Review of Literature/ Select Bibliography:* For North East India/ Assam Segment Professor Monirul Hussain • This is not an exhaustive/full bibliography/review of literature. A larger version is under preparation. • Prof. Hussain acknowledges the assistance provided by Ms. Mausumi Dutta Pathak and Ms. Gulshan Parveen, Department of Political Science, Gauhati University. SAFHR Human Rights and Peace Audits of Partition Studies: North East India/Assam Segment. Select Bibliography/ Review of Literature: English Barbora, Sanjay Autonomy or Death: Assessing Ethnic Autonomy Arrangements in Assam, Northeast India, in Barbora, Sanjay and Chaturvedi, Sanjay. Autonomies in the North and the North East: More Freedom or the Politics of Frontier Managem,ent?, Mahaniban Calcutta Research Group, Kolkata This paper ponders on the technique applied by the Indian state to resolve complicated and very often conflicting demands of ethnic autonomy with simple solutions like that of creating autonomous district councils. Since these arrangements have constitutional limitations they invariably carry the seeds of repression along with them. In retrospect, the writer recalls that creation of frontiers, following the advent of capitalism in the nineteenth century, modelled the region in the centre-periphery framework privileging certain regions at the expense of others. It is this process of expulsion of certain regions to periphery and creating frontiers that has made ethnicity the major rallying point of the marginalized ethnic groups. The writer argues that within these frontiers, the ethnic communities had to negotiate with the state and its dominant groups for a space. When these negotiations take a violent turn the state apparatus come up with ostensible solutions to growing aspiration of the ethnic groups. What appear to be guarantees of autonomy are in fact a condensed body of intricate political negotiations. In going to democratize society and politics, these negotiations, as they trickle down, pose more questions than what actually existed. The writer also argues that while on the one hand the state tries to reiterate the supremacy of the all-powerful state on the ground that their can be no amorphous collectives, these ethnic autonomy demands are premised on primordial loyalties. This contestation between the state and its people is an implicit declaration of the illegitimacy of the ongoing nation-building and state-building process. Baruah, S. 1999 India Against Itself: Assam and Politics of Nationality, Oxford University Press, New Delhi. This book argues that the issues of separatism, secessionism, and insurgency are linked with the nature of Indian federalism and Indian nationalism. Indian nationalism is plural in nature and unless this plurality of small and big nationalities is recognized there is every possibility of striking back. Nationalism indicates homogeneity in terms of culture, tradition language etc. but in India homogeneity of nationalism is not possible because of its own diversity and unevenness. Therefore, the foundation of nationalism in India is somewhat fragile. Sustaining such a diverse, fragile nationalism necessitates delicate handling by the State. The author argues that the very project of nation-building in India is hollow and the discontents at the regional level bear out this fact. He has dwelt extensively on the incongruity between the national and sub-national aspirations taking into account the history of conflicts in Assam and its subsequent difficulty in assimilating itself with the pan-Indian identity. He has very rightly pointed out that it is the negligence of media, the scholars, the intelligentsia and the public policy discourse on the issues of north east that has given birth to sub-national discontents which in recent times have turned out to be dangerously violent in manifestation. He argues that where the intensity of discontent is so high there is every possibility of disintegration. The book proceeds to explain how the once land abundant region of Assam has been transformed into a land frontier attracting large scale migration, a phenomenon that has ignited Assam’s many ethno-political conflicts. Moreover the authoritarian and repressive response of the state to such conflicts has rusted the democratic ethos of the region and the organic solidarity of groups living in the region has transformed to one of mutual distrust and competition. The author argues that it is the rhetoric of the state that has strewn the region in struggles for space resulting in excesses of human rights violation. Had the Indian state abandoned its throttling and obsolete manner of nation-building and tolerated a more powerful federation, the chasm between sub-nationalism and pan-Indianism could be better managed. The author anticipates that a genuine federation- building process will enable the conflicting groups to resolve political controversies by making some arrangement of power-sharing between them. Baruah, Sanjib 2005 Durable Disorder: Understanding the Politics of Northeast India, Oxford University Press, New Delhi. Sanjib Baruah’s this book carries forward the arguments of his book India Against Itself. He argues that the