This book presents a comprehensive account of the debates on sovereignty, self-determination and nationalist upsurges in India’s Northeast, especially Assam. At a deeper level, it analyses how multi-ethnic societies engage with the nation state. Based on the framework of international relations and geo-politics, the volume locates internal tensions and contradictions among different ethnic groups, alongside the complex interrelationships between the centre and the region. It also proposes a new structure of ‘Common Ethnic House’ to resolve persistent inter-ethnic tensions among different communities and the impasse between the Northeast and the centre. This book will interest scholars and researchers of politics and international relations, sociology and social anthropology, area studies, peace and conflict studies, especially those concerned with South Asia and Northeast India.

This book looks at conflict zones in the Asia Pacific with a special focus on secessionist groups/movements in the Indian Northeast, Tibet, Chinese Xinjiang, the Burmese borderlands, Kashmir in South Asia, CHT in Bangladesh, South Thailand, and Aceh in Indonesia. These conflict zones are predominantly ethnic minority provinces, which by and large do not share a sense of one-ness with the country that they are currently a part of; most of these insurgencies have had strong linkages with separatist nationalist groups in the region. Methodologically, the author uses extensive fieldwork, interview data, and participant observation from these conflict zones to take a bottom-up approach, giving importance to the voices of ordinary people and/or the residents of these conflict zones whose voices have generally been ignored. Although the book looks at both the historical background and contemporary dimensions of these conflicts, the author focuses on exploring how the role of race, ethnicity and religion in these conflicts can be both direct and indirect. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of conflict and security in contemporary Asia with a background in politics, history, IR, security studies, religion, and sociology.

This book examines India’s Northeast borderland – strategically positioned at the confluence of South Asia, East and Southeast Asia – from the perspective of international relations. The volume interrogates the geopolitics of region-making in both colonial and postcolonial times and traces the transformation of Northeast India from a British strategic frontier into a securitised borderland. It situates the region in transnational interactions both in conflict and cooperation with its immediate neighbouring regions of China, Bangladesh, and Myanmar, especially in the context of India’s Look East/Act East policy. The volume paves the way for a new ‘region-state’ framework borne out of the constructivist worldview and offers answers to many conundrums centring border studies. It further delineates approaches to overcoming the present geopolitical and territorial challenges of India’s Northeast with a critical thrust on regional policymaking. The volume will be of interest to students and researchers in the disciplines of social sciences and humanities in India as well as South and Southeast Asia. It will be especially useful to those in politics and international relations, strategic studies, international political economy, foreign policy, development studies and regional development, besides foreign policy-makers and diplomats, development practitioners, economists and policy analysts.

"Re-Imagining Northeast Writings and Narratives: Language, Culture, and Border Identity" presents a collaborative effort to critically examine the concept of Northeast India, focusing on its linguistic, geographical, cultural, and social dimensions. Through a compilation of articles and essays, the volume delves into various aspects such as language, literature, culture, challenges, and the complexities of identity within the region. Each contribution offers detailed insights and findings, enhancing our understanding of Northeast India's diverse cultural landscape and the experiences of its people. By addressing themes of spatiality, movement, and responses to representations of the Northeast, the volume aims to deepen scholarly engagement with the region and stimulate discourse on its unique linguistic, cultural, and border dynamics. It serves as a valuable resource for researchers, scholars, and anyone interested in gaining a nuanced understanding of Northeast India and its intricate interplay of language, culture, and identity.

For a long time, India and China have been seen as the rising economic giants on the Asiatic mainland. Studies of the conflicts which have plagued the borderlands of India and China however have tended to only analyse individual case studies without attempting to compare and contrast the situation in these conflicts. This book compares and contrasts the situation in India’s disputed borderlands – Kashmir and the Indian north eastern states – with China’s contested borderlands – Xinjiang and Tibet. The book looks at the root causes of the conflict and how these conflicts have evolved and changed their character with the passage of time. Analysing how the countries have dealt with their territorial disputes from the 50’s till more recent times, the author shows to what extent these state policies have exacerbated the already strained situation. Using primary data collected primarily through interviews, from the people/inhabitants of these conflict zones, the book throws new light on the problem. This bottom up approach allows the people to speak and provides a different understanding of the nature of the conflict, which may very well be the way forward for long lasting peace. A comparative study of the conflicts in the contested borderlands of China and India, the book will be of interest to scholars studying Asian security studies and Asian Politics particularly and Defence and Security Studies more generally.

India will soon be the world’s most populated country and its political development will shape the world of the 21st century. Yet Hindu nationalism – at the helm of contemporary Indian politics – is not well understood outside of India, and its links to the global neoliberal trajectory have not been explored. Covering 30 years of Indian politics, this book shows for the first time the importance of education in propagating the acceptance of Hindu nationalism within a neolberal system, including the reframing of the concept of Indian citizenship. The first five years of Modi rule failed to bring about the development that had been promised and have seen India’s rapid change from a largely inclusive society to one where religious minorities are denied their basic rights.

Global Perspectives on Nationalism takes an interdisciplinary approach informed by recent theorisations of nationalism to examine perennial questions on the topic. The idea of nationalism centres on questions of ethnicity, culture, religion, language, and access to resources. What determines consciousness of nationalism? How is nationalism manifested, shaped, or countered through literary and cultural productions? The contributors highlight topical areas in studies of nationalism including ecology, natural resources, sustainability, globalisation, the Anthropocene, postcolonialism, indigeneity, folklore, popular culture, and queer theory. They develop innovative perspectives on nationalism through in-depth analyses of the theoretical, political, literary, linguistic, cultural, and ecological dimensions of nationalism in Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Bosnia and Herzegovina, China, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Nepal, Nigeria, Poland, Scotland, Turkey, the United States, and elsewhere. This volume underscores the importance of generative dialogue between disciplines in assessing the implications of nationalism for everyday life through five thematic sections: (I) Ethnicity, Ideology, and Narration; (II) Religion, Identity, and Heritage; (III) Linguistics, Tradition, and Modernism; (IV) Music, Lyricism, and Poetics; and (V) Ecology, Environment, and Non-Human Lives. This book will be of particular value to students and researchers in philosophy, literary studies, and political theory with interests spanning ecology, ethnicity, folklore, gender, heritage, identity, linguistics, nationalism, nationhood, religion, and sexuality.

Insurgency in India’s Northeast provides a systematic analysis of every major secessionist group and insurgency in the region within a unified and original explanatory framework, focusing primarily on the postcolonial period. This book presents a parsimonious analytic narrative involving a rich sequential account of the historical evolution of Mizo, Naga, Meitei, and "ethnic Assamese" identities from precolonial to colonial to postcolonial times. Avoiding essentialist or primordialist arguments, the chapters in the book demonstrate how ethnic/(sub)national identities are dynamic and malleable phenomenon, not immutable natural givens. In particular, it argues that the postcolonial Indian state has attempted to integrate these ethnic/sub-state national groups into the Indian Union through a combination of democratic accommodation/consociationalism and hegemonic/violent control, strategically designed to encapsulate their evolving (sub) national identities into the overarching state-sponsored Indian nationality. Through this book, readers will gain a rich understanding of the dynamics of ethnicity/ nationality and the nation/state-building process in postcolonial India. It will be of interest to researchers in the fields of Asian studies, ethnicity, nationalism, separatism, security studies, border studies, and international relations.

Whatever be the definition of 'indigenous' vis-a-vis 'indigeneity', and however concensual it might be, both these terms have been inferred, applied and questioned in multifarious ways. The concept indigeneity in Asia has transformed considerably, over a period of time. With the rise in the indigeneity movement and large-scale migration, citizenship within national borders is challenged, and the borders in question are also contested. This book chronicles the discernible strains on the questions of indegeneity, citizenship, identity, and border making in the Northeast India. The issues pertaining to indigeneity, citizenship, and state, are also a reminder of the residues of colonial doings that have had a colossal impact till this day. Through empirical evidence backed by theoretical underpinnings, each essay in the book demonstrates the diversity of approaches that can be used to interrogate the debate on indegeneity, citizenship, the state, and opens the conversation on Northeast India. This book is co-published with Aakar Books. Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan)

This book explores the new debates on Basque sovereignty and statehood that have emerged in the post-violence Basque political scenario. It deciphers how sovereignty is understood or imagined by a revitalized civil society after the unilateral cessation of operations by ETA (Basque Homeland and Freedom). The contributors to this book investigate the new political field developing in the nexus between conventional party politics, established socio-cultural and linguistic organizations, creative civil society initiatives, and innovative activism. This book is for graduate students, scholars and professionals in political science, social anthropology, European studies, political philosophy, transnational studies, sociology, political geography, and global studies. It will also be of interest to academic specialists in Basque studies, specialists working on sovereignty, nationalism and globalization, and professionals in governance, international relations, foreign affairs, European politics and diplomacy.