School of Liberal Studies

2022
2022
Ambedkar University Delhi

Course: Power Culture Marginality

MA History (Semester 3rd)

Submitted to – Dharitri Narzary

Submitted by – Ankesh Kumar Karna

Enrolment no – S213DHS05
Critically discuss the “Post-Independence political re-configuration of the northeast of
India created space for rise of sub-nationalism in the region” in the larger context of
centre- periphery relation, linking it with the contemporary issues of marginality in the
region.

“India will be successful when UP, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam and other parts of North East
India are strengthened. India cannot develop till the eastern part of the country develops”.

- Narendra Modi

From the time of the Mahabharata until the advent of Islamic domination, the entire region of
the North East had strong cultural and economic ties to the rest of Bharat Varsha. When
Islamic invaders started seizing control of Delhi around seven centuries ago, this relationship
turned hostile. Our forefathers fought several fights throughout the course of the following
500 years to keep the various invaders out of the North-east, including the historic battles of
Saraighat and Itakhuli. The intruders devastated Assam's historic, cultural, and religious sites.
One of the most ardent adversaries of colonialism at the time was the then-undivided Assam,
but the stories of that state, particularly those of the Phulaguri Dhawa and Patharughator Ran
events and the enormous contributions of Rani Gaidinliu, Tirat Singh, Kushal Konwar,
Kanaklata Barua, and many others, have no resonance today. (Sarma, 2021)

North-East Region (NER) is one of India's most ethnically and linguistically diverse region,
with a considerable tribal population. The region shares a 4,500 km international border with
Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, China, and Nepal. It is connected to the rest of India by a 22
km land corridor through Siliguri in the eastern State of West Bengal that is also called to as
"Chicken's Neck." According to the 2011 Census, the region comprises 3.07% of the nation's
total population (45,533,982) and 7.97% of India's geographical area (262,179 sq. km). As
geographical location always influences factors like culture, traditions, language, similarly
Plains and hills make up the two geographical sections that constitute the entire North East
area. Hindus and Muslims account for the vast majority of the population on the region's
plains, while Christians constitute the vast majority of the hills people residing in the States
of Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Nagaland.

From the very beginning of India's journey as an independent nation, the integration of
Northeast India into mainstream Indian life has been a priority for the country. The
perception that the region was partly foreign and needed to assimilate found (and still finds)
expression in administrative terminology. The punitive Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act
(AFSPA), passed in 1958, and the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, enacted in 1949, ought
to be used to describe these two extreme provisions that constitute this situation. The concern
is, how effective has this integration been 75 years after Independence, as we are celebrating
the 75th years of our Independence.

Assam's geographical and administrative unification with the rest of North-East India was
contrived and not genuine. The hill tracts have no historical, linguistic, social, or cultural ties
to the inhabitants of the plains. It was an administrative oversight that these territories were
assigned to the province in the past. The Government of India Act of 1919 placed tribal
region management under the control of the Governor and away from the Minister's
jurisdiction. These regions, referred to as the "Backward Tract," were even exempt from the
1935 Constitution Act's provisions.

Earlier Assam was ruled under the colonial rulers who managed to rule Assam as a single
composite State, therefore, if becomes quite obvious to debate as if there was any reason for
this process to be reversed if the colonial rulers were successful in running Assam as a single
composite State. Furthermore, adequate safeguards had been put in place under the Sixth
Scheduled, which gave them legislative powers that the foreign government had refused to
grant them.1

The All People Hill Leader's Conference (APHLC), which issued a memorandum to the
President requesting him to separate hill regions from Assam. In order to fulfil the legitimate
aspirations of the native tribes, a team lead by Williamson Sangma met with Prime Minister
Nehru and argued for the establishment of an Eastern Frontier State. Nehru made it clear that

1
H. K. Barpujari, “North - East India:Problems, Policies And Prospects”, 1998, pp18.
Assamese would not be compelled upon non-Assamese people and also speaking Assamese
was not a requirement for employment in the Secretariat or the Assam Civil Service. 2

'Neither the Government of India nor the Government of Assam were willing to grant their
consent to the hill people's demand for a distinct State until they were eventually compelled
by a series of agitations that brought the administration almost to a halt,' writes scholar Nari
Rustomji. Rustomji was unaware that Nehru's goal was to reorganise the administrative
structure rather than the state, that would lead Assam to break apart. In reality, this had
transpired not long after he had left the scene. With the attitude that "even brothers in a
family part, so let us have separation with good grace instead of being driven to it," the
Assamese accepted the unavoidable.3

2
Ibid 19.
3
Ibid 20.