Contested Space and Identity in the Indian Northeast, by the Academy of Third World Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia

This small publication is based on the proceedings of a seminar titled “Contested Space and Identity in the Indian Northeast”, which was jointly held by the Academy of Third World Studies and the Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research, with support of the Heinrich Boell Foundation. The idea for the seminar developed from our shared understanding that the seven sister states of the Northeast, rich in natural resources, cultural heritage and human capital, but also scarred by a legacy of conflict, are not always finding the attention they deserve in an academic discourse prioritising national over human security.

Bringing together leading and aspiring scholars, practitioners and activists working on the Northeast, many from the region itself, the seminar attempted to cover a broad range of issues. The papers presented are grouped in three main categories, namely (1) the role of the state and non-state actors in the politics of the Northeast, (2) the shifting paradigms of identity and community in the borderlands and (3) the variable of perception in the calculation of peace. Of course, the seminar’s modest frame does not do justice to the complexity of the situation in the Northeast. Nor do the interventions offer readily implementable policy recommendations. What radiates from all papers, however, is a sense of thoughtfulness that resists the temptation of jumping to conclusions. We hope to offer a kaleidoscope of richly textured and well thought-out positions, highlighting, in a structured way, political, legal, historical, philosophical, gendered and psycho-social aspects of the situation in the Northeast. With good analysis on the way, solutions are never quite far off.

The transcript has been edited to iron out the occasional irregularity of the spoken word. Some of the speakers chose to amend or add on to their presentations. The articles here published thus differ, in part considerably, from the original presentations. The discussion in the seminar was lively and insightful, but, except for a minor blurb, could not be reflected for lack of space. We hope that the text as it stands now will give food for thought and enrich the discourse on a multi-faceted subject with ramifications extending the geographical limitations of the topic under consideration (justifying, we thought, a paper extraneous to the seminar’s theme, namely on Kashmir). The seminar concluded on a speculative note, a panel discussion on the “bigger picture” in the Northeast. We would like to thank all participants for helping with this publication and leave it for the reader to decide whether it is premature to invite visions for a region, which, but for its geographical denotation, has remained nameless.