prolonged insurgency and counter insurgency operations have significantly eroded the democratic fabric of the region and has paved the way for authoritarian politico-bureaucratic structure and practices. To him there exists an incongruity between the idea of ethnic homelands and the actually existing political economy that makes ethnic violence and internals displacements very predictable. Baruah urges for a reorientation of India’s policy towards the North East and to link it to a new foreign policy initiatives towards South East Asia. It seems he believes that the economic integration of Northeastern states with the ASEAN region could go long way in bringing about stability, peace and prosperity. Basumatary, Amprapali 2007 Fashioning Identities: Nationalizing Narrative of the Bodoland Movement, Eastern Quarterly, volume 4, Issue 2, This small paper looks at the Bodo movement which emerged soon after the formal demise of the Assam movement, as a logical extension of the nation-building project. This movement very consciously distanced itself from the Asamiyas, the majority group in Assam, in order to create a very distinct identity for the ethnic Bodos. In the process all the non-Bodos became the ‘others’ for the Bodos. Very significantly, this movement tried to create a demographically homogeneous homeland for the Bodos to the exclusion of ‘others’. All this led to unprecedented violence against the non-Bodo marginalized communities living in the same geographic space. Ironically, the Bodos also experienced violence within the community in order to create a politically homogeneous community to fight against the ‘others’. Basumatary is critical of narratives such as ‘nationalism’ because it is based basically on the worldview of patriarchy. Consequently, the women are victimized twice: first, by its absence in the nationalist discourses and second by its all-pervasive presence in the pantheon of victimhood. Das, Samir Kumar 2005 Peace Accords As the Basis of Autonomy in India, Peace Accords As the Basis of Autonomy, ,Mahanirvan Calcutta Research Group, Kolkata. In their attempt at bringing peace and resolving conflict, both the ethnic movements and the state look for arriving at some consensus on the contentious issue which results in signing of “peace accords”. This paper offers a multi-dimensional analysis of the Peace Accords that are signed between the state and its contenders who are involved in some kind of dissidence, as a way out to bring peace between them. Peace Accords, argues this paper, gives an illusion of restoring peace through promises of providing autonomy to the groups that are engaged in a desperate struggle for it. It argues that Accords are just another “strategically deployed” device of the state to perpetuate its domination over its adversaries. It is a milder form of force and coercion which the state uses to establish its hegemony over its federating units. Through Accords the state keeps the unequal balance of power and the resultant status quo between the centre and its federating units intact. The contending parties enter into signing Peace Accords under the spell that the state has conceded to their demands for autonomy. What this adversaries do not realize is that by the time the Accord is finalised the state had already robbed the contenders of their tactics by disarming them. Accords do not address the aspirations of the ethnic communities but are ingenious attempts at ‘managing conflicts and monitoring peace’. Autonomy demands of the contending groups are emasculated by pushing the issue into the folds of governmental technology. The writer uses the term governmentality to show how the state pretends to respond to the demands of autonomy by way of tacitly denying the grant of autonomy. This paper throws light on the nature of the state and its manner of governance when it comes to adjusting itself with the newly emerging realities. The writer makes a reference to the “original contract” to argue that the peace accords which are signed are in actual practice a renegotiation of the terms incorporated in the original contract. He points out that the original contract is the Constitution of the land which was not ratified by signing a treaty or an accord because it was taken for granted that the entitlements of the parties to the contract are obvious. But in subsequent years, when discontents started to emerge within the parties to the contract, the state embarked on a process of signing peace accords. These accords are in fact ratification of the original contract/constitution which was neglected earlier. As such, these accords are in no way autonomy accords because as it is only a ratification of the original contract/constitution it can never pave the way for autonomy. The constitution does not incorporate any terms that provides for autonomy delineating the minorities or to groups that do not have a different genealogy. The writer brings to light interesting tools which the state employs while negotiating the terms of autonomy in the making of an accord. He points out three different moments in the peace process which are in reality an arrangement of coercion of the state. These three moments are of