Is There a Pan-North-East Identity and Solidarity?

Abstract

India’s north-east is often generalised, misunderstood and understudied. Its cultural diversity, decades of armed insurrections, ethnic violence and identity politics have intrigued scholars for the past few decades. To many, the u­nder­standing of some major tribes of the r­egion – their lifestyle, world view and aspirations, and putting them t­ogether as an analytical category and clubbing the whole north-eastern states as “north-east” – seems to snugly fit their analysis. The generalised presumptions, time and again, overlook the diversity of the region. In contrast, each state has described itself as a “mini India”.