"The forbidden prophecies" Published: 25 March 2022 Podcast Life account of Manipuri indigenous transgender Shamans. Podcast by Santa Khurai. By Santa Khurai
Politicking Infrastructure Development in Northeast India Published: 4 February 2022 Article It is in the development paradigm that the Northeast has witnessed various policies that include infrastructure development. However, infrastructure development in Northeast India entails injustice to both people and the environment. The author argues for locating infrastructure development from the sustainable development as well as justice framework. He stresses on serious engagement in infrastructural research in Northeast India to seek an alternative. By Raile Rocky Ziipao
Alienating community in Loktak Published: 31 August 2021 Article With a water spread of 289 square kilometres, Loktak lake is rich in biological diversity and plays an important role in the ecological and economic security of the region. It was accorded the status of a Ramsar site of international importance in 1990, which shows the significant ecological services of the wetland to humanity and the natural environment. However, the Loktat hydel project commissioned in the early 1980s disturbed the entire lake ecosystem, resulting in extensive loss to biodiversity and displacing massive human population and the wildlife. In the past five decades, the natural ecosystem has degraded considerably. The Loktak Development Authority, which came up in 1987 for taking steps to conserve and protect the lake ecosystem, has not made much headway simply for the reasons that it has not involved the community living in and around in its project designs and plans. By Salam Rajesh
Women power to save Loktak Lairembee Published: 25 August 2021 Article Nature nurtures the mankind. However, when mankind tries to fiddle with nature, it faces the wrath of the latter. Loktak Lake in the state of Manipur is a glaring example of how human intervention can damage a natural setting and also adversely affect those depending on it. Loktak, measuring about 235 square kilometres, is the largest freshwater lake in Northeast India. This article is an attempt to capture the lives of the fisherwomen of Loktak and their continuous struggle for survival amidst the wave of aggressive lopsided developmental projects. By Nandini Thockchom
A roadmap into an uncertain future Published: 20 August 2020 The current coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has led thousands of youth, mostly migrant workers from the Northeast region, to return home facing uncertainties regarding their future in terms of jobs and careers, and their livelihood. Hence, there is a need to engage with them and explore some strategic paths to address this issue and find some directions. For this article, information from 20 returnees from the eight states of the region has been gathered through digital communication. The returnees include those who were working in hotel industry, restaurants, food courts, retails, malls and business processing outsourcing (BPO) firms. This article looks at the challenges faced by these returnees and comes up with some concrete observations and recommendations regarding their possible livelihood activities for the government, including the state governments of the respective Northeast states, for the general public and for non-governmental organisations. By Alana Golmei
‘We will give blood, but not our land’: The Citizenship Amendment Act protests in the context of Northeast India Published: 20 December 2019 India’s Northeast, a land of volatile identities having an uneasy experience with migration, is held to-gether by a fragile consensus forged in the larger interest of peace and co-existence. The seams of these fault-lines pass by people’s lived realities, always at the risk of being burst open with an act of insensitivity. The enactment of the CAA is considered by many as one such act. By Kaustubh Deka
‘Pickled’ infrastructure and connectivity: Locating community engagement in Northeast India’s infrastructural transformation Published: 7 June 2019 ‘Pickled’ infrastructure/ connectivity/ roads is a metaphor that this article employs to understand the dynamics of connectivity and infrastructure development in Northeast India, in context of how local communities are able to use, absorb and participate in the decision making processes of such transformational physical change in the region. The hard external borders in Northeast India ensure that the existing roads built remain trapped within the nation-state container, without any meaningful opening up. The local communities remain trapped between the interplay of the past developmental lag of the region and the current development impetus led by the central government. The manner and method of connectivity and infrastructure development in the region brings additional layers of exclusion and conflict, reinforcing past sites, and connects new sites of accumulation politics and resource extraction within the nation-state container. By Mirza Zulfiqur Rahman
Centrepiece: New writing and art from Northeast India Published: 16 April 2018 Curated and put together by writer and graphic artist Parismita Singh, 21 women writers and artists come together in this stunning collection that combines words and pictures to explore the theme of women and work in the Northeast.
Rambuai: A film on Mizoram’s “trouble years” Published: 20 December 2016 A new film titled “Rambuai, Mizoram’s Trouble Years” documents the story of armed uprising and violence in the state 1966-86, how finally peace was made, and how people in Mizoram today talk about this traumatic period of their history. A review by Chok Tsering.