Rethinking the Northeast : Spatial Politics, Market Imperatives, and Cultural Contestation’s

Abstract

The North east region of India historically, has been viewed through a strategic lens, during the colonial era the region acted as a strategic buffer against China and France. Post-independence, the Indian state has continued to hold the same perception of the northeast as a region of strategic importance. These imaginaries of the northeast throughout the years have put the region in a state of what many scholars refer to as “ territorial trap”. It was only after the advent of globalization that India adopted a new spatial imagery, under the Look East policy. The northeast was then imagined as a transit point to connect the mainland with Southeast Asian countries, thereby boosting trade and economic activity. However, this evolving perception towards the northeast has been driven by several factors, including geopolitical aspects, the region's internal quest for identity, and the chronic underdevelopment that has persisted throughout the decades. To overcome the challenges faced by the region, the Indian state has invested a considerable amount of capital in building infrastructure and boosting development. However, the region has not witnessed the realized growth that was assumed by policymakers at the center and has only sustained the prevailing state of underdevelopment and marginalization in the region, which, according to scholars like Sanjib Barua, has described as ‘durable disorder’. The paper aims to examine the historical spatial imaginations of the northeastern region and their ramifications. Also, look into the new issues emerging from the overlap of these spatial imaginaries, in doing so the research takes up qualitative method for enquiry, using primary sources like governments reports along with secondary data using works of relevant scholar’s in relevant field.