The North Eastern part of India comprising the “seven sister” states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and the eighth state of Sikkim is separated from the rest of the country by a narrow “chicken’s neck” near Siliguri, in the northern part of West Bengal-–a land corridor that is physically just 29 km wide.
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| Paranjoy Guha Thakurta |
More than geographical separation, sections of people in the north-east have for long felt “alienated” from India’s political, social and economic mainstream.
The North East has around four percent of India’s population living in eight percent of the country’s geographical area. This region is surrounded by four countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, China and Myanmar. Ninety-six percent of the borders of the north-east region of India are international boundaries. A slew of questions relating to sub-nationalism, regional and ethnic identities, illegal immigration and violent separatist movements have dominated much of the discourse on the north-east.
At the time of Independence, the North East was one of the most prosperous regions in the whole of India. More than six decades later, this has become one of the most troubled and backward regions in the country. In 1947, Assam had the second highest per capita income among all states in India. After the 1965 India-Pakistan war, transit facilities between the North East and West Bengal through Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) were denied. Subsequently, the North Eastern part of India started witnessing problems associated with all land-locked regions. Before 1947, the distance between Guwahati and Kolkata would be less than 600 km against 1,300 km at present; the distance between Agartala and Kolkata would be 350 km against 2,000 km now.
This region has traditions of community-based economic and social organizations. Nagaland’s experience of communitization acknowledged as an exemplar for the country. However, the writ of the Union Government in New Delhi does not run uniformly in the North East. There are strong local traditional institutions formed under Schedule VI of the Constitution. At the same time, in many parts, over-dependence on funds from the Union Government has incubated powerful and corrupt elites. Until local groups address the issue of corruption by exerting pressure from below to ensure greater transparency on the part of politicians and officials, the future economic development of the region will be severely constrained.
There are upper classes and lower classes but the middle classes are relatively small in number in the North East in comparison to the rest of India. Private enterprises play a relatively minor role in the economy here. It depends heavily on agriculture. Traditional cropping techniques using “jhoom” or “slash and burn” are prevalent in certain areas. There is considerable potential for horticulture, floriculture and cultivation of medicinal plants. Besides traditional crops like tea, there is scope for developing plantations for bamboo, rubber, spices and fruits.
The North East has amazing forest wealth, bio-diversity and genetic resources. Arunachal Pradesh is considered to be one of the world’s most important ecological hotspots. Floods are a regular problem, especially in Assam. Large dams have become increasingly unfeasible for social, environmental and technical reasons and there is need to focus on small and medium irrigation projects. Yet, under pressure from powerful lobbies of contractors with support from their political mentors, a number of major hydro-electric projects have been envisaged that have the potential of disrupting the fragile ecology of the region.
Information technology and education have huge possibilities for generating productive employment in the region. The government needs to expeditiously integrate its “Look East” foreign policy with development of this region. On May 13, 2008, a North Eastern Region Vision 2020 document was released. But implementation of the plans and projects envisaged in the document remains painfully slow.
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The writer is an independent educator and a journalist with over 33 years of experience in various media – print, radio, television, the internet and documentary cinema.
To write to the author, please send an email to dare@cybermedia.co.in with the subject line 'Paranjoy Guha Thakurta'.
Disclaimer: The views expressed here are that of the author and do not represent the magazine's.
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