The Insurgency in Northeast India involves multiple armed separatist factions operating in some of India's northeastern states, which are connected to the rest of India by the Siliguri Corridor, a strip of land as narrow as 14.29 miles (23.00 km) wide.
Angami Zapu Phizo was a Naga nationalist leader with British nationality. Under his influence, the Naga National Council asserted the right to self-determination which took the shape of armed resistance after the Indian state imposed the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in 1958. Naga secessionist groups regard him as the "Father of the Naga Nation".
The history of Assam is the history of a confluence of people from the east, west, south and the north; the confluence of the Austroasiatic, Tibeto-Burman (Sino-Tibetan), Tai and Indo-Aryan cultures. Although invaded over the centuries, it was never a vassal or a colony to an external power until the third Burmese invasion in 1821, and, subsequently, the British ingress into Assam in 1824 during the First Anglo-Burmese War.
The People of Assam inhabit a multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic and multi-religious society. They speak languages that belong to four main language groups: Tibeto-Burman, Indo-Aryan, Tai-Kadai, and Austroasiatic. The large number of ethnic and linguistic groups, the population composition, and the peopling process in the state has led to it being called an "India in miniature".
The Assamese people are a ethnolinguistic group that has been described at various times as nationalistic or micro-nationalistic. This group is often associated with the Assamese language, the easternmost Indo-Aryan language, and most Assamese people live in the Indian state of Assam, especially in the Brahmaputra valley. The use of the term precedes the name of the language or the people. It has also been used retrospectively to the people of Assam before the term "Assamese" came into use. They are an ethnically diverse group formed after centuries of assimilation of Austroasiatic, Tibeto-Burman, Indo-Aryan and Tai populations, and constitute a tribal-caste continuum—though not all Assamese people are Hindus and ethnic Assamese Muslims numbering around 42 lakh constitute a significant part of this identity The total population of Assamese speakers in Assam is nearly 15.09 million which makes up 48.38% of the population of state according to the Language census of 2011.
Mushirul Hasan was a historian of modern India. He wrote on the partition of India, communalism, and on the history of Islam in South Asia.
The Nellie massacre took place in central Assam during a six-hour period in the morning of 18 February 1983. The massacre claimed the lives of 1,600–2,000 people from 14 villages—Alisingha, Khulapathar, Basundhari, Bugduba Beel, Bugduba Habi, Borjola, Butuni, Dongabori, Indurmari, Mati Parbat, Muladhari, Mati Parbat no. 8, Silbheta, Borburi and Nellie—of Nagaon district. The victims were Muslim peasants of East Bengal origin. Three media personnel—Hemendra Narayan of Indian Express, Bedabrata Lahkar of Assam Tribune and Sharma of ABC—were witnesses to the massacre.
Literature from North East India refers to literature in the languages of North East India and the body of work by English-language writers from this region. North East India is an under-represented region in many ways. The troubled political climate, the beautiful landscape and the confluence of various ethnic groups perhaps have given rise to a body of writing that is completely different from Indian English literature. North-East India was a colonial construct and continues to be one by virtue of having a historically difficult relationship with the Indian nation state.
David Vumlallian Zou is a historian of modern South Asia with special interest in north-east India. His research interests reflect an interdisciplinary orientation that includes colonial history, book history, gender history, ethno-history, indigenous identities and historical geography.
Christophe Jaffrelot is a French political scientist and Indologist specialising in South Asia, particularly India and Pakistan. He is a professor of South Asian politics and history the Centre d'études et de recherches internationales (CERI) at Sciences Po (Paris), a professor of Indian Politics and Sociology at the King's India Institute (London), and a Research Director at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS).
P. Shilu Ao was an Indian politician who was involved in the negotiations leading to the creation of Nagaland, in the north-eastern part of India, as one of the states and territories of India in December 1963. Ao then served as the first Chief Minister of Nagaland until August 1966. Ao played a part in persuading the Indian Government and the Lok Sabha to grant Nagaland separate statehood but was not able to reconcile many Naga nationalists who regarded him and his party, as stooges of the central government.
