Beyond ‘Frontier'

Abstract

Northeast India had been the focal point of engagement of the postcolonial state since the early days. Since independence, India’s Northeastern ‘frontier’ poses multiple challenges to the postcolonial state. The large stretch of international border enclosed by Bangladesh, Bhutan, China and Myanmar remain a pressing concern and a serious strategic challenge for the Government of India. The challenges have been aggravated by two significant factors: economic backwardness – ‘underdevelopment’ as denoted by the early postcolonial state, and ethnostate estrangement. At the same time, the entire region has immense potential to become the ‘powerhouse of Indian economy’ because of its rich natural, mineral and human resources as well as commercial and diplomatic linkage with South and Southeast Asia. The fact, however, is that despite its immense potential this region is still viewed as a backward region in terms of socio-economic and human development index, a source of threat against national security and integration. The Indian state has been trying to address the challenges through several experimentations by geopolitical structuring, economic policies, liberal gestures, friendly negotiations and hostile encounters. The Look East policy – later on, Act East policy mark significant endeavour to foster overall progress in the region as well as to open India’s commercial passage towards South and Southeast Asia via Northeast India. Concerns have been expressed however by the policymakers, scholars and the stakeholders over the limited success of the policy (so far) to yield both economic as well as diplomatic dividends leading to nationwide debate and discussion to locate more effective modus operandi to optimize the goal. This essay, however, seeks to locate the trouble spots in history. It traces complex historical roots of the prolonged crisis in the passages of colonization of Northeast India during the 19th and early 20th century. The scope of inquiry is vast. Therefore it focuses on the history of border trade in Northeast India as an important index which may partly explain the complex economic ethnology of the region inhibiting the progress.