Ethnic conflict and development: The case of North-East Region with special reference to Manipur and Tripura
- 2016
- p.449-470.
- Jul-Sep
The North-Eastern Region (NER) of India is endowed with huge untapped natural resources and is recognised as the eastern gateway for the country's 'Look /Act East Policy'. However, the region has experienced a number of conflicts based on ethnicity. It is also witnessing a series of insurgencies and is alienated from the economic resurgence that the rest of the country is experiencing. Studies on North-East India largely reflect on the nature of ethnic tensions and conflicts in the region, most of them being empirical, historical and descriptive in nature. The limitations of historical, cultural and political explanations, compel one to look into the political economy of the region to seek answers for the persistence of growth of ethnic movements in the region after Independence. The crisis of India's North-East has largely centred on the questions of identity, governance and development. Economy and governance rather than ethnicity should be the basis for future policy in the region. This article seeks to analyse the socio-political roots of ethnic conflicts and development dynamics there. It resituates the theoretical debate on identity, tribe and ethnicity within this context. The article provides a comprehensive understanding of the concept of ethnicity and patterns of ethnic conflict in the context of North-East India. Further, it presents case studies of ethnic conflict dynamics in the less studied but important states of Manipur and Tripura in North-East India. - Reproduced.
Ethnic conflicts - India, North East Ethnic conflicts