Leverhulme International Network Continuity and Change in Indian Federalism Timeline Papers The North-East of India: Political Dynamics and Issues Eds. Harihar Bhattacharyya and Katharine Adeney Editorial Note on the Timeline Papers Professor Harihar Bhattacharyya, Burdwan University Professor Katharine Adeney, Nottingham University These eight full length research papers - one each from the eight states in the north-east of India - are based on both research and insider knowledge. They are written by scholars who are intimately familiar with the field and mostly based in the region. During the course of our three year-long detailed empirical survey research (2014-17) funded by the Leverhulme Trust UK, we commissioned these timeline papers as part of the research strand on ‘Ethnic Conflict Management in India’s North-east’. They are designed to help the readers place the elite interviews carried out as part of the project into context. In writing these timeline reports, each contributor was given a template to follow, which has given the papers a reasonable level of consistency. Since the states in the region have had different and complex (and often doubtful) trajectories of integration with the Union of India, each contributor was advised to address this issue within the timeline. Thus these timelines demonstrate the different state trajectories and how they have operated within India. We also advised the authors to reflect upon the current issues in the states with respect to the rise of ‘Hindu nationalism’ and its import in these States. The authors also were requested to reflect on the state specific context in India’s economic liberalization. 2 Harihar Bhattacharyya, Ph. D, LSE (London) is Professor of Political Science, the University of Burdwan, West Bengal (India). He was Baden-Wurrttemburg Fellow at the South Asia Institute (1998), Heidelberg University; DAAD Fellow at the South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University (2007) and Visiting Professor at Heidelberg University (2009-10); M L Singhvi Fellow at Hull University, UK (2002); Visiting Research Professor at the Institute of Federalism, Fribourg, Switzerland (1998-99). He has published single authored/jointly edited 11 books, and more than 100 journal articles/book chapters. His single authored books include: (2010) Federalism in Asia: India, Pakistan and Malaysia (London: Routledge); (1999) Communism in Tripura (Delhi: Ajanta); and (2001) India as a Multicultural Federation etc (Fribourg: Switzerland). He published articles in India Review (2017)(USA) and Regional Federal Studies (UK) (2015), Economic and Political Weekly; and South Asia Research (London). His forthcoming books are: (2018) Radical Politics in India’s North East (London: Routledge), and (jointly with Subrata K Mitra) Politics and Governance in Indian States: Bihar, West Bengal and Tripura (Singapore: World Scientific, 2018). He has been engaged in global level collaborative researches since 1996 including those on policy studies, peacemaking, and constitution drafting. (email: [email protected]) Katharine Adeney is Professor of Politics and Director of the Institute of Asia and Pacific Studies (IAPS), University of Nottingham, UK. She joined the School in 2013, having previously held positions at Sheffield, Balliol College, Oxford and the LSE. She is also the editor of IAPS Dialogue, the knowledge exchange platform of IAPS. Her principal research interests include: the countries of South Asia, especially India and Pakistan; ethnic conflict regulation and institutional design; the creation and maintenance of national identities; the politics of federal states, and democratisation in South Asia. She is co-editor of Government and Opposition (Cambridge). You can follow her @katadeney. She has just completed her involvement in the Leverhulme funded project on Continuity and Change in Indian federalism, particularly on the management of ethnic diversity in India over the last 20 years. She is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Centre for Multilevel Federalism in New Delhi and was a Visiting Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University. She continues to monitor contemporary events in Pakistan, and was Lead Consultant for the Forum of Federations' program in Pakistan which ran between 2009-2011, funded by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She is a member of the Management Committee of the Rights and Justice Research Priority Area, a research 3 grouping involving over 700 staff and 250 postgraduates from 18 different University centres/institutes. Jhumpa Mukherjee (Gold Medalist), PhD, is Assistant Professor of Political Science at St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, under Calcutta University. She is the author of Conflict Resolution in Multicultural Societies: The