Books on Northeast India (Part-2)

 

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 exhaustive and covers only recent, easily available books.

Part-2

Northeast States and Ethnic Movements

The scholarship on Assam offers multifaceted insights into its social, cultural, and political transformations over time. Jayeeta Sharma’s Empire’s Garden (2011) underscores how tea production, migration of people, and the racialized construction of tea laborers reshaped Assam’s societal landscape. Sharma highlights how the Assamese gentry sought to align their “homeland” with an imagined Indo-Aryan identity, claiming modernity while relegating “non-Aryan” tribals and migrant laborers to primitiveness. The emergence of vernacular print culture further amplified debates over history, nationalism, and progress, with reverberations that continue to this day. Similarly, Madhumita Sengupta’s Becoming Assamese (2016) examines Assamese identity as a nineteenth-century cultural phenomenon, shaped not only by linguistic affiliations but also by markers like history, customs, and religious beliefs. This work reveals how the provincial middle class crafted nationalist subjectivities in response to dominant Bengali cultural nationalism.

Other scholars delve into Assam’s political and economic history, tracing its intricate relationship with Indian nationalism and subnationalism. Sanjib Baruah’s India Against Itself (1999) explores the tensions between pan-Indianism and Assamese subnationalism, linking insurgencies, ethnic violence, and human rights abuses to India’s centralized governance. Udayon Mishra’s Burden of History (2018) examines the enduring impact of the 1947 Partition on Assam, focusing on land, language, immigration, and identity issues that continue to shape the region. Finally, Arupjyoti Saikia’s The Quest for Modern Assam (2023) provides a comprehensive account of Assam’s development since the 1940s, weaving together its political, environmental, economic, and cultural dimensions to redefine regional historiography. These works illuminate the complex dynamics of Assam’s evolving identity and its place within India’s broader political and cultural fabric.

Similarly, there is a decent amount of literature on the Naga movement. John Thomas’s Evangelizing the Nation (2016) examines the intricate relationship between Christianity and nation-making among the Nagas. Drawing on extensive archival research, the book highlights how Protestantism influenced the political and cultural identities of the Nagas. It explores how this religious transformation shaped the Nagas’ vision of their nation and delves into the roles played by missionaries, local church leaders, and colonial and post-colonial states in this process. It was more meticulously examined in G.K. Chophy’s Christianity and Politics in Tribal India (2021), which presents an ethnohistorical study of the Nagas, focusing on their experiences with colonialism, missionary activity, identity politics, and cultural transformation. Centered around the history of American Baptist missions, the book provides fresh insights into the Nagas’ place in India's multicultural democracy, addressing issues of multi-faith coexistence, ethnicity-based political movements, and the dynamics of post-independence nation-building. Jelle Wouters’s In the Shadows of Naga Insurgency (2018) offers a critical analysis of the Naga struggle for political autonomy, the state’s responses, and the prolonged conflict’s effects on everyday life. Using an ethnographic approach, the book reveals an “insurgency complex,” demonstrating how the intertwined experiences of resistance, state aggression, violence, and suffering influence social norms, drive local agitations, and complicate interpersonal and inter-tribal relations. Historian Richard Eaton’s article “Conversion to Christianity among the Nagas, 1876–1971” is an insightful read into the cultural process of conversion.  KK Suan Hausing’s article “Asymmetric Federalism and the Question of Democratic Justice in Northeast India” (2014) is also very important. There are plenty of other older books and many chapters in edited books that cover the same. But these three cover all the important aspects.

Unlike the Assam and Naga movements, others have limited books covering them in mainstream academia. Joy Pachuau’s Being Mizo (2014) delves into Mizo society, examining the historical and cultural factors that have shaped Mizo identity and its relationship with the Indian state. The book explores how mainland India perceives the Northeast, focusing on the role of “difference” in identity formation. It identifies patterns in social organization that influence identity, closely tied to self-conceptions of the ethnic self. These self-perceptions serve as tools of agency, challenging external views while shaping the ethnic self. The community’s engagement with localized Christianity and death rituals is highlighted as a key aspect of Mizo identity, with practices surrounding these areas serving as central markers of belonging and exclusion. In collaboration with Willem van Schendel, Pachuau also authored The Camera as Witness (2015). This book uses photographs as historical evidence to trace the social history of Mizoram, offering a unique visual account of the region’s cultural transformations. Roluahpuia’s Nationalism in the Vernacular (2023) explores the Mizo National Movement, offering insights into the connection between orality and nationalist politics. The book presents a fresh perspective on nationalism by highlighting the role of ordinary people in shaping Mizo nationalism and emphasizing the vernacularization of nationalism. It examines this process at two levels: first, the development of a vernacular language to convey nationalist ideas, and second, the resilience of oral traditions in the face of the state’s violent reaction to the nationalist movement. These works collectively contribute to a deeper understanding of Mizo identity, culture, and politics, addressing gaps in the broader academic discourse on Northeast India.

M. Sajjad Hassan’s working paper Explaining Manipur’s Breakdown and Mizoram’s Peace (2006), and his book Building Legitimacy (2008), offer a comparative analysis of state-society relations in Manipur and Mizoram. NL Singh’s The Unquiet Valley (1998) provides a valuable account of Manipur, offering background for understanding the post-colonial politics in the Imphal valley. A more comprehensive and historically grounded examination of the competing nationalist projects in Manipur is found in KK Suan Hausing’s chapter, “Hills-Valley Divide as a Site of Conflict: Emerging Dialogic Space in Manipur,” in Baruah’s edited volume (2009). Hausing also delves into Zo identity in his paper, “Rethinking ‘Tribe’ Identities: The Politics of Recognition Among the Zo in Northeast India” (2011).

However, not only internal nationalists but also external threats played a key role in policy towards the Northeast region. The national politics of state-making in Arunachal Pradesh have been explored in Bérénice Guyot-Réchard’s Shadow States (2016). This book explores how regional geopolitical tensions shaped Arunachal’s political development and its relationship with both India and neighboring China. Deepak Singh’s Stateless in South Asia (2010) provides a detailed analysis of the Chakma issue, offering insights into ethnic politics and the emergence of an Arunachali identity within the broader context of state formation in Arunachal Pradesh. Swargajyoti Gohain’s Imagined Geographies in the Indo-Tibetan Borderlands (2020) further enriches the discussion by examining ethnic politics in western Arunachal Pradesh, focusing on the intersection of geography, identity, and political dynamics in the region. Additionally, Sikkim’s political trajectory—both its internal ethnic struggles and its relationship with India before and after its merger—is explored in GBS Sidhu’s Sikkim: Dawn of Democracy (2018), which sheds light on the democratic shifts that followed the merger. Sunanda K. Datta-Ray’s Smash and Grab (2016) offers a more critical view, analyzing the geopolitical maneuverings and the complexities surrounding Sikkim’s integration into India.