Stop step-motherly treatment of North East India

By Jahnavika Bhatt

North Eastern India (NEI) consists of Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Sikkim which is nick-named as seven sisters with one little brother (Sikkim) is rich with land strong manpower and resources. Yet, it is suffering like Cinderella.

During colonial period NEI was made a part of Bengal province. After independence North Eastern region was divided into three states: Assam, Manipur and Tripura. These three states were further divided into Nagaland in 1963, Meghalaya in 1972, Arunachal Pradesh in 1975 and Mizoram in 1987. Manipur and Tripura were also declared union territories for a period of time. NEI has overall 40 million people, who have variety of culture, language, religion and race.

NEI is culturally and environmentally very rich and prosperous. There are 220 languages and 220 ethnic groups. The tribal heritage is very strong here. These tribes practice hunting and cultivate land. They are indigenous craftsmen. They make traditional weapons. They are experts in cane carving, bamboo carving and wood carving. They are experts in pottery and handloom weaving. They are very good artists, dancers and musicians.

NEI has contributed good musicians like Bhupen Hazarika, Zubeen Garg and Pratima Pandey. Environmentally, NEI has enchanting flora and fauna. The region is rich in medicinal plants. There is also an amazing presence of wildlife like golden langur, hanuman langur, one horned rhinoceros, leopards, golden cats, fishing cats, marbled cats, dolphins and crocodile cats among other species. Many of them have been declared endangered.

NEI has humid tropical climate, with humid summers and sub-continent rain forests. NEI has India’s fifth potential reservoirs of petroleum and natural gas. Brahmaputra Barak has made the land very fertile.  Mawsynram, which is close to Cherrapunji, Meghalaya, is recorded as the world’s wettest place by the Guinness Book of Records, with 11,871 mm of rainfall, more than 10 times the Indian national average of 1,083mm. The record was earlier held by Cherrapunji. Thus, this region is blessed with potential bio-diversity land, water and many more resources.

Problems of NEI – Despite having vast richness, NEI lags behind because of many internal and external problems. Means of transport aren’t fully developed yet and hence, the connection with other parts of the country becomes difficult. There has been mass illegal migration from Bhutan, China, Myanmar and Bangladesh. These illegal migrants have been seeking Indian citizenship.

NEI was largely ignored and loosely administered during the British India regime. These states aren’t well connected with mainland India. There have always been escalations between these states and central government. There have been tensions between tribal people – natives of these states and migrants. As a result, NEI has been considered as backward regions of India based on per capita income. 

Militant organisations are running parallel governments in Manipur and Nagaland. They are influential in changing the policies of the state governments. Conflicts in this region have been an all-pervasive phenomenon. There are continuous ethnic conflicts and they demand separate identity of their homelands by dividing the states, on ethic regions.

The region has already been divided to form the present states. Greater Assam was broken down into four states – Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Mizoram and the demand for division to form homelands continues, resulting in intensification of conflicts for the space and identity.

This region lacks industrial development, leaving educated youth unemployed, forcing some of them to join organisations that run a parallel government like the Meities in Manipur. The region faces isolation and is ignored, even by the media leading to a disconnect between the people from other parts of India and those in this region.

The backwardness of the region is attributed to lack of support and funds from the Centre. Through the Home Ministry notification Nagaland has been declared a “disturbed area” in 2019 under the Armed  Forces  Special Powers Act (AFSPA).

To get more social, cultural and economic benefits, certain policies should be changed. NEI needs special support of the Central Government to hear their voices. Illegal migration from neighbouring countries should be stopped and the local administrations will have to ensure that.

Government should be more authoritative and legitimate for applicants of democratic practices. Administrative policies need to be more systematic and organised. The local governments and the police need to carry out their duties properly.There should be more national institutions which could influence the people and help get the benefit of the resources.

Pranab Kumar Das, assistant Professor in Geography from Sree Chaitanya College has mentioned in 2013 IOSR Journal of humanities and social science that “NEI is one of the potential hydro power regions of the country.  This region can play a vital role for supplying power to India. Once the nation traps the hydro power, more industries can flourish in this region benefitting the high employment. Rainwater harvesting will benefit agriculture and disasters due to the monsoon flooding. Tourism can be enhanced by converting more portions of lands into national parks and safaris. The forests and hills of NEI contains lots of herbs for medicinal purpose. There must be an effort to use those more effectively for benefits of humanity. Because of the presence of flora and fauna, we can make NEI as an agriculture education hub for India. Governments both at the state and centre need to put in efforts to recognise the cultural, arts and craft skills of the tribal to India and globally.”