Indian Experience (Sage 2014) and The World of Human Rights (Concept 2014). She has contributed chapters in edited books and has published articles on contemporary social and political issues in nationally and internationally acclaimed journals and has participated in national and international seminars. She supervised a project on the north east which was a part of the three year International Research project on Continuity and Change in Indian Federalism in the Age of Coalition Governments funded by the Leverhulme Trust, UK. She is an Advisory member of the Centre for Decentralization and Rural Development, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata.. Her areas of research interest include federalism and regional movements in India, identity politics and human rights. Email: [email protected] Kenilo KATH, Ph. D (Nagaland University) is Assistant Professor of History at Sao Chang College, at Tuensang Nagaland. His publications include “Traditional Religious System of Rengma Nagas (2005) and “Indigenous People and the Climate Change with Special Reference to the Nagas” (2012) (contact: [email protected]) Sajal Nag is currently Professor, Department of History, Assam University, Silchar, Assam. A recipient of Commonwealth Fellowship at Northern Ireland (2004-05), Charles Wallace Fellowship at Cambridge (2008) and Senior Fellowship at Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi (2013-2014, he was the first Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Distinguished Chair Professor in Social Sciences at Presidency University, Kolkata. He is the author of The Uprising: Colonial State, Christian Missionary and Anti-Slavery Movement in North East Indi 1908-1954 (Oxford, 2016), Bridging State and Nation: Politics of Peace in Nagaland and Mizoram, with Rita Manchanda and Tapan Bose, Sage, 2015, The Beleaguered Nation: Making and Unmaking of the Assamese Nationality, Manohar, Delhi, Contesting Marginality: Ethnicity, Insurgency and Sub nationalism in North East India, Manohar, New Delhi, 2002. Pied Pipers in North East India: Bamboo Flowers, Rat Famine and the Politics of Environment in North East India, Manohar, New Delhi, 2008. Nationalism, Separatism and Secessionism, 4 Rawat, New Delhi, 1999. He has edited, Making of the Union: Merger of Princely States and Excluded Areas with India, New Delhi, Akansha, 2007 Bridging Region and Nation: Essays in Honour of Prof Amalendu Guha: Professor Amalendu Guha Commemoration Volume, Primus, Delhi, 2017, Playing With Nature: Essays on Environmental History and Politics with special Reference to North East India, Manohar, Delhi, 2016, Force of Nature: Essays in Environmental history and Politics, Manohar, 2015 (email: [email protected]) Lalnundika Hnamte is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science in ICFAI University Mizoram and Research Scholar in the Department of Political Science in Mizoram University. Authored Prohibition: A Socio-Economic Assessment of Gujarat and Mizoram in 2014. His latest work, a joint article with Ivaturi Ramabrahmam entitled, “Institutional Framework for Development of North-East India: The Role of the North Eastern Council,” was published by Indian Journal of Public Administration, Vol. LXII No.4, October-December 2016. E-mail: [email protected] Satyabrath Sinha, M. A., M. Phil., Ph. D (JNU) is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science, Presidency University, Kolkata. Before joining the Presidency University, he was Visiting Faculty, Malaviya Centre for Peace Research, Benares Hindu University, Assistant Professor (Security), Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID), Chandigarh. April 2012- November 2012, and Assistant Professor, Department of Peace and Conflict Studies and Management, Sikkim University, Gangtok, Sikkim, October 2008- March 2012. He was an Assistant Editor, China Report, Institute of Chinese Studies, November 2005- May 2010. He was a Research Officer (Military Security), Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, New Delhi, India, November 2004-August 2005. In 2005 he visited Maryland University, USA as External Analyst (South Asia), Ijet Risk Consultancy. His research articles include: “Security Challenges of a Rising Asia”, China Report, 45:4, October- December 2009; “India Pakistan Peace Process: Incremental Progress?” in Anjali Ghosh et al (edited) Indian Foreign Policy, Jadavpur University and Pearson 2009. “China in Pakistan’s Security Perceptions” in Swaran Singh, edited, China-Pakistan Strategic Cooperation: Indian Perspectives, Centre De Sciences Humaines and Manohar, New Delhi, 2007. Contact: ([email protected]) 5 Arunachal Pradesh: From NEFA to Statehood in Indian Federalism Jhumpa Mukherjee Geography and Demographics Arunachal Pradesh, India’s land of the rising sun, is acknowledged to be one of the most