North-East India: A Bird's Eye View

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North East India is geographically bounded together except the state of Sikkim; a region which shares a 2000 km long border with Bhutan, China, Myanmar and Bangladesh. Most of the region is dotted with hills of various heights. The charm and mystic splendor of this region has beholden many hearts since time immemorial. Rich in cultural heritage and home to variegated flora and fauna, it is none less than a paradise on the earth. If we look back to the tradition and religion, we find that the region was recognized from the time of Mahabharata down to this day as an integral part of the country. The culture of the region presents an excellent synthesis of ideas, behaviour, ritual and other practices derived from the diverse sources.

A number of researches have been done on various aspects of the region and published in book form but still there is a great scope to do more. Rest of the India know very few about the culture and civilization of this region. In the field of archaeological investigation there is ample possibility to reveal a number of mysteries because due to tough geographical situation and some political conflicts very less work has been done in the field of archaeology. Still there is a need to produce a collective work which may able to throw light not only on the geographical uniqueness of the region but also present a brief history of the people, their social customs, cultural excellence along with findings of archaeological investigations done in the region. Hence, I have tried my best to present a collective work in this book. The book is divided into eleven chapters. General introduction to North-East India is the theme of Chapter-I. Chapter-II throws light on the pre-historic scenario of Arunachal Pradesh while Chapter-III deals with the Pre-history of the state of Assam. Chapter-IV describes the Pre-history of the states of Manipur, Meghalaya and Mizoram and Chapter-V deals with the Prehistoric findings of Nagaland and Tripura. Chapter-VI is dedicated to the Rock art of North and North-East India. Chapter-VII is focused on the historical descriptions found about the zone. The socio-economic scenario of the area is the theme of Chapter-VIII. Chapter-IX presents the cultural scenario of this geographical area. Buddhism in North-East India is the theme of chapter-X and the last chapter describes in brief about the language and literature of the area. The book ends with six appendixes under which contribution of Nepalese to this geographical zone, pre-history of District Darjeeling, WB, geography of Sikkim, pre-history of Sikkim, Buddhism in Sikkim and Buddhism in District Darjeeling, WB are discussed. A rich bibliography is given in the end.

The book is well supported by figures, maps, and illustrations. Hope the book will be welcomed by the scholarly world.

North-East India, a land of beauty, greenery, charms, myths, legend and mysticism is also a region of immense potential, talent and creativity. Having a rich cultural heritage the region is spread over an area of 2, 62,179 sq km. The region comprising eight states: Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura has a unique culture, which is diversified and yet people have developed their lives and culture which is steeped in tradition yet influenced by modernity. Sikkim was the last to join the regional identity of the North-East Interestingly on 15 August 1947, the region only had the state of Assam and the princely states of Manipur and Tripura. All the other states came into existence as a part of the policy of reorganization of states in the subsequent years. The region is stretched between 890 49° to 970 4' East Longitude and 220 0 to 290 18° North Latitude. It has 4,500 km long international border with five foreign countries namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Myanmar, and Nepal. The region is connected with rest of the country by a tenuous 22 km land corridor through Siliguri in the eastern state of West Bengal-a link that has come to be referred to as the Chicken's Neck. Comprising only 8% of the country's geographical area, the population of the North-East is 4, 55, 87,982 (2011 Census) which is 3.77 %of the country's population.

The entire region can be geographically divided into two parts i.e. plains and the hills. There is stark dissimilarity among the eight North-Eastern states with respect to their resource endowments, levels of industrialization as well as infrastructural facilities. The economy of all these states remains undeveloped with inflated service sectors. The industrial sector has mainly developed around tea, oil, timber in Assam and mining, saw mills and plywood factories in other parts of the region. The region is characterized by socio-political instability, economic backwardness and conflicts of different magnitudes. The high mountains, deep valleys, dense forests, rivers and rigorous environment have fostered socio-economic, political isolation and inaccessibility. It naturally influenced the socio-economic and political interactions within and between the constituent units in the region.

North-East India is an ethnic mosaic having a huge sum of different tribal groups of various stocks speaking diverse languages, maintaining their traditional customs and practices, having self-sufficient economies, thus forming a multicultural identity of this region. Two main linguistic sub-families exist among the present day tribal population of the region, viz. Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman. Khasi is the only group belonging to the Austro-Asiatic group, whereas the Tibeto- Burman family is widespread and represented by the Adi, Apatani, Bodo, Chutia, Deuri, Dimasa, Garo, Hajong, Kuki, Lalung, Maran, Mech, Mishing, Monpa, Naga, Nyishi, Rabha, Tripuri, etc. The other groups are the Tai and Indo-Aryans. The Sino-Tibetan from Tibet and China, the Austrics from Indo-China, the Dravidian and the Indo-Aryans from the mainland of India and the Siamese-Chinese from the Shan plateau of northern Myanmar have poured into this region at various times. The region harbours more than 130 major tribal communities.

North-East India can be regarded as a treasure house or repository of traditional knowledge which the inhabitants base on the surrounding natural eco-system. The e of the knowledge inherited from their forefathers through oral tradition can be casily observed in the lifestyle of the people. The knowledge of the traditional medicines against some very important diseases is acquired through constant touch with the surrounding ecology and passed on from generation to generation as oral traditions. This indigenous knowledge is an integral part of their culture and history. We need to learn from these communities to enrich the development process of the whole country. Despite being an area of ethnographic diversity, yet maintaining a unique spirit of harmony, the region could not gain much importance till date and has remained as the most underrated and least explored regions of India. The region has been one of the most conflict prone and volatile regions of the Indian Union.

The region is characterized by insurgency and separatism. Interaction of diverse psychological, historical, social, political and economic factors has contributed to instability, conflicts and disorder in the region. The tribal and feudal resistances, fear of social domination and cultural absorption, ethnic resurgence etc. have encouraged the issues of identity and autonomy. The colonial legacies and failure of the post-independence political leadership in handling the situation have created a situation of distrust and discontent. The people of the region have indeed developed a deep sense of perpetual grudge, antagonism and mistrust for each other.

The lack of sense of belonging and communication gap has further contributed to the volatile situation in the region. During the early fifties there only a few Naga insurgent groups, but today there are insurgent groups everywhere in the region. Does it suggest that something has gone wrong with the process of modernization and development in the region? Has it been a failure of the project of national integration, the idea of cultural assimilation, composite culture and the main stream theory? There have definitely been fault lines in the post-independence socio-political transformations in the region.