The troubled Northeast

The troubled Northeast
Rajesh Verma*
Publication: The Otherside, Vol. 22, No. 05, May, 2009

The North East India or simply the North East as usually referred to in India is a region as interesting and varied as India itself. It comprises of the eight States of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. It is hilly, it has plains on both sides of the mighty Brahmaputra and then the mighty Himalayan range around it. It is a region of amazing grace - charming people, ancient cultures and bountiful nature. The states of Northeast comprise a region of diversity - multiple religions, dialects and tribes, each with its distinctive culture and history. The Northeast India is a true frontier region. It has over 2000 km of border with Bhutan, China, Myanmar and Bangladesh and is connected to the rest of India by a narrow 20 km wide corridor of land. One of the most ethically and linguistically diverse regions in Asia, each state has its distinct cultures and traditions.

From times immemorial, India’s Northeast has been the meeting point of many communities, faiths and cultures. A place renowned for its magical beauty and bewildering diversity, Northeast is the home for more than 166 separate tribes speaking a wide range of languages. Some groups have migrated over the centuries from places as far as South East Asia; they retain their cultural traditions and values but are beginning to adapt to contemporary lifestyles. Its jungles are dense, its rivers powerful and rain, and thunderstorms sweep across the hills, valleys and plains during the annual monsoons. The lushness of its landscape, the range of communities and geographical and ecological diversity makes the Northeast quite different from other parts of the subcontinent. In winters, mist carpets the valleys but swirls around the traveller in hills during summer rains, thus creating an enchanting and romantic atmosphere. The festivals and celebrations in the Northeastern states of India are a colourful reflection of the people and their lives. Throughout the year, different people celebrate festivals with lot of fanfare in different ways, most of them centering around their modes of living and livelihood. Each state is a traveller’s paradise, with picturesque hills and green meadows which shelters thousand of species of flora and fauna. In addition, the states provide scope for angling, boating, rafting, trekking and hiking. Besides, there are a number of wild life sanctuaries and national parks where rare animals, birds and plants which will surely provide fascinating insight to the visitors.

Neglected region

The NE region of India has been left neglected for many decades. The Indian government ignored the region as the states do not constitute enough vote power in parliament but have subsidised the states to keep the local politicians happy and the region limping along. It also does not help that the local insurgents, in the name of freedom movement, are tearing the state apart instead of promoting entrepreneurship and growth. This region has been neglected historically by successive governments and due to linguistic/racial/ethnic identity and diversity; the NE people have also been late in assimilating with the mainstream. Things have not improved in the Northeastern part of India because of corruption, both official and unofficial. Each competing force of lawlessness is blaming the finger at the other.
I have lived in the North-East for many years. More money from the government of India has flown into this region per capita than to any other part of the country. Politicians, insurgents and government officials have helped themselves to this largesse. There have acquired lots of estate and other assets in the North-East, other parts of India and even abroad.

Problem

I believe a big part of the problems of the Northeast is rooted in the complex geographical and socio-ethnic cultural system of this minority population combined with lack of strong local leadership and lack of understanding of the complexity of the problem by the central leadership resulting in inefficient and unhealthy centre-state relations. Insurgency is a scapegoat for underdevelopment. India has its own problems to give the required time or focus to the problems of the Northeast. Illegal immigrants have been pouring through the porous border for the last 60 years from the south from Bangladesh. In Kaziranga National Park, the world's only one horned rhinos are being killed in broad day light at the heart of Assam on the average about 16 Rhinos per year for the last 60 years.

Despite being rich in natural resources, development in the Northeastern region has lagged behind the rest of the country. The region’s economy is generally characterized by low per-capita income, low capital formation, in-adequate infrastructure facilities, geographical isolation and communication bottleneck, inadequate exploitation of natural resources like mineral resources, hydro power potential, forests etc., low progress in industrial field, lack of private and foreign direct investment and high un-employment rate among the relatively high literate people.
Today Northeast seems to be nobody's land, and everybody seems to be just making money at the expense of the poor people.

Anger

Most of Indians don't know much about these Northeastern states. The youth of the region are angry and agitated because of the prevalent situation. One of the student leaders of the Northeast once shared his thoughts with me. He said, “The analysis of thinkers and writers of mainland India into the troubles of the Northeastern states is quite remarkable in its refusal to legitimate the demands of the peoples in that region. So many Indian writers regard the militant groups as mere miscreants bent on extorting money, and no attention is paid to the alienated masses of the region who have for over fifty years suffered under the brutal yoke of a thick and omnipresent Indian military occupation. Policymakers’ remedies for the region are woefully inadequate so long as they continue to deny consideration to the legitimate aspirations for self-determination amongst the peoples of the Northeast. The troubles in the Northeast cannot be solved by investment and interaction from New Delhi if the people of the region wish to cut themselves off from the centre.”
Another youth leader commented, “Let me tell you about the story of any Northeastern person who have interacted with the rest of India. First and foremost, The Indian Government needs to educate the rest of India about the existence of the Northeastern states. At our school geography books we have just 1 or 2 pages mentioning about the diverse cultures of the North-east. And the average Indian students just skip through that page. You may wonder, that will not be harmful. But it is. People from the Northeast are sick and tired of being asked if they are from China or which country Mizoram or Manipur belongs to. There is always that level of insecurity among every Northeastern student you see in India, the way they are excluded from any group and the way they are racially discriminated. People from the Northeast can never have that "sense of belonging" with India when they are treated so differently by the rest of India, even if they really try to. And these same people go back to their respective states telling their kindred about the discrimination they faced in Mainland India. And they in turn have a preconceived notion about India that they will not be welcomed. The root of the problem lies with education.”

