Northeast India

Bangladesh and India are enjoying increasingly close relations in the latter’s northeastern region. This represents a transformation in the two countries’ past relationship, which was characterised by suspicion, distrust and insecurity. This recent change, which began with the arrival of Bangladesh’s current regime in 2009, has resulted in a sense of cooperation, mutual interest and connectivity. This article aims to explain this transformation.

• Md. Sohel Rana
• November 2018
• Strategic Analysis

The socio-politico-economic scene in India’s North-east region has guided certain aspects of the country’s domestic and international policy. The Act East Policy (AEP) of the government of India aims to build relations with the countries of South-East Asia, including trade relations, for which the north-east serves as the gateway. This article seeks to analyse the relevance of the policy: How is it grounded in the complex region of north-east India? In what way can it impact the region?

• Raile Rocky Ziipao
• September 2018
• Strategic Analysis

The declaration of the Disturbed Area provision is fundamentally at odds with the mutually accommodative integration endeavour of the Nagas with the Indian Union as envisioned in the 2015 framework agreement.

• Gautam Sen
• January 16, 2018
• IDSA Comments

While decades of counterinsurgency operations and peace processes have taken the sting out of the region’s major insurgencies, collaboration between groups continues to pose security challenges, particularly in the exploitable border areas adjacent to the upper Sagaing Region of Northwest Myanmar.

• Alex Waterman
• August 10, 2017
• IDSA Comments

Maximum autonomy may be accorded in ethnic, cultural and developmental realms to autonomous councils for all Naga areas in Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and even Assam, through suitable amendment to the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.

• Gautam Sen
• July 31, 2017
• IDSA Comments

Subject to a political consensus, there may still be some scope for a solution short of a full-fledged Gorkhaland state

• Gautam Sen
• June 29, 2017
• IDSA Comments

Naga leaders have alleged that Naga villages have been merged with non-Naga areas to form the new districts and that the Manipur Government did not consult all stake holders including the Hill Area Committees before taking the decision.

• Sushil Kumar Sharma
• March 15, 2017
• Issue Brief

Regulated borders with greater emphasis on developing people-to-people contact and cross-border trade initiatives are likely to yield greater security benefits as against a closed border.

• Pradeep Singh Chhonkar
• February 06, 2017
• IDSA Comments

Partly the result of a political and physical isolation compounded by decades of conflict in the region, Northeast India is often viewed through the prism of security studies, institutional performance or developmental governance. While important contributions in themselves, a state-centric focus often overlooks the complexity of the causes and dynamics. It ignores the consequences of regional societal forces’ articulation of identity, nationalism, separatism and sovereignty that can shape political boundaries in the region, thus overlooking the salience of subaltern narratives.

• Alex Waterman
• January 2017
• Strategic Analysis

While the Manipur government’s decision to create seven new districts has come in the wake of popular demands for improved administrative efficiency, there has been fierce opposition from Naga bodies which view it as an attempt to divide the Naga people

• Pradeep Singh Chhonkar
• December 23, 2016
• IDSA Comments