A determinedly inimical neighbourhood makes the North East an appendage that has to be fortified with vigour
Representational image. AFP
The North East may find itself in India’s periphery, but the truth is that the region is not the country’s border even by way of imagination. It is innermost not only to India’s security but also to its identity which seeks to showcase “unity in diversity”. Few other regions in entire South Asia possess an assortment of populace and cultures that together outline a unique entity or assume a geostrategic urgency that is so central for a nation.
But the North East continues to be characterised as a border station of a now medieval domain. While this outlook is in some measure due to the colonial British rule of excluding a goodly part of the region from its principal governmental sphere, the fact of the matter is the Treaty of Yandaboo which the British concluded in 1826 with the Burmese was primarily for business. Indeed, later day guiding principles too did not completely abandon the standards that the conquerors had adopted for administering the enchanted frontiers.
The geographical location of the North East has not only accorded the region the status of a defence zone but has, as a result, led centrist sight to primarily view it through the lens of security. But, even in the quest to zealously guard the frontiers against external aggression, New Delhi’s policy towards the region has been less than holistic. In 1962, during the border war with China, even as India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s heart went out for Assam, the province was abandoned to its own devices.
The measures that should have been undertaken after the Chinese withdrew from present Aru in the aftermath of the war for some strange reason all the way to Thagla Ridge (which almost approximates the “watershed principle” that Henry McMahon drew in the Simla Conference of 1914 — to prevent another “Himalayan Blunder” is yet to find realisation, a strange principle given that the region is primarily a defence zone.
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The territorial aspirations of the external aggressor is not limited to the Dragon in the north alone, which incidentally not only menacingly breathes down onto the plains from its commanding heights across the Line of Actual Control, but is also intimidating by way of aiding and abetting myriad insurgencies in the region in order to fuel prairie fires that would daunt counter-action were war-like postures to be adopted by it, but also by way of a systematic demographic invasion from the south.
The quest for lebensraum in the North East by the invading hordes from erstwhile East Pakistan is complete. The cry of the indigenous people of the region, despite a full-fledged agitation and a resultant insurgency, has fallen on deaf ears: dispensations after dispensations in New Delhi ignored the call of the periphery and it would be a matter of time before the enchanted frontiers would be lost. The northeasterner’s lament is, therefore, rightfully in place, and if New Delhi seeks correct integration of the region into its vision, then corrective steps must be taken in right earnest.
The ways in which the North East is bedevilled are several. A military menace from China and peril of an indigenous inhabitant being overwhelmed by outlanders that owe their allegiance to hostile, puritanical forces (read: Islamists from erstwhile Pakistan) are only two of the perils. The region would experience not only insurgencies, turmoil and resentment, but would begin to express dissension for the Indian heartland.
Gratefully much of the northeastern heart is still with Punya Bharatavarsha. Saint reformers like Srimanta Sankardeva understood the imperative of unity with India, even during a time when India was not a single political entity. Modern day statesman like Gopinath Bordoloi, ignoring Nehru’s admonishments for not “falling in line” with Assam’s inclusion in Pakistan, approached Mahatma Gandhi and ensured that Assam continued to be grouped with India.
Polemics notwithstanding, brass tacks stipulate that a separate strategy making configuration needs to be anvilled for the North East. The vastness of India’s landscape and accountability has not quite provided sufficient interest to the region, which is not to suggest that the frontiers have been consigned to the flames of obscurity by the rest of India.
In all likelihood, it has not applied adequate cerebration for the construction of a comprehensive structure that would purposefully concentrate on the essentials of the region. A determinedly inimical neighbourhood by way of a reluctant China and an ambivalent Myanmar makes the North East an appendage that has to be fortified with vigour. The not-so-recent subterfuges in the vicinity of the strategic Siliguri Corridor that connects the region with the rest of India make it even more vital that heed is paid to the region.
The need of the hour is, therefore, the constitution of a North East Security Council, which in its wider ambit would not only address traditional security issues like border management, illegal migration, drug-gun running, insurgency, Islamist terror, human and energy security (the listing above not being all-inclusive), but also development which is an important factor of security. The structuring of such a council would also decisively enlighten the span that makes up the North East that the Centre is serious about the region’s well-being.
The writer is a conflict analyst and author of several best-selling books on security and strategy of the Northeast. Views expressed are personal.
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