About the Book

Northeast India has endured decades of conflicts that have kept much of the region militarized, subject to restrictions on civil rights, and economically underdeveloped. In this volume, contributors from diverse fields ranging from the social sciences, philosophy, and cultural studies, to journalism and the civil services reflect on new ways of approaching and resolving these conflicts.

Dissatisfaction with conditions on the ground and with standard policy prescriptions is the common thread that runs through the book. The essays provide analyses of the conflicts at three levels: structural determinants like poverty and underdevelopment; the nature and politics of the postcolonial state; and the agency of multiple actors with diverse motives. The authors argue that neither a development nor a military fix can achieve peace in the region. Only concerted efforts to establish the rule of law, a system of accountability, and faith in the institutions of government can break the cycle of violence.

Contributors

• Sanjib Baruah
• Subir Bhaumik
• Samir Kumar Das
• Nandana Dutta
• M. Sajjad Hassan
• Rakhee Kalita
• Bodhisattva Kar
• Dolly Kikon
• Makiko Kimura
• Bethany Lacina
• Bhagat Oinam
• Pradip Phanjoubam
• H. Kham Khan Suan
• Betsy Taylor
• Ananya Vajpeyi

About the Editor

Sanjib Baruah is Professor of Political Studies at Bard College, New York, and Honorary Professor at Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi.

Readership

Conveying a sense of Northeast India’s rich and vibrant public discourse, this book will be useful to all those interested in armed conflicts, the state of Indian democracy, civil liberties, and Northeast India.

‘Sanjib Baruah has compiled an exceptionally diverse anthology. Including voices from social science, history, literature, cultural studies, and government, it reveals the region?s vibrant public discourse and provides an antidote to security-centric proclamations. Beyond Counter-insurgency is a model of creatively engaged and academically astute public intellectual work.’

DAVID LUDDEN

Professor of History, New York University

‘Baruah and his contributors paint a rich, vital picture of the spatial disorder that has unfolded within Northeast India’s multiple ‘inner lines’. This complex and unvarnished story is told without romanticism or cynicism. Between the apparent impossibility of peace through reconciliation and victory through repression or terror, the book envisions the possibility of an open, more inclusive future.’

SIDDHARTH VARADARAJAN Strategic Affairs Editor, The Hindu

‘This rich volume opens up a crucial space for re-imagining this highly complex yet remarkably poorly understood region. Shunning facile remedies, its proposals for a better future include redistributing key resources, restoring public trust in the rule of law, and harnessing the region?s exceptional ecological diversity.’ WILLEM VAN SCHENDEL Professor of Modern Asian History, University of Amsterdam

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“India against itself” is a scholarly book written by a person who has witnessed, felt and seen first hand what is happening in north-eastern India and he feels passionately about it. The author himself is aware of this and wonders “whether eliminating the personal refereces whould necessarily enrich the text”. The struggle of the author trying to stay objective and detached is apparent in many sections of the book. However his personal passion and pain is equally transparent, especially in the end of chapter seven he refers to a song by Bhupen Hazarika ” There is neither joy or sorrow..” He makes a case for changing the basic political structure in India, empowering the states more. His belief that a loose system of federalism will work in a country like India can be argued for he offers an utopian view what he and many of us would like to see happen but does not offer many suggestions how to get there. If read superfically, one can easily make the erroneus assumption that the author is advocating for autonomy of Assam and that his sympathies lie with the insurgents. Read carefully one can feel the pathos and his hope for a better India with a stronger democracy rather than a fractured nation. It is not a easy book to read for a person unfamiliar with the academic side of political science which essentially limits the number of readers. Regardless of whether it is an entirely objective view, it offers food for thought and a forum for serious debate about the current state of our “nation-state”.

My rating: 4.5 stars
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