Communities, Institutions and Histories of India’s Northeast

409 Pages·2021·3.15 MB·English

by  Charisma K. Lepcha (editor), Uttam Lal (editor)

COMMUNITIES, INSTITUTIONS AND
HISTORIES OF INDIA’S NORTHEAST
People from India’s Northeast have crafed distinct as well as
diverse cultural cryptograms, discernments and personality which
is frequently at loggerheads with the power politics from outside
the region. Tus, attention is ofen on the societies of the Northeast
India as they putter with transforming institutions and more
intensive resource consumption in the wake of modernization
and development activities. Tis volume is an examination into
questions of who exercises control, who constructs knowledge/
ideas about the region and how far such discourses are people-
centric. It inspects how India’s Northeast have been understood in
colonial and post-colonial contexts through the contributions from
research scholars and faculties from diferent academic spaces.
Tese contributions are both from within the region as well as
from neighbourhood. Tus, presenting a cross-dimensional gaze
on social, political, economic as well as issues related to space-
relation. Even though it is a volume on India’s Northeast to engage
academicians, researchers, policy makers, it will attract rational
readers from all around.
Charisma K. Lepcha teaches anthropology at Sikkim University,
India. She was a Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies
(IIAS), Shimla (2018-2019). She has recently been awarded
Harvard-Yenching Institute Visiting Scholar for the 2021-2022
academic year.
Uttam Lal is Faculty at Department of Geography, Sikkim
University. He led Sikkim University team in the Inter-University
Consortium on Cryosphere and Climate Change (IUCCCC) and
was recipient of ‘Emerging Scholar-2014’ at India-China Institute,
New School, New York. He was Erasmus+ Mobility programme
Guest Fellow at Aarhus University, Denmark, 2018.

Communities, Institutions and
Histories of India’s Northeast
Edited by
charisma k. lepcha
uttam lal
MANOHAR
First published 2022
by Routledge
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© 2022 selection and editorial matter, Charisma K. Lepcha and Uttam Lal;
individual chapters, the contributors
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 9781032158389 (hbk)
ISBN: 9781003245865 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003245865
Typeset in Minion Pro 11/13
by Ravi Shanker, Delhi 110095
Contents
Foreword 9
Preface 11
Acknowledgements 21
Introduction: Northeast India: History of
the Present and Predicament of the Future
A.C. Sinha 23
Part I: Framing the Northeast
1. A Tale of Many Brahmaputras: Borderlands,
Waterscapes and Geographies in Colonial
Northeast India
Bikram Bora 47
2. Colonial Construction of the ‘Lazy Native’ and
Formation of Assam’s Tea Industry
Prithiraj Borah 65
3. Analysing the Contours of India’s ‘New’ Regional
Diplomacy: Te Importance of Northeast
Netajee Abhinandan 81
Part II: Being a Northeasterner
4. Dressing My Culture: Te Mekhela-Chador,
Women’s Agency and Patriarchy in Assam
Pooja Kalita 101
6 Contents
5. Dabbling with Kaleidoscopic Narratives:
A Pre-requisite for Comprehending the ‘Forgotten’
History of the Róngkups/ Lepchas
Reep Pandi Lepcha 113
6. Mob Justice: An Integral Form of Cultural Construct
Mamta Lukram 133
7. Social Exclusion of Char Inhabitants in Assam:
Understanding the Interplay of Culture, Identity
and Geography
Abdullah Khandakar and Sandhya Thapa 149
Part III: Institutions, Resources
and Sustainability
8. Marriage Rituals and Customs in Mizo Society
Lalmalsawmi Hlondo 165
9. Te Shif of Authority: From Village Authority to
Colonial Court
Khekali 177
10. Reframing Tribal Governance in Tripura:
TTAADC to the Village
H. Theresa Darlong 193
11. Te Socio-Cultural Underpinnings of Democracy in
the Khasi Hills of Meghalaya: Reframing the Past to
Understand the Present
Basil N. Darlong Diengdoh 205
12. Conservation of Traditional Ecological Knowledge
and Environmental Sustainability in Northeast India
V. Bijukumar 223
13. A Journey from Sohliya to Strawberries: Experiences
of Cash Crops, Forest and Food Security in Meghalaya,
Northeast India
Rabi Narayan Behera 239
Contents 7
Part IV: Cross-Border Interaction
and Migration
14. India-Bhutan Borderland: Selected Cases of
Arunachal Pradesh and Assam Border
Chaphiak Lowang 261
15. Indo-Myanmar Border Fencing:
A Study of Chandel District in Manipur
I. Yaipharemba 277
16. Ethnicity and Great Power Politics: A Case of
Transnational Ethnic Kachin of Myanmar and
Singpho of Northeast India
Dan Seng Lawn 291
17. Memories of Migration of the Nepalese Migrant
Coal Mine Workers
Rashmi Upadhyay 311
18. Enduring Racial Milieu: Relevance of
Cultural Intelligence in Acculturation
of Northeast Indian Migrants
Namrata Sharma and Dilwar Hussain 325
Part V: Language, Literature and Society
19. Mother Tongue and Identity:
With Reference to Ao Community
Arenkala Ao 345
20. Language and Identity Politics: Te Case of Hmar
in Northeast India
Teresa Khawzawl 359
21. Te Past in the Present: A Prismatic Retelling of
Angami Naga Folklore
Menka Singh 373
8 Contents
22. Suicide: A Daunting Challenge before the
State of Sikkim
Binod Bhattarai 391
List of Contributors 403
Foreword
It is a pleasure to write the foreword to a book that brings together
a large number of promising young scholars working on Northeast
India, most of who had gathered in Gangtok in November 2016 to
participate in a truly international and multi-disciplinary seminar
organized by the editors of this volume. It is also a matter of per-
sonal satisfaction for me that the volume is being published by a
well-respected publishing house in India because I had partially
arranged the fund for the seminar from the resources of Sikkim
University. It took about three years for the book to see the light
of the day but that is about the usual time it requires to chase the
authors for submission of, ofen multiple, revised drafs. Editing
such volumes can actually be quite tedious and even frustrating
at times. I therefore congratulate the editors on successfully man-
aging such a large number of authors to fnalize their respective
chapters for this volume.
As the editors have rightly noted, northeast India has received
a lot of attention during the past couple of decades for, let me add,
whatever right as well as wrong reasons. But this is certainly not
just another book to cash on in a favourable publishing environ-
ment. A lot of planning by some senior scholars on the region,
who participated in the Gangtok conference, has gone into it
from the selection of an appropriate theme to the selection of
papers for publication in this volume. It carries the perspectives
from several disciplines on several issues related to this region,
which have all not received adequate attention of the scholars in
the past. It covers the entire region, including the neighbouring
Myanmar. Tematically, it covers the important aspects of identity,