Author: editor

The Rise of Programmatic Regionalism: A Socio-Political Analysis of the Voice of the People Party (VPP) in Meghalaya

Article

By Nangiaisan Kharlukhi & Mary M. Kurbah

This study examines the rapid ascendancy of the Voice of the People Party as a significant political influence within Meghalaya. Traditionally, regional politics in North East India has been viewed through the lenses of ethnic identity, tribal protection, and the transactional dispensation of political patronage (Bijukumar, 2023). However, this inquiry suggests that the VPP’s emergence signifies a fundamental paradigm shift toward “programmatic regionalism.” This movement focuses on systemic issues—such as honest government, anti-corruption, and transparency—rather than narrow ethnic interests or personal political deals. Utilising cleavage theory and frameworks concerning party-voter linkage, this paper delineates the mechanisms through which the VPP transitioned from a nascent political movement to a formidable electoral contender. The study employs a mixed-methods approach, comprising a survey of four hundred individuals across four salient areas and interviews with political leaders and scholars. The findings demonstrate that the VPP connects strongly with urban youth and the middle class, who are disillusioned with the “money power” and favour-seeking systems of older parties. The study further elucidates the VPP’s utilisation of social media as an economically viable medium for voter outreach. By providing novel primary data, the paper concludes that the VPP’s success may signal a shift toward an electorate motivated by shared values, notably integrity. Ultimately, this research contributes to the study of regionalism and the evolving dynamics of democratic participation in North East India.

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Threads of Change: Dahwna-Ruathi and Saori in the Evolving Labour Landscape of a Bodo Village in Assam

Article

By Mizinksa Daimari and Rajshree Bedamatta

The dominant narrative about Northeast India often frames Tribe societies as inherently egalitarian, especially in gender and socio-economic terms. Recent scholarship, however, challenges this view by revealing complexities. Indeed, Tribe societies have seen positive transformation in their socio-economic outcomes over time with increased household incomes on average and reduced absolute poverty rates. This study focuses on the Bodo community, a prominent Scheduled Tribe, to examine how it has fared amid ongoing agrarian transformation. The persistence of semi-feudal labour arrangements like dahwna and ruathi within the Bodo community during a particular historical time challenge such conventional views. This paper examines the nature of agrarian labour contracts within a Bodo village, uncovering quite contrastingly, evidence of differentiated peasantry, informal tenancy, and feudal-like structures despite being categorized as a Scheduled Tribe in contemporary times. By analyzing under-reported and informal agrarian relationships, this paper situates Bodo society within the broader discourse on agrarian transformation, challenging the exceptionalist lens while highlighting its specificities. Given the internal differentiation within the Bodo peasantry, which strata emerge as employers of wage labour and who labours? Which segments of the Bodo population are most likely to engage in out-migration from the hinterland? Furthermore, despite observable processes of capital penetration in agriculture, what forms of labour contracts currently predominate in contemporary Bodo villages?   

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20376814

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Ethnic Conflict and the Entrenchment of the Hills-Valley Divide in Manipur

Article

By Md. Abdul Gaffar

The hill–valley divide is often emphasised in both academic and public discussions, debates not only as a geographical boundary but also as a symbol of how history, law, and policy have unevenly distributed power and resources across regions. The divide in Manipur reflects a deeply-rooted, historically layered set of social, political, economic, and administrative divisions that influence identity, power, and resources throughout the state. After the violence in May 2023, Manipur’s demographic landscape is sharply divided by a ‘Buffer Zone’ between the Imphal valley, mainly inhabited by the Meitei, Muslims, and other communities—which is fertile, urbanised, and politically dominant— and the rest of the state. The surrounding hills—vast in area but sparsely populated—are traditionally home to the Kuki-Zo and Naga groups (along with several other hill tribes), each with distinct customary land systems, governance structures, and legal statuses. This spatial separation has shaped political institutions, economic development, cultural identities, and patterns of conflict. Since 2023, the violence has clearly revealed the symbolic and material effects of the hill-valley faultline, indicating that no Kuki-Zo person can safely enter the Imphal valley, just as no Meitei dares to enter Kuki-Zodominated hill areas. This paper traces the origins and development of the divide, analyses its mechanisms and impacts, and explores how recent unrest has merely uncovered longstanding issues that have simmered beneath the surface for years. It critiques current policy responses and proposes pathways towards a more equitable and stable future.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20269444

