Insurgency and rebellions are aplenty in modern India. But even in this context, the North East is seen as a “problem child”, as author Subir Bhoumik writes in the preface to his recently published book Troubled Periphery: Crisis of India’s North East (SAGE). Armed struggle in different corners in the NE, sometimes against factions within the same state, extortions, kidnappings, et al, regularly make headlines in the national media..

Looking East Mistress of Spice To catch a star Jungle songs Lady with the Potter wand Straddling two worlds Bollywood calling We speak like that only Sing a song for literacy Looking back in wonder Perfect Balance His own Ramayanan

Though clubbed under NE, the states – Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura, ephemerally called the Seven Sisters, bear much diversity. Of the 635 communities in India listed as tribal, more than 200 belong to the NE. More often than not, even people living in this geographically defined space,  do not have a common language or cultural homogeneity. In this complex situation, added to the region’s  diffidence - not unfounded, at the ‘centre’s negligence’ to understand its problems,  have sprouted a thousand rebellions. Let alone the outside world, even people in other parts of the country find it difficult to find an answer to the ‘why?’

Bhaumik’s  book is a valuable template for understanding the historicity of the insurgency in the area , and also why  the region has been “South Asia’s most enduring theatre of separatist guerrilla war.”
As a journalist specializing on the area for decades, Bhaumik has the resources and experience not only to map the separatist movements in the states but also the analytical power to look deeper into issues that underlie the separatist tendency in the NE.

Bhaumik points out that though at many places rebellions have eventually died down, “insurgencies never peter out in the North East” and tries to give the reasons behind. The centre’s policies vis-a-vis NE, according to the author, has followed master-strategist Kautilya: “ Sham (Reconciliation), Dam (Monetary Inducement), Danda (Force) and Bhed (Split) ..have all been used in varying mix to control and contain the violent movements in the North East.”

Yet, the strategy has not worked as expected- or hoped for. The apathy to  understand  the roots of the problem, and the ignorance of, or reluctance, to know the region better by people at large, has not helped. As Bhaumik says, “..for an entire generation of post-colonial Indians, the little wars of the North East remained a distant thunder, a collection of conflicts not worth the bother.”

Unless there is a concerted effort to look in the face this lacunae, and a genuine willingness to solve cure the festering  wound, the author feels, the malady will carry on though there could temporary respite. Even the much-touted ‘Look East’ policy  will remain a tokenism for the people of the region, the author said at the book launch at the British Council, Kolkata.

Bhaumik is also of the opinion  that there should not be absolutely any more division of the existing states in the NE as a method of appeasement, despite there having been demands to the effect. For instance, the demand for  greater Nagaland, which includes a part of Manipur because there is a large Naga origin people there could result in more disruption. This is bound to   have a domino effect (In the current  situation where the same kind of demand has resulted in violence and  political conflict more than illustrates this point).

The book ends with an important chapter “The Road Ahead” which suggests  ways  to make the NE “arrowhead” of the country’s ‘Look East’ policy. Bhaumik’s book is a must read to get authentic information about the ‘troubled’ North East.