Book Review: Problems of Ethnicity in the North-East IndiaAuthor: BB Kumar (ed)Publisher: ConceptPrice: Rs 500
Pioneer, January 6, 2008
It has never been the easiest of jobs to review a publication that is product of a seminar. Multiple papers on a variety of facets, unless goaded to examine a single theme, have the tendency to make a volume without actually contributing much to the existing debate. Within restricted word limitations, authors find it difficult to develop their themes and are often found to be trying hard to summarise the entire dynamics with little effectiveness. And the volume, while including some excellent articles, is constrained to carry the burden of papers based on anecdotal narratives, some which are based on the extempore vocalisations by retired bureaucrats. This book, by default, suffers from many of these symptoms. However, given the fact that BB Kumar is an expert on the North-East, the publication is in many parts immensely readable.
Intractable conflicts in India's North-East have inherently been linked to the issues of ethnicity. As a result, "we versus them" is all pervasive. As one of the essays in the book, 'Ethnicity, State and Identity', argues: "Ethnic-based identity is bound to be there in the North-East and they are likely to proliferate. Rather than looking at these issues as problems, approach should be to look at the structural issues and address them accordingly."
Ethnicity is said to have emerged as a major roadblock in India's nation-building process in the region. Many essays in the book seem to agree. However, a 1993 article by Claude Ake on the problem of ethnicity in Africa, made an interesting point. It said, "It is not clear that ethnicity by itself generates conflict or that it is inherently threatening. One may prefer one's kinsfolk or one's own community without being antagonistic to others. It is odd that those who consider ethnicity as a manipulable instrument are also the ones who regard it as a problem."
Udayon Misra's essay in the book makes a similar point. In his paper, 'Naga Peace talks: New Parameters, Fresh Challenges', he observes: "Whatever the limitations of India's experiment with representative democracy, the fact remains that the struggle of the small nationalities has led to the expanding of the parameters of the Indian nation state and a refining of the concept of Indian nationalism itself." However, another essay in the book does not appear to be too hopeful: "India is yet to develop a response mechanism which would take into account the special needs of its ethnic communities without actually fragmenting geographical boundaries."
How closely are the issues of development and governance linked to the issues of identity and ethnicity? One of the essays in the book concludes, "Most of the problem in the region ultimately boils down to the failure of the administrative mechanism leading to the birth of desires for new orders."
The author of another essay, 'Rephrasing the Identity Question in Manipur', recommending a solution, says, "There is a dire need to decentralise governance and to make it meaningful through the full participation of people, down to the last person in the village." The blame for the mess in the North-East, thus, needs to be shared equally between New Delhi and the concerned States in the region. In fact, politicians are a similar breed, be it in New Delhi or in distant Guwahati or Aizawl. Solutions to crucial issues have veered around concepts that hardly seek to address the deep sense of alienation, discrimination and failure of governance, which people of the region complain of.
Half-baked solutions and their constant failures have reinforced an inward-looking identity problem in the North-East. One can recollect the statement of Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi a couple of years ago. He was reported to have assured that all the tribes in Assam demanding the creation of several autonomous development councils (ADCs) would be granted their wishes. Such honours were then bestowed on the smallest of the tribes, barely having few thousand population. Such experiments have been carried on in spite of the fact that the ADC experiment has been a colossal failure in the region and has only catered to the needs of the selfish and egoistic tribal politicians.
Claude Ake made a valid point. He said, "If ethnicity is manufactured at will and manipulated to serve any number of selfish purposes, then it is only an 'object', the case for calling it a cause of the numerous problems regularly attributed to it would not be sustainable."
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