Monoj Kumar Nath, The Muslim question in Assam and Northeast India, New Delhi: Routledge, 2021

Book Review

Reviewed by Fakhruz Zaman

The book ‘The Muslim Questions in Assam and Northeast India’ by Monoj Kumar Nath provides a comprehensive and historically informed analysis of the political, social, and demographic changes affecting the Muslim community in Assam, especially during the post-independence period. ‘The Muslim Question in Assam and Northeast India’ offers an in-depth exploration of Muslim political identity and the crises of citizenship and cultural identity in the region. The book demonstrates that the Muslim question in Assam arises within a complex and specific political-social environment, closely linked to demographic shifts, illegal migration, political polarisation, and majoritarianism. Nath diligently seeks to understand the Muslim question through the interconnected lenses of history, identity, and citizenship. His work is likely one of the first detailed studies to highlight the politics surrounding the internal divisions between Assamese residents and Muslim migrants from East Bengal in Assam.

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Writing the ‘Savage’: Representation of Nagas in Nineteenth Century Colonial Writings

Note

By Lipokmar Dzüvichü

In the nineteenth century, colonial officials produced various written accounts on the Nagas and the Naga Hills, and drew particular conclusions about the people, their practices and the landscape. Through various registers and forms of representations, officials not only constituted the Nagas as “savage”, inferior and “tribes” stuck in the past. The imagery produced in these writings also became a dominant way of organizing and framing the Nagas and their landscapes in the colonial texts. It is through such ideas and representations that Nagas and their practices were made familiar and knowable to the colonial government as well as to the colonial metropole. These writings also occurred in a context where the foothills along the Naga Hills had emerged as significant spaces for colonial capital and the efforts of the colonial government to contain the “unruly” violence by the Nagas in the frontier. Besides, the writings not only established and shaped colonial representation of the Nagas and their landscapes through European frames and ideas. The genre of colonial writings also remains important because it constitutes a key domain to understand the relationship between writing, forms of representation and imperial rule in the margins of empire.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20201972

Circulation, ‘Incoherence’ and Empire: Revisiting Two Approaches in Recent Historical Writings on Colonial Northeast India

Article

By Manjeet Baruah

In the recent times, two approaches which have shaped some significant studies on colonial Northeast India are: the idea of incoherence of empire, and circulatory networks or circulation. Highlighting the conceptual departures they contain, this article is also an attempt to revisit the two approaches by drawing attention to some of the broader questions that these approaches need to take into account. For example, vis-à-vis the region, how does the idea of incoherence or that of circulation extend the understanding of imperial accumulation of power and capital at a global scale. Further, if structuring of areas in imperial processes operates at different spatial scales, then how does de-centring these scales (as in the two approaches) enable one to identify what is imperialism as far as the region is concerned. The two approaches of incoherence of empire and circulation have foregrounded the question of highlands. As such, the article argues that coherence or incoherence could have different loci. While at one level, certain areas of the region (whether plains, foothills or highlands) could be understood in terms of empire’s coherence there could be other areas, especially highlands, which tend to exhibit features of relative incoherence in this regard. However, as the chapter argues, if the vantage point of examination is empire and the fact of its presence (however limited or informal), then is it possible to look into combinations of processes to understand how such combinations could be oriented towards imperial accumulation of power (and capital) across these different kinds of areas that comprised colonial Northeast India.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20201859

Locating Women in the Vaiphei Customary Justice System in Manipur: Assessing the Legal Void

Article

By Mercy K. Khaute

The Vaiphei tribe is one amongst the numerous hill tribes in Manipur. Various factors like size of population, oratory nature of their customary laws make them obscure from the mainlanders. Within the tribe, justice is adjudicated through the concerned parties’ kinsmen council which has been in practice since ancient days. Essentially every household sets up this council. An important area that beckons under the ethos of customary laws is on inclusive participation of all members. The study reveals the abysmal or rather symbolic participation of Vaiphei women in the justice administration, who are systematically excluded from kinsmen council proceedings through patriarchal norms embedded in the customary system. Drawing on empirical fieldwork, the paper analyzes the structural barriers to women’s participation, explores spaces where women exercise limited agency, and examines how Christianity, out-migration, and education are creating tensions within this patriarchal framework. The findings reveal that while women’s marginalization is pervasive, not absolute, contemporary transformations are creating new possibilities for women’s inclusion in justice processes.