recognition, constitution and ethnic space. First of all, when the state signs an accord with its adversary, it is generally understood that it has conferred recognition upon the adversary that it has the authority to represent the ethnic community. But the Statist perception of such recognition is that administrative machinery of the relevant ethnic community has broken down which calls for immediate recognition so as to restore it. This makes the recognition perfunctory on the part of the state. Secondly, signing of accords also means effecting changes in the constitution and organization of both the parties to the accord. On one hand, the state demands complete disarmament of its contenders and succeeds in transforming their constitution and organization. On the other hand, the contenders demands protection and preservation of the culture and tradition of the relevant community. But the state obfuscates the protection clause in such a manner that it hardly affects the constitution and organization of the state. Thus, the moment of constitution is also outmaneuvered by the state. Thirdly an accord is also supposed to provide the adversaries with a geo- political space which they can claim as their homeland. Demand for a separate homeland stems from a fear of the ethnic communities of being reduced to a minority. Knowing fully well the consequences of becoming a minority, given the democratic procedures in India, these ethnic groups make efforts to remain a majority and one way out is to keep the demographic balance in their own favour. The ethnic groups use techniques like demand for separate statehood, autonomous council or detection, disenfranchisement and deportation of foreigners to keep the demographic balance slanting towards them. It is quite interesting to follow that while the state appears to concede to the demand of conferring an ethnic space to them, it prepares such ambivalent terms of bargain that militates the creation of any space at the ground level. The writer makes well-founded observation that accepting the demand of one ethnic majority for an ethnic space means trapping many other ethnic minorities living in that space that are yet to articulate their distinct ethnic aspirations. These trapped ethnic minorities will at a later stage come up with similar demands for ethnic space and consequently trap another set of ethnic minorities leading to a never ending process of creating new ethnic space and new ethnic minorities. The state now realizes that it has to give up its doctrine of indivisible sovereignty and come down to acknowledging some newer institutional alternatives. Some suggestions forwarded for such alternatives include creation of multi-layered parliamentary system in which ethnic communities can find representation in each layer, proportional representation keeping in mind the minorities and their autonomy and widening the power sharing base instead of an over centralized federation. But the state has learnt to make optimum use of all the resources available at hand to engulf them in its tactic of governmentality. At one time, the state despised civil society organization. But today, it has managed to proselytize civil society by making them one of the parties of the state wherever and whenever the civil society confronted with conflicting terms with the state. In this sense, the state has created a new form of power that demands any challenge to the state be fostered, used and optimized. Peace accords that come up as a panacea to autonomy demands are nothing but the manifestation of this new form of power of the state. Dasgupta, Anindita 2005 The War Was In My Backyard: Civilians and The New Insecurity In Conflict Zones in Assam, in Hussain, Monirul ed. Coming Out of Violence: Essays On Ethnicity, Conflict Resolution and Peace Process in North-East India, Regency Publications, New Delhi. This paper looks into the problems of insurgency, counter-insurgency and people’s coping mechanism in the Nalbari district of Assam. Inhabited largely by the Bodos in the southern part and by the ethnic Assamese in the north, the district has inevitably come to be polarized around ethnic lines in keeping with the ethno-politics of the region. Through participatory research, the writer has tried to bring to the fore not only the issue of insurgency but also the chain of impacts such unrest invariably unfolds. Going by the demographic composition of the district, one may well argue that sharpening of ethnic identity is the most visible and obvious explanation of the armed rebellion prevailing in the region. However this paper has more to add to such observation. It very rightly points out that the problem of insurgency is just a symptom of a more fatal disease that has dug roots in this part of Assam. The indifference of the Indian state to its developmental needs has groomed the district as a battleground to ventilate suppressed aspirations. The younger generations left with limited or almost no choice have accepted gun-culture as a medium to mellow the firebrand in them. The Indian state’s strategy of containing such turmoil through suppression, sabotage and then negotiation has only managed to further the grievances of the