A History of Alienation
· Although the North East is full of potentialities, the actual extent of which is yet to be explored, the region continues to provide an interesting case of backwardness within backwardness, and the fact that it shares more than four thousand kilometers of international boundary with Tibet (China), Myanmar, Bangladesh and Bhutan makes the case a further complicated one.
· Today it appears to be passing through a phase of lack of confidence in the system manifested through various insurgency movements and high degree of suspicion in their togetherness manifested through various autonomy movements.
· The region is connected with rest of the country by the narrow “Siliguri neck” of less than 20 kilometers.
· The traumatic experience of the Chinese invasion (1962) is still fresh in the minds of the people, the regions’ backwardness is manifested in every sector of the economy, and the mediaeval traits persist in agriculture and in the communication network and transport system.
· Despite abundant mineral, forest and water resources, industrialization is still a far cry, the flood problems of the Brahmaputra and the Barak is a perennial problem which snaps away the regions’ communication with the rest of the country for days together almost every year, besides large scale destructions and inhuman sufferings for the people. On the whole, the situation in the region is such that people have to sink or swim together, exist or perish together.
· Indian leadership, barring Mahatma Gandhi, is charged with having agreed to the Cripps Mission proposal of grouping Assam with East Pakistan.
The common problems, needs and aspirations have brought the people closer, while the setting up of North Eastern Council for integrated development of the region as well as the reorganization of the central departments and agencies into north-eastern circles reinforced the regional identity further. The North Eastern region is rich in natural resources and does not lack hard working skilled and un-skilled manpower. In spite of all these the region remains under-developed.
· Today it appears to be passing through a phase of lack of confidence in the system manifested through various insurgency movements and high degree of suspicion in their togetherness manifested through various autonomy movements.
· The region is connected with rest of the country by the narrow “Siliguri neck” of less than 20 kilometers.
· The traumatic experience of the Chinese invasion (1962) is still fresh in the minds of the people, the regions’ backwardness is manifested in every sector of the economy, and the mediaeval traits persist in agriculture and in the communication network and transport system.
· Despite abundant mineral, forest and water resources, industrialization is still a far cry, the flood problems of the Brahmaputra and the Barak is a perennial problem which snaps away the regions’ communication with the rest of the country for days together almost every year, besides large scale destructions and inhuman sufferings for the people. On the whole, the situation in the region is such that people have to sink or swim together, exist or perish together.
· Indian leadership, barring Mahatma Gandhi, is charged with having agreed to the Cripps Mission proposal of grouping Assam with East Pakistan.
The common problems, needs and aspirations have brought the people closer, while the setting up of North Eastern Council for integrated development of the region as well as the reorganization of the central departments and agencies into north-eastern circles reinforced the regional identity further. The North Eastern region is rich in natural resources and does not lack hard working skilled and un-skilled manpower. In spite of all these the region remains under-developed.
posted by marvin at 10:50 PM
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