The book is an anthology of essays about 'North East India and the Struggle to Belong'. Each North Eastern state has had its own share of troubles and continues to have - Assam (anti Bengali and anti-foreign movement, the NRC exercise), Manipur (Hindu Meiteis vs Christian Kukis), Meghalaya (drive out dkars or foreigners), Sikkim, Nagaland (16 Naga tribes, threat of Illegal Bangladeshi Immigrants), Arunachal Pradesh (Chinese threat, claimed in its entirety by China as South Tibet), Tripura, and Mizoram (killing of Vais or people from the plains).
Each one of the 18 essays in the book presents a different perspective from people from the North East - being an outsider while living on the inside, being an outsider while living in the outside and so on. So there is the story of someone who has lived in Delhi for 25 years and still feels like an outsider, still faces the question of 'where are you from', prompting him to ask 'what does an Indian look like' (Veio Pou). Or the history of Gorkha settlements in North East where they still have to prove they belong after generations (Pratap Chhetri). The essay about the gaze - specially when seen from the incident of Nido Tania, a student from Arunachal Pradesh, who was assaulted for standing up to bullying in Delhi and died. Why should he or anyone who looks different lower his or her gaze to anyone in India? (Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty) Or the story of a fifth generation Marwari in Shillong who remembers the Shillong she knew and how it shifted after the riots of 80s and 90s (Vatsala Tibrewala). The Punjabi classmate from Kohima who lived there for generations but now feels that the Kohima he grew up has been stolen (Easterine Kire). The story of a Meitei Manipuri in Silchar, Assam, a product of a great grandfather fleeing Manipur during the Burmese invasion of the kingdom (Indira Laisram).
The story of an 80 year old grandma who has been left out of Assam's National Registry of Citizens (NRC) while the rest of the family has been cleared, which her agonised and tired heart calls an unending partition (Abhishek Saha). The National Registry of Citizens exercise in Assam asked 3.8 crore Assamese to prove their Indian citizenship at a cost of 1600 crore, an exercise which stripped 19 lakh (7 lakh Muslims, and 5 lakh Bengali Hindus) of Indian citizenship, relegated to Doubtful Voters List, making them stateless, making them liable for arrest and for detention camps. Once the Foreigners Tribunal declares that someone is a foreigner, it is arrest or detention camp (does not matter how long you have lived here, if the paperwork is not there, sorry). Following it is the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Its like a dystopian novel come alive.
Tripura and its case of Bengalis vs Indigenous people (Subir Bhaumik). How Meghalaya was carved out of Assam when the government tried to impose Assamese on the Khasi, Garo and Jaintia tribes after much violence (Patricia Mukhim). The lives of Kukis in Manipur (Makepeace Sitlhou) or that of Meitei pangals in a Muslim dominated area of Imphal, discriminated despite having the same culture, language etc (Teresa Rehman). Or even the Bodo sense of deprivation where Bodos feel like outsiders (Rashmi Narzary). Discrimination of Garos in Meghalaya (they are indigenous people). The tales of migrant laborers in Nagaland who work on temporary permits, lives with no permanence, just a day-to-day living. (Nona Arhe)
There is an interesting essay on Tripura's women activists who used clothes and fashion to speak up and empower themselves (Hamari Jamatia). And then a conversation between a Bhutia from Sikkim and a fifth generation Marwari boy who grew up together - only the Marwari boy and his family did not claim Sikkimese citizenship in 1961 - and that is held against them despite their living there for generations (Karma Paljor and Naresh Agarwal). And one of a little child returning home to see her house burning in Aizawl in 1966, losing everything the family had, at the beginning of MNF Insurgency but then coming back stronger (Margaret Zama).
The British had spread their control all over the North East and they seemed to have clubbed everything under Assam - Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram were considered part of Assam in those days while Sikkim, Manipur, Tripura were separate kingdoms and were accorded princely state status with the Subsidiary Alliance carrot dangled before them. Arunachal Pradesh was formed from the North East Frontier Agency. It is interesting to know when these states gained their statehood - Arunachal Pradesh (1987), Meghalaya (1972), Sikkim (1975), Manipur (1947), Mizoram (1987), Nagaland (1963), Assam (1947), Tripura (1949). While all this infighting between the various tribes and regions was going on with the generalised clubbing under Assam, India became independent and partition followed and with the formation of Bangladesh, many from West Bengal come into India - not always with papers one would think because it was all one land before that.
More than anything else, what I understood from reading these various accounts is that there are wheels within wheels, and that each North Eastern state has stories and communities within that have not been heard or taken care of. The clubbing has not done much to help, nor have the suspicions of outsiders taking away their livelihoods. Strong and clear leadership can help in lessening the insecurity, addressing local issues and making everyone feel that they have been seen, heard and given equal opportunities etc. A fine effort to put together this anthology.
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