The Play of Language, Land, Region, and Religion in Extending the Cultural Hegemony and Political Dominance in India’s Northeast

Abstract

Northeast has been a contested region regardless of colonial, post-colonial, or post-independent India. “In pre-colonial time the notion of Northeast India as a geographical or cultural unit simply did not exist. And in colonial times the term, if used at all, referred to as much larger area: Orissa, Bihar, Bengal and Assam” (Ven Schendel, 2018). It was only after the formation of Bangladesh in 1971 as a nation, and the annexation of Sikkim in 1975 by India, the territorial definition of Northeast in the Indian context got a concrete shape with a proper boundary connecting to the central India through Chicken’s Neck. The region is prone to the existence of different ethnic communities and shares boundaries with different countries, thus the migration among the ethnic groups for political, social, and cultural adaptation is gospel truth. Before the British encounter in the first half of the 19^th c.  These tribes had no idea of a realm such as an India or an Indian Culture. They knew and recognised only their own identities and cultures, and that of their immediate tribal neighbours (Lygdoh, 2017). The idea of assimilation and integration of tribal folks into mainstream India emerged since the colonial force stepped in the region. Thus, Northeast in the Indian context is just its postcolonial adopted son. The post-independent state formation in the Northeastern region was grossly based on ethnic tribes. To understand the complex dynamics of colonial, postcolonial, and post-independent conflicts in the region of Northeast, I will consider Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, and Assam as the primary areas of analysis which will facilitate in understanding the rest of the region. Further, the paper will try to acquaint the readers with the issues of migration, the play of language and religion, and how it vilifies a particular community as Other and lionize one as master. The political and linguistic discourse in extending hegemony will be catered through new (Miya) literature that has emerged as a resistive structure to the prevailing dominant discourse.