civilians. The most striking feature of both the state and non- state violence has been its indiscriminate nature. Caught between the perpetrators of violence are the innocent civilians who find themselves in a situation very similar to a phrase in English that goes, “caught between the devil and the deep sea”. The paper subsequently highlights that civilians in the region have made psychological arrangements to put up with such reckless violence and threat of violence. Egreteau, Renaud 2006 Instability At The Gate: India’s Troubled North East and Its External Connections, Centre For Sciences Humanies, New Delhi. Renaud Egretau, a French scholar tries to understand the operational dynamics of separatist groups that have been operating in Nagaland, Mizoram and Assam. According to him, various insurgent groups have transformed into criminalized groups in order to sustain their movements. In the face of very draconian laws enforced by the security forces, the insurgents too have become radicalized and more ruthless. Consequently, the people living in the conflict zone are suffering immensely. Guha, Amalendu 1980 Little Nationalism Turned Chauvinist: Assam’s Anti-Foreigners’Upsurge, Economic and Political Weekly, Special Number, vol. XV, Nos. 41–43 In this seminal study of the Assam movement, Amalendu Guha interrogated the basic assumption of the movement that the Asamiyas were experiencing a threat to their identity in the wake of continuous illegal migration of Bangladeshis to Assam. For him, the Assam movement reflected the unresolved nationality question in Assam and it is crucial to understand the class fundamentals of the movement. To him the theory of Asamiya identity crisis is a myth build-up by the Asamiya middle class to the exclusion of people who became Asamiya in the process of assimilation. He argued that the horizon of the Asamiya nationality has substantially expanded during the pos-colonial period. In order to aggrandize its own class interest, the Asamiya middle class took up the case of identity to the level of chauvinism. In the process it alienated a large section of the Neo-Asamiyas who had become the part of the emerging Asamiya nationality in addition to the smaller ethnic/ tribal groups sharing the territory. Historically speaking, the Assam movement has set into motion the ethnic partitioning of the society in Assam. Partitioning has not ended, it is continuing without any significant intervention from the state and the civil society. Hazarika, Sanjoy 1995 Strangers of the Mist: Tales of War and Peace from India’s North East, Penguin Books, New Delhi. Hazarika, Sanjoy 2000 Rites of Passage; Border Crossings, Imagined Homeland, India’s East and Bangladesh, Penguins These two books of Sanjoy Hazarika provide wealth of information about the ethnic conflicts in North East India covering a long period of time wherein he also tried to analyze the contentious issue of migration and its consequent demographic transformation. However, these two books are not written with serious conceptual framework and historical understanding. Hence, despite having information, Hazarika has largely been unsuccessful in providing logical analysis. Most of his observations are impressionistic and largely like a travelogue. At times, some of his analysis reaches very near the fascist interpretation. For example about the notorious Nellie massacre in which about 5000 men, women and children were butchered on 18th February 1983 from dawn to dusk in a meticulously organized genocide, he writes: …… ..the immigrant and every single non-tribal sitting on Tiwa land had no business to be there. Even their presence was not acknowledged under the existing laws. Yet they were there, in reality, in the fields and the villages. As the dispossessions of the Tiwa grew, so did their rage .The boycott of elections called by the students gave them an opportunity to strike (Hazarika 2000:53). Hussain, Monirul 1990 Nationality Question in North East India, Seminar, No. 366, February. This paper deals with Assam’s tangled nationality question. It traces historical evolution and the nature of the Asamiya nationality, its multi-layered structure, its fear and identity in the process of social change. Besides, it traces its linkage and contradictions with the pan-Indian nationalism during the post colonial period. In the process, this paper described critically the role played by Asamiya middle class and its inability to broaden its political outlook. Hussain, Monirul 1993 The Assam Movement: Class, Ideology and Identity, Manak Publications, Delhi. The Assam movement is a very distinct landmark in the post-colonial history of Assam. Its affect goes far beyond actual time period of the movement and affected the society very deeply. It is significantly influencing the society and the politics of the post-Assam movement period------ be it the Bodo movement or other ethnic movements based on identity, autonomy and territoriality. The Assam movement is a reference group/movement for them. The movement, like many other political movements, mixed non-violent political mobilization with violence to reach its goals. Unprecedented popular participation was followed by