Has the