The ULFA

The Northeast has been plagued by terrorism for the last 30 years. The United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) is the largest terrorist group and earlier this month set off several bombs in the state’s business capital, Guwahati. Large numbers of workers from India’s Hindi belt have migrated to Assam to labour in its tea plantations and mines. Hence ULFA targets both national and local political elites especially the Hindi speaking migrants who are predominantly from Bihar. The argument of the ULFA is that the poor migrants are overwhelming the local culture and depriving Assamese of work in their own industries. Hence it is xenophobic and chauvinistic.

Although ULFA is strongly opposed to internal migration in India it does not protest against the illegal immigration of Bengali Muslims from Bangladesh. This has led Indian officials to assume that Bangladesh’s Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) is involved. New Delhi maintains that the DGFI is supported by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

ULFA trains and operates within the Buddhist Kingdom of Bhutan, the Muslim Republic of Bangladesh, Myanmar (Burma) and Nagaland. The last has the rare distinction of having a predominantly Baptist revolutionary movement. ULFA activities are rarely reported in the western press except when casualties are high. In January 2007, about 70 Biharis were killed in several days of extraordinary violence. The goal is to force Biharis to abandon Assam and thereby deprive the economy of much needed skilled labour.
Assam is of vital strategic importance to India in its drive to expand trade with South East Asian countries. New Delhi has had some success in expelling the UFLA from Bhutan and is encouraging the military junta in Myanmar to do the same. In return there will be closer Indian military and commercial relations with Rangoon. If this occurs, the UFLA will only be left with Bangladesh as a base.
UFLA demands money and food from the tea estates of northern Assam. Non-payment leads to the murder of staff. Locals say that the Indian army controls the roads during the day but the UFLA roams freely at night.

Tactics deployed by the UFLA in urban areas include attaching explosive devices to motorcycles and bicycles, throwing grenades into the midst of market traders and putting bombs in rubbish bins. The UFLA is also strong enough to force whole commercial districts to stop trading. Those who disobey may be killed and their premises destroyed.

New Delhi has had some success in splitting the UFLA and this has led to some units observing cease fires. However a hard core of ‘irreconcilables’ have proved impervious to Indian offers.

The positive factor

Northeast covers an area of 2.62 lakh sq. km. It accounts for 7.9% of total geographical area of the country. With a total population of 39 million (2001), it accounts for 3.8% of total population of India. The per capita income in the North Eastern region on an average is Rs. 12,918/- as compared with the national average of Rs. 17,947/- at current prices of 2001-02. It is very important for the India’s economy supplying oil and coal. The Northeast is only 4% of India's population but has about half of India's total 600 ethnic groups and produces about 40% of India's oil and 50% of India's tea.

Economic Development

The economy of Northeast India has got its definite identity due to its peculiar physical, economic and socio-cultural characteristics. The pace of development in the hilly areas and plains differ considerably. The valleys are economically active areas of the region, the Brahmaputra valley being the most active. Tribal population forms only one fourth of the population of the North East, despite the fact that in four States i.e., Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, tribals are in majority and in Mizoram, they constitute as high as 95% of the population. There are differences among the eight States in the North Eastern region with respect to their resource endowments, level of industrialisation as well as infrastructural facilities. The industrial sector has mainly grown around tea, petroleum [crude], natural gas etc. in Assam and mining, saw mills and steel fabrication units in other parts of the region. The economy of the region is still primarily agrarian but its full potential is yet to be exploited. Since agriculture and industry has not really taken off in spite of the potential in the form of vast unexploited resource base available in the region. The pressure for employment is on the service sector. The contribution of agriculture to State domestic income is much higher in this region, except for Meghalaya and Nagaland. Mining in case of Meghalaya and forestry and logging in case of Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland are important contributors to NSDP. The contribution of construction is also high in this region. Growth in per capita income is almost stagnated in Assam since the 90’s, was better than the national average in Meghalaya, an increasing trend in case of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.

The Northeastern states are less assimilated. However, I disagree with the thought that Northeastern states are worse of than the rest of India. The boom in Indian economy has only affected a small part of the Indian population. The rest still live in poverty. And the lives of the rest of the population in mainland India is no better than that of Northeast. For example, have a look at these statistics:

In economy (per capita), the worst among the ranked states are Bihar and UP. In the ranking of household having electricity, only one state from Northeast is below Indian average (and the worst raking state is, again, Bihar.) In literacy, Mizoram tops the list. Also, there is no Northeastern state below the Indian average from these data.

We can readily draw the following conclusions: Are North-eastern states worse of than the rest of India? No! Is there room for improvement? Yes!

But the same is true for the rest of India. India has its flaws. But now India is overcoming its flaws slowly but steadily. It hasn't reached the Northeast and many other parts of India. But, that is going to change.

Conclusion

I have worked and lived in Northeast for about 20 years and having worked with the locals, I feel that the fruits of economic development never reached these people. From my experience, I think that the government should also advertise more of Northeast to the rest of India so that people feel that it is also a part of India and there is also more than just extra land. All the stakeholders involved should put in concerted efforts in addressing the major concerns of the people and work towards a sustainable and meaningful solution which will help all sections of the society. In this day and age, when pollution is strife in rest of India, this beautiful Northeastern region could be a show piece from eco-tourism perspective for foreign tourists. The only way to bring the region to focus is through direct highways through Bengal to those states and investment in industries. India needs to wake up to the plight of its citizens in that troubled region if it has any claim to being a democratic country with the good of its people at heart. The main hope for a reduction of violence is trade as the nations of South East Asia integrate economically.

*The author is a former Principal of Police School, Nagaland