unprecedented political violence and ethnic cleansing. Ultimately, the movement failed to reach its apparent goal. However, it succeeded in reaching its tacit goal. The leadership was co-opted in the structure of power in the aftermath of the movement. The Indian state was not interested in resolving the crucial issue raised by the movement. It successfully derailed the popular movement by co-opting the leadership into the power structure of the state. The movement severely affected the very foundation of the entire society and engineered partition among various ethnic communities. Another major casualty was the governance. Those who were involved in the crime against humanity had gone unpunished. This ultimately institutionalized political violence in Assam. Almost all other ethnic movements that emerged in the aftermath of the Assam movement carried forward the lesson given by the movement, i.e. mixing of popular mobilization with violence against “others’. Hence, the partitioning of society inaugurated by the dominant national group in Assam through the Assam movement is now being carried out by its successors, the smaller ethnic groups. Hussain, Monirul 1995 Refugees In the Face of Emerging Ethnicity in North East India, Studies in Humanities and Social Science, vol. 2, No. 2, 1995, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla. This paper deals with the existential problem experienced by the refugees/ ex-refugees and the stateless people living in North East India in the wake of emerging and sharpening of ethnic identity. Many such movements have further marginalized the already marginalized groups. Hence, their long-standing exclusion is continuing and their inclusion has become a serious problem where state too has virtually failed to intervene creatively. Hussain, Monirul 1999 Fear of Being Killed, Violated and Displaced: An Incomplete Dossier of Terrorism in Postcolonial Assam, in Kailash Agarwal ed. Dynamics of Inter-group Relations in North East India, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla This paper deals with the question of political violence in post-colonial Assam. Violence has been an inseparable part of political development in Assam beginning with the partition of India. It has affected a large number of people in the process and negatively affected the inter-community relationship in the state. Many people have been killed, displaced, violated and marginalized further. And the perpetrators have gone unpunished and the state has remained silent and a helpless spectator. Consequently, an all-encompassing fear of being killed, violated and displaced has become an existential reality for a large number of people in Assam. Hussain, Monirul 2000 State, Identity Movements and Internal Displacement in North East India, Economic and Political Weekly, vol. XXXV, No. 51, December 15, 2000. This paper deals with the question of conflict-induced displacement of population in Assam and the North East during the post-colonial period. Hussain has argued that historically Assam has been a shared homeland of various religious, linguistic and cultural groups. Ignoring this historical reality, the Indian state and some identity movements have been the major actors in the massive displacement of people in Assam. These massive displacement of population which ejected a large number of people from their home, land and livelihood, is the result of violence very meticulously engineered and executed against the “ethnic” others. In Assam also one can locate the process of ethnic cleansing as a part of greater design for creating more and more exclusive ethnic homelands. In the process, the notion of a historically evolved shared homeland has been pushed into marginality in the realm of political ideology. Hussain, Monirul ed. 2005 A Coming Out of Violence: Essays on Ethnicity, Conflict Resolution and Peace Process in North-East India, Regency Publications, New Delhi for the Indian Council of Social Science Research, NERC-Shillong. This book points out that the perpetual ethnic conflicts and their resultant violence have severely affected the society, polity and economy of North East India during the entire post-colonial period beginning with the rebellion of the Nagas in the early fifties of the 20th century. Both in qualitative as well as in quantitative terms, the conflicts and violence have increased very significantly over the years. In the process, conflicts have become largely institutionalized and paved the way for emergence and continuity of low-intensity war within the territory of the same nation-state. Now it has become difficult to come out of the institutionalized violence perpetrated by both the insurgents and the all-powerful state. In the crossfire between the state and the insurgents, the people are suffering continuously. Hussain, Monirul 2005 B North East India’s Forgotten IDPs, Forced Migration Review, 24, Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford. Hussain, Monirul 2006 A Internally Displaced Persons in India’s North East, Economic and Political Weekly, vol. XLI, No. 5, 4–10 February. These two papers ultimately emphasized on the issue of internal displacement of population induced by emerging