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Street Vending in Sikkim: Gendered Inequalities and Urban Informal Livelihood in Northeast India

Article

By Mandeep Dhamala and Ruma Kundu

Street vending is an integral part of the urban informal economy in Northeast India. It has been a source of livelihood for marginalised people in urban and semi-urban areas. This paper explores the socioeconomic status of street vendors in eight major towns in Sikkim, focusing on their income disparities, vulnerabilities and the role of gender. A total sample size of 310 street vendors was selected from eight major towns in the state. A stratified purposive sampling method was used and the results were analysed with the help of descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentages. Factors influencing the income of vendors were analysed through a multiple linear regression model. Findings show that the majority of the vendors have minimal educational attainments. Though most of them reside in pucca houses and have access to basic amenities like water, electricity and sanitation, they still face precarious economic conditions. Education emerges as a significant predictor of income, while loss in vending days due to illness, social obligations and eviction negatively impacts earnings. Further analysis reveals that women vendors earn less in almost all towns because they work few hours and face greater domestic and caregiving burdens. These inequalities are more severe among SC and ST women with minimal education. These findings highlight the intersectional nature of exclusion in urban informal spaces. This requires more inclusive urban policy such as gender-sensitive interventions, targeted support for marginalised groups and improved policy implementation that will transform street vending as a source of sustainable livelihood rather than a survival strategy. 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18516302

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Citizens in Suspense? Portraying the Voices of the Borderlanders along the Indo-Bangladesh Border

Article

By Nisha Chettri and Nawal K Paswan

The India-Bangladesh border, demarcated by the Radcliffe Line in 1947, stretches around 4,096 km along the Indian states of West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram. The border fencing was introduced to curb illegal migration and enhance national security. However, in Assam, the fencing has introduced a range of social and economic challenges. Many residents of border villages, especially those living outside the fence or near the zero line, face restricted access to land, mobility, healthcare, and other basic services. Movement across the fence is strictly regulated by the Border Security Force through scheduled gate timings and with mandatory identification checks. While existing literature has largely focused on security concerns, migration, and territorial integrity, there remains a significant gap in understanding the everyday realities of those residing in these fenced border areas. Issues such as disrupted livelihoods, displacement, psychological distress, and limited compensation for land loss are underrepresented in both academic and policy discussions. This study, therefore, explores the socio-economic conditions and human security status of border villages in Assam. Engaging with the conceptual framework of citizenship in suspense, it argues that residents in these zones occupy a paradoxical position where they are legally recognised as citizens but functionally excluded from full political and material inclusion. The paper calls for a rethinking of border governance that goes beyond security logics to address the rights, needs, and uncertainties faced by those who live under constant surveillance but remain beyond protection.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17745446

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Statelessness as Rule and Citizenship as Exception: Analysing Rights and Risks of the Chakmas in Arunachal Pradesh

Article

By Subha Mangal Chakma

Politically, the Chakma tribal community, a small indigenous group located from Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh were uprooted painfully due to the decolonising projects of partition as well as de-partition, and now with the changes of geographical location to India their political status remains in an ambiguous location between identity of conflicting refugee(hood) and contested citizenship. Politically, as a mere figure of human bodies they are reduced to a contentious issue in Arunachal Pradesh. This paper unpacks the underexplored settings of marginalities and vulnerabilities in-between such identities in shape. Simultanously, it examines the downtrodden processes of emerging necessities and compulsions that led the Chakmas to resort to a legal battle in Court to locate themselves justly in this universe of population. At times, although they succeeded in getting reliefs from the Courts, however, as the author observes, the State’s political willingness is against the Chakmas’ interest and is also contrary to the Court’s rulings. The author argues that the State is a powerhouse on the verge of dismantling Chakmas’ internal core self and indulging in its ultimate collapse. Instead of balancing societies, in reverse, the issue is now stalemated, politicised, criminalised and left in an extraordinarily suspicious precarity.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17549379

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