The North East Crucible: Geo-Politics, Ethnicity and Turmoil

S P Kar

This book is a study of the geopolitical importance of North East India, including the geostrategic threats the region faces from across the borders. It focuses on the background and growth of what the players in the game indulgently call ”regionalism” of the provinces. The rugged geography of the land and the idiosyncratic history of the waves of migration to it from near and distant lands beginning in a remote past and continuing ever since—the course had once led to the formation of an all-inclusive body-politic through a process of social integration in this part of the country centuries back—are now found to have gradually created out of nothing a consciousness—as also belligerence—among myriads of resident groups to rediscover their clan identities on the basis of ethnicity, culture and the small territories of their group dominance. Mistrust, a desire to dominate and a never-ending chain of violence slowly became a way of life during the last half a century in almost all the seven States collectively called the North East.

This work is a chronicle of investigation into the events that bred a secessionist sentiment and an insular attitude among the different communities and tribes inhabiting the hills and plains of the region. The research undertaken by the author detects a pattern in the social and political developments in various corners of the region during the last few decades. Most of the ills that have been belabouring the Seven Sister States are unique to this region. It provokes a thought, “who is responsible for this mess?” The book examines the slide.

S P Kar S. P. Kar, IPS (Retd), is a former Inspector General of Police, Assam. He hails from and has served in Assam for a number of years and has been witness to many critical developments in not only his own State but also the entire region called the North East. Shri Kar has worked in several troubled districts of Assam handling growing crime, crucial law-and-order matters and blood-splattered insurgency situations and is thus acquainted with the nitty-gritty of the response of the state to these problems. His stints in intelligence operations gave him a rare insight into the developing security scenario of the North East.

This work is the outcome of his dedicated study in the subject of National Security so far as it concerns the North East. He is the author of two other books, on Police Law and Narcotics, published from Delhi.

He is a recipient of the Indian Police Medal for Meritorious Service from the President of India.

Contents

Preface
Abbreviations
1. The Geopolitical Matrix
2. Historical Background of the North East
3. The Problem of Immigration
4. The Turmoil
5. Anti-Foreigner Agitation
6. Small Arms Proliferation
7. Insurgency in the North East