ethnic conflicts in Assam during the entire post-colonial period. Still, a large number of citizens are living at the state-sponsored relief camps in Lower/Western Assam, some of them for more than a decade now, waiting for an elusive resettlement and rehabilitation from the state. The state has taken initiatives to resettle and rehabilitate all the surrendered/ ex insurgents but not their victims. Civil society initiative too, has been far from adequate. In the agenda for conflict resolution and building peace, the issue of resettlement and rehabilitation of displaced persons is yet to find a place. Hussain, Monirul and Phanjoubam, Pradeep 2007 A Status Report on Displacement in Assam and Manipur, Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group (CRG), Kolkata. This small book deals with the question of forced migration in Assam. This book has explicitly pointed out that Assam had been a host to a large number of displaced persons from the Jharkhand region and East Bengal during the colonial period. However, the post colonial situation has transformed Assam from a host of a large number of displaced persons to a generator of massive internal displacement of people in the state. In the wake of partition of India, Assam had to accept a large number of Hindu Bengali refugees from East Pakistan permanently. Unlike West Bengal and Punjab, the refugees of East Pakistan experienced hostility from the local Asamiyas in the Brahmaputra valley though the state accepted them as a part of political commitment. Resettlement and rehabilitation of the East Pakistan refugees is yet to be completed. Partition also displaced a large number of Muslims of East Bengal origin. However most of them returned to India after the signing of Nehru-Liaquat Ali pact in 1950. In the post-partition era, these Bengali Hindu refugees and the Muslims of East Bengal origin experienced violence in the wake of language movements and the Assam movement. Sharpening of ethnic identity and assertion among various indigenous communities, these two communities are experiencing displacement in several pockets in Assam in the quest for recreating exclusive imagined homelands. Hussain, Monirul 2007B Interrogating Development: State, Displacement and Popular Resistance in North East India, Sage Publications, New Delhi, London, Los Angeles and Singapore. This book focuses on development-induced displacement of population in North East India during the post-colonial period. Despite state-sponsored development initiatives, the North East still remains a highly underdeveloped and politically disturbed. Various development projects initiated by the state led to massive displacement of population within the region which has virtually gone unnoticed. The author has made use of extensive empirical data to document this massive displacement of population. The Government of India decided to build 168, most of which are mega hydroelectric power projects in the North East. Fearing the negative impacts like massive displacement of population, degradation of environment and erosion of rich bio-diversity of the region; the people at the grassroots level have built-up resistance movements against such mega project. This marks a significant transition from the politics of ethnicity to politics of development in the region. Emergence of popular resistance outside the conventional party system based on new political cleavages is strengthening the democratic consciousness of the people living in these areas which marks a significant shift in the politics of the region. Sharpening of democratic consciousness and struggle for common development agenda in the North East may create an alternative space for popular inclusive society and politics to replace the ongoing process of ethnic partition. Jassal, Smita Tewani and Ben-Ari, Eyal ed. 2007 The Partition Motif in Contemporary Conflicts, Sage Publications, New Delhi. This book is a collection of essays across the culture on the theme of partition and its implications for the members of the partitioned societies. Though the dominant theme is concerned with the partition of Indian sub-continent, it looks into the similar processes in the aftermath of partitioning of Germany and Palestine. It reflects on the human misery in the wake of creation of hard border and virtual collapse of human civilization. Partition led to recurrent eruption of violence, continued instability and occasionally ushering in of undemocratic states. Partition does not solve any problem, rather it creates more problems. It looks at the Indian partition as an example of limited containment of conflict than a lasting solution. The study has pointed out that the modern day partition arrived at during the process decolonization. This typically seems to occur in circumstance of imperial decline. However, the negative affects of colonial partition continues in the post-colonial situation. Even in post-colonial situation too, one can locate the adoption of partition as a mechanism for the state in resolving inter-ethnic conflicts. Obviously, post-colonial partition too reproduces the same inhuman implications for the people. Kahler, Miles and Walter, Barbara F ed. Territoriality and Conflict in an Era of Globalization, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 2006. This book questions the basic premise of the assumption that the globalization would undermine territorial attachments and weaken the sources of territorial conflicts. However, this has not happened notwithstanding the consolidation of globalization as an irreversible historical process of development. Authors cutting across the disciplinary barrier have argued that willingness of the people to fight for a particular territory have much less to do with the material value of the land than they have to do with the symbolic value of land. Khan, Lal 2001 Crisis in the Subcontinent: Partition, Can It Be Undone? Well-read Publications, London, Aakar Books New Delhi 2007. This important work based on class approach has come from a Pakistani activist and scholar wherein he attempts at an understanding of the partition of the sub-continent and its ramifications for the people who shared the same civilization over a long period of time. To him partition of India is incongruous with the process of historical development of a very distinct sub-continental civilization. This book is qualitatively very different from the partition studies of last 15-20 years most of which were fundamentally narratives. This book raises the question about undoing the partition. The author still believes that South Asia in certain sense remained un-partitioned. He observed that by dismantling the partition the all-powerful (and largely unproductive) state structure with its large security-bureaucratic machines both in India and Pakistan is going to pave the way for true democracy, socialism and secularism in addition to resolving the vexed Kashmir issue. Khasnabis, Ratan 2005 Resources For Autonomy: Financing the Local Bodies, Mahanivan Calcutta Research Group, Kolkata. This papers begins with an appreciation of decentralization of power and responsibilities to grassroots level as it makes governance efficient, economic accountable, transparent and most importantly need-based, while not loosing sight of the benefits of centralization altogether. Subsequently the paper proceeds to explain how these advantages of decentralization has been tried to be tapped by the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments (1992). These two Acts facilitated the devolution of the functions of the State to the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) and Urban local bodies (ULB) that are of special concern to them. While the writer acknowledges the steps taken by the union government to create a platform for decentralization, it laments how despite taking into account all the mechanism that could ensure the smooth functioning of these bodies, these Acts inherited defects that virtually disabled the working of PRI’s and ULB as viable people’s bodies. In the absence of any regulatory power and administrative control, these bodies became only agencies of local development that too within financial constraints. The arrangement of financial devolution to these bodies via the State Government constitutes the major constraint in the effective functioning of these bodies. With limited finances and revenue base and hollow autonomy at their disposal, these units of self- government, much hyped as the third tier of the government, hardly make any tier of the government in actual practice. Meeti, Nameirakpam Bijen 2007 Rethinking Cultural identity and Territorial Autonomy in Northeast India, Eastern Quarterly, volume 4, No 2, July-September In his paper, Meeti argues that the Constitutional provisions that provide territorial autonomy based on ethnicity and ethnic conglomerations have not been successful in addressing the problems for which the 5th and the 6th Schedules were offered. To him the answer to land, territoriality and conflict lies in mutual cognizance of values by the communities along with the values of broader democratic rights and equality. It needs to be realized that North East India is a multi-cultural region. Misra, B.P. 1985 The Assam Agreement and Its likely Fallout, Citizens’ Right Preservation Committee, Guwahati. This small book provides a critique of the Assam Accord signed between the government of India and the leaders of the Assam movement in 1985. However, this agreement placed the religious and linguistic minorities particularly the Muslims of East Bengal origins and the Hindu Bengalis in the Brahmaputra valley into a serious political disadvantage to please the “majority”/ dominant community in the state. Misra, Udayon 1999 The Periphery Strikes Back: Challenge to the Nation-state in Asssam and Nagaland, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla This book deals with the question of challenges faced by the powerful Indian state in the wake emergence of two different insurgent movements for independence from India, i.e. the movement for Swadhin Asam and independent Nagalim. The situation that propelled the movement for independence in the case of Nagas and the Asamiyas is quite different from one another. The Asamiyas were very much a part of the anti-colonial struggle for independence and consequently, that of the pan-Indian nationalism. The Nagas were not a part of India’s freedom struggle and its resultant pan-Indian nationalism. Hence, their quest for independence is understandable. The case of Assam is however is quite different wherein a significant number of politically alienated youths have gone in for armed insurrection. The all-powerful Indian state faces challenges from these two movements in North East India. Nag, Sajal 2002 Contesting Marginality: Ethnicity, Insurgency and Sub-nationalism In North East India, Manohar, New Delhi Nag notes that the people marginalized by the colonial as well as the postcolonial historical development in North east India have been looking for a new political space based on ethnic identity and struggling hard to contest their marginality within the highly centralized Indian nation-state. The clash between the insensitive state and the exclusivist ethnic movements has paved the way for violence in the North East. Nag, Sajal 2005 Land, Migrants, Hegemony: the Politics of Demography in North East India, in David R. Syiemlieh, Anuradha Dutta and Srinath Baruah ed. Challenges of Development in North East India, Regency Publications, New Delhi published on behalf of the Indian Council of Social Science Research—NERC, Shillong. This paper describes the issue of migration which dominated the politics of Assam/North East India for more than eight decades beginning from the early thirties of the 20th century till today. The issue of migration has remained a contentious issue both in colonial and post-colonial North East India. He pointed out explicitly that all the claims made by the ethnic leadership are not always based on facts and research. A large number of migrants have integrated with the local society. However, they have been repeatedly becoming the “others” in the construction and consolidation of ethnic identity. Saikia, Anil, Goswami, Homeswar and Goswami, Atul 2003 Population Growth in Assam 1951-1991 with Focus on Migration, Akansha Publishing House, New Delhi This book deals with the question of demographic transformation of Assam during the crucial period of 1951 to 1991. The issue of migration has remained a burning issue in Assam since the consolidation of British colonialism. Migration is still a major issue in the entire North East India. Most ethnic movements are based on the argument that the ethnic communities are facing an identity crisis in the face of unabated massive demographic threat from the various migrant groups. Consequently, most ethnic movements, including the movement of the dominant national groups in North East, are explicitly and some implicitly against the migrant “others”. In the process of historical development, many migrant groups have merged with the local communities. Leadership of most of the ethic movements have been feeding their constituency with the exaggerated statistics about the number of migrants in order to instill fear among them so as to consolidate their position as the protector and promoter of their identity. In the wake of the Assam movement, the leadership placed the number of Bangladeshi citizens living is Assam illegally at staggering 40 to 80 lakhs whereas the total population of the state was 1.45 crores as per 1971 Census. This book virtually put at rest the wild speculations made by different political formations to suit their political agendas. End Note: In the first phase of bibliography/ review of literature preparation I have not taken into account most of the well-known studies of partition such as the works of Urvashi Butalia, Ritu Menon and Kamla Bhasin, Alok Bhalla, Mushirul Hasan, Gyandra Pandey, Ranabir Samaddar, J. Bagchi and S. Dasgupta, K, Sinha-Kerkhoff etc. rather tried to focus largely on relatively less visible works on North East which are of crucial importance for understanding the ongoing process of partition in the region. However, all the above studies will be taken into account at a later stage in addition to books on theoretical/conceptual issues involved in partition. I am very much conscious that besides the academic literature, we also must consult all the relevant official documents of the Government of India and the Government of Assam related to partition of India and the ongoing partitioning of North East India during the post-colonial period. Exodus that took place in the wake of independence and partition and the response of the state towards the displaced people are to be scrutinised. Here, the government reports shall be very useful in addition to academic literature. I propose to locate and prepare a full review of literature in the beginning of the next phase of the project. This will involve a lot of travelling and spending time at the government record rooms both in Shillong and Guwahati in addition to Nehru Memorial Library and Museum, New Delhi. This I hope to do during the next summer vacation in June-July 2008. As of now, our review of literature may look somewhat incomplete. However, as we progress in our project we are likely to fill the gap by taking all the relevant documents into consideration.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Jul 2013 19:14:43 +0000
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