In many senses, India's Northeast has been an enigma to the rest of the country. Beginning with the earliest challenge of the nation-building process in India, this highly diverse and multicultural region has, through its multiple identity movements and militant separatism, thrown up several major issues which have resulted in re-drawing the parameters of the Indian nation-state and helped to re-define the idea of nationalism itself.

This selection of essays/commentaries, written over some three decades, analyze the complex processes of the nation-state's engagement with the demands for autonomy/independence raised by the small nationalities of the northeastern region but also focuses on the contradictions and new equations that have been emerging both within these movements and in the State's response to them. The factors behind the rise of ethnic nationalist assertions, the role of civil society, the rise of exclusivist politics and the question of citizens' rights are other issues that figure prominently in the discussions.

Table of Contents:
Contents Preface vii Acknowledgements ix Chapter 1 Northeast India: Roots of Alienation 1 I. Introduction 3 II. The Growing Hiatus: Tracing Some of the Early Causes 7 III. Assam and the Legacy of Partition: Caught in a Time Warp 38 IV. Who 'Owns' India: The Meaning of 'My' in 'My Country' 74 Chapter 2 Course and Character of the Naga Struggle 89 I. Introduction 91 II. The Naga National Question 94 III. Naga Nationalism and the Role of the Middle Class 112 IV. Portrait of a Naga 'Hostile' 128 V. The CPI and the Naga Struggle: The Initial Phase 132 VI. Alternate Voices within the Naga Movement 141 vi Contents Chapter 3 Assam: Identity Movements and Insurgent Politics 153 A. Assamese Identity Issues I. Introduction 155 II. Immigration and Identity Transformation in Assam 162 III. Targeting the Innocent 209 IV. ULFA: Beginning of the End 216 V. Peace Talks or the Fall of the Curtain on ULFA? 222 B. The Bodo Movement I. Introduction 228 II. Bodo Stir: Complex Issues, Unattainable Demands 231 III. Bodoland: The Burden of History 241 IV. The Adivasi Question: Introduction 259 V. Assam Tea: A Bitter Brew 261 VI. Fresh Tension in Upper-Assam Tea Belt 271 C. The Adivasi Struggle 274 Chapter 4 State and Civil Society in Northeast India 285 I. Introduction 287 II. Naga Peace Talks: High Hopes and Hard Realities 290 III. Assam: Towards a Viable Peace or a Cul-de-sac? 303 IV. Army Killings in Assam 315 V. Assam: Roll-Call of the Dead 319 VI. Asom Sahitya Sabha 331 VII. Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS): Giving a New Edge to People's Protests 342 VIII. Representative Democracy and Traditional Institutions 348 Index 357 About the Author 367