In the Name of the Nation

With the possible exception of the noted Indian journalist, Sanjoy Hazarika, few scholars or analysts have written about the contemporary politics of India's northeast with as much knowledge and authority as Sanjib Baruah. An earlier book, Durable Disorder: Understanding the Politics of Northeast India (2005), had explored the reasons for the rise of ethnic insurgencies in the region and the sources of their persistence. That book demonstrated his supple grasp of the convoluted politics of the region as well as its relationship with the Indian national state.In the present work, Baruah returns to some of the same themes that he had examined earlier in both Durable Disorder and India against Itself: Assam and the Politics of Nationality (1999). However, this book provides a far deeper historical account of the evolution of the complex and fraught relationship between India and the so-called seven sister states that comprise the northeastern region. To that end, Baruah begins his analysis with a careful discussion of the policies that the British colonial authorities had pursued toward the region.He shows how the colonial enterprise, quite unsurprisingly, was focused on the extraction of the natural resources of the region ranging from timber to petroleum. Also, as colonial entrepreneurs discovered that they could grow tea in the hilly areas of the region they created vast tea plantations. These tea estates, which thrived, came to depend on the backbreaking work of locals with low wages under oppressive working conditions. Though Baruah does not cite the work, these harrowing conditions were superbly depicted in Two Leaves and Bud, the great Indian writer Mulk Raj Anand's searing novel.Baruah deftly demonstrates that the palimpsest of British colonialism profoundly shaped independent India's policies toward the northeast. Two factors, in particular, seem to have informed the views of India's policymakers in the wake of independence. The first, of course, was a concern about the maintenance of the security of this region, which was at some distance from the heartland.These security concerns, in considerable part, stemmed from the uncertainty of India's northern borders with the People's Republic of China. An unwillingness to be integrated into the nascent Indian state and calls for independence on the part of some Indigenous groups, most notably the Mizos and Nagas, further reinforced New Delhi's security fears. These misgivings, in turn, led to the formulation and implementation of the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act. This legislation, ostensibly designed to protect India's security forces from frivolous legal action, has actually provided carte blanche for a series of repressive policies in the region.The second factor that influenced Indian policy involved a paternalistic view of the tribal inhabitants of the region. This outlook could be traced to the well-meaning but somewhat dubious ideas of British colonial anthropologists. One of them, in particular, Verrier Elwin, played a critical role in shaping the policy perspective of India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru was obviously concerned about security India's security interests in the region. Many of these were heightened further after the disastrous Sino-Indian border war of 1962. However, he shared Elwin's view that the Indigenous population of the region had to be shielded from exploitation from predatory designs from those of the heartland.The latter component of India's early policies toward the region, for the most part, has lapsed. Instead, as Baruah demonstrates, the security imperatives remain robust as ever. And it is through this prism that India's policymakers in New Delhi have mostly viewed and acted upon this region. Not surprisingly, tensions between these states and the national government have continued to roil regional politics.Matters, especially over the last few decades, have become even more troubled over the issue of illegal immigration from Bangladesh, the former East Pakistan. This issue is particularly vexed for two compelling reasons. First, the fear among much of the local population is that illegal immigration can alter the demographic composition of the region. This concern, Baruah shows, has contributed to much resentment and hostility toward them. Second, more recently, the issue of illegal immigration has become even more toxic and politicized owing to the rise of the right-wing, Hindu chauvinist Bharatiya Janata Party. The party, quite predictably, has highlighted that the vast majority of these immigrants are Muslims and thereby pose a particular threat to India's Hindu identity. Amit Shah, the present minister for home affairs, in fact, in a campaign in Assam in 2019, referred to Bangladeshi immigrants as “termites”—worthy of eradication.Baruah's book ably discusses all these issues. It also draws on an extensive body of journalistic, political, and scholarly analyses on these subjects. His ability to draw on these various strands of analysis and weave them into a compelling account is nothing short of impressive

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