Prasenjit Biswas is a Professor of philosophy at North Eastern Hill University, Shillong. His research interests reflect an interdisciplinary orientation that includes ethno-philosophy, ethnicity, and indigenous identities. He is a human rights defender who works with Barak Human Right Protection Committee ( BHRPC), Silchar. The BHRPC defended human rights of labourers and their families in tea gardens of Barak Valley of Assam, who faced deaths due to starvation in 2011–12. The National Human Rights' Commission of India granted relief and compensation to some of the families who suffered due to starvation deaths. Biswas also contributed to United Nations' fourth Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on Human Rights process initiated by Working Group on Human Rights (WGHR),New Delhi. Biswas specializes in continental philosophy and phenomenology with an emphasis on Jacques Derrida, Georgio Agamben, Jean Luc-Nancy, Francoise Laruelle etc. He has worked on Post-Marxist thoughts, Non-Philosophy and currently exploring the notion of Aporia in Social Theory. He also draws meaningful parallels between Continental Philosophy and India's locally rooted philosophical traditions from among Tribal communities. Rooted in a Sanskritic tradition of doing Darsana in a family of traditional Indian philosophers, he develops a dialogic interface between heterodox Indian philosophical traditions and European and Continental philosophical world-views. His current works are a return to an interdisciplinary worldview traditions in which he combines a policy paradigm such as India's Act East with Southeast and East Asian traditions from a contemporary Indian philosophical point of view of 'Swaraj in Ideas' and Rabindranath Tagore's Cosmopolitan universalism. He writes occasionally in The Statesman on issues related to Northeast India and often shares his views in national and international media.
Bongal Kheda was a xenophobic movement in India, which aimed at purging out non-native job competitors by the job-seeking Assamese. Soon after the Independence of India, the Assamese Hindu middle class gained political control in Assam and tried to gain social and economic parity with their competitors, the Bengali Hindu middle class. A significant period of property damage, ethnic policing and even instances of street violence occurred in the region. The exact timeline is disputed, though many authors agree the 1960s saw a height of disruption. It was part of a broader discontent within Assam that would foreshadow the Assamese Language Movement and the anti-Bengali Assam Movement.
Wasbir Hussain is a political commentator and strategic analyst whose core area of work includes writings and speaking on issues of peace, security and development in northeastern India and its immediate neighbourhood. One of the founders of the research and policy think tank, the Centre for Development and Peace Studies, he is currently its executive director. Hussain was twice nominated Member of India's National Security Advisory Board. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of North East Live, northeastern India's first satellite English News Channel, with headquarters in Guwahati. The channel is the latest venture of Pride East Entertainments Pvt Ltd, the region's largest media group. Hussain hosts a debate show on the Channel titled 'Northeast Tonight with Wasbir Hussain, telecast every Saturday at 8 pm. The program involves discussion on current trending topics in Northeast India. He also hosts a popular weekly English talk show 'Talk Time with Wasbir Hussain' on News Live, a Group channel. In 2017, Hussain and two of his associates established the region's first state-of-the-art Television Media Institute at Guwahati called Turning Point Institute of Media & Creative Skills.
Anil Kumar Tyagi is former Vice Chancellor of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University Delhi. Prior to this he was co-ordinator of UGC- SAP Programme and head of Department of Biochemistry at South Campus of Delhi University and was Vice President of the Society of Biological Chemists, India from the year 2004 to 2006.
Kishalay Bhattacharjee is an Indian, senior journalist, columnist and author.
Amalendu Guha was an Indian historian, economist, and poet from Assam, India.
Sanjay (Xonzoi) Barbora is a professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences Guwahati and the former Dean of School of Social Sciences. He is on the editorial board of Refugee Watch. He is also on the board of trustees of The Kohima Institute.
Anima Guha was an Indian writer from Assam. Guha was a literary pensioner who published numerous novels, essays, articles, translations, and travelogues. Guha also published a number of research papers in scientific journals, in addition to attending many seminars and conferences.
Sanjib Baruah is an Indian professor of Political Studies at Bard College in New York, and an author and commentator specializing in the politics of Northeast India. His books include India Against Itself: Assam and the Politics of Nationality, Durable Disorder: Understanding the Politics of Northeast India, and In the Name of the Nation: India and its Northeast.
