” and “prim...

About Northeast India Northeast India is located at the crossroads of South Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia and comprises eight Indian States: Arunachal Pradesh , Assam, Manipur , Meghalaya, Mizoram , Nagaland , Sikkim , and Tripura . The region shares most of its international borders with Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Myanmar, and Nepal, and is connected to the rest of India through the narrow Siliguri Corridor. The British occupied Assam and the surrounding areas in the early 19th century, and the term “Northeast” was deployed to describe a frontier , to name a province, and finally to identify a specific administrative tract. In the post-Independence era, security concerns pushed the Indian government to introduce new policies that eventually led to the formal creation of the Northeast as a region. In the post-liberalization times, migration from the Northeast to metropolitan cities has given the category “Northeast” new social and political meanings. About blog This blog expl...

  The categories of “mainstream” and “margins” are socially constructed through specific political and historical contexts, shaping dominant ideas of nationhood and their corresponding exclusions. Northeast India occupies a distinctive place within this framework. Often imagined as a frontier, the region’s incorporation into the Indian nation has followed a political trajectory different from that of much of the rest of the country. The books listed below bring together key texts that examine how this history has shaped the Northeast’s politics, identities, and relationship with the Indian state. The list is divided into two parts.  The first part  includes books tracing the evolution of the Northeast as a frontier, writings by Indian officials offering insight into post-Independence policy, and major scholarly works that conceptualize the Northeast as a region.  The second part  focuses on state-specific studies, organized for the reader’s convenience. However,...

The categories of “mainstream” and “margins” are socially constructed through specific political and historical contexts, shaping dominant ideas of nationhood and their corresponding exclusions. Northeast India occupies a distinctive place within this framework. Often imagined as a frontier, the region’s incorporation into the Indian nation has followed a political trajectory different from that of much of the rest of the country. The books listed below bring together key texts that examine how this history has shaped the Northeast’s politics, identities, and relationship with the Indian state. The list is divided into two parts. The first part includes books tracing the evolution of the Northeast as a frontier, writings by Indian officials offering insight into post-Independence policy, and major scholarly works that conceptualize the Northeast as a region. The second part focuses on state-specific studies, organized for the reader’s convenience. However, the list below is not exhau...

In contemporary scholarship, nation-building is widely understood as an ongoing project. Those located on the geographical and socio-cultural margins are often the last to fully identify with the nation. This delay arises partly from the dominant conceptions of the nation itself. Political theorist Rajeev Bhargava identifies four such conceptions in the Indian context, one of which—ethno-religious nationalism—is particularly relevant here. Its principal advocate is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), for whom Indian nationalism is essentially Hindu nationalism, grounded in a deep cultural unity among Hindus across the subcontinent. Followers of religions that originated outside India are expected to live on Hindu terms, while those adhering to indigenous or tribal faiths—described by the ‘father of Indian sociology’ G.S. Ghurye as ‘backward Hindus’—are ultimately expected to be absorbed into Hinduism. Such demands for assimilation are not unique to India; dominant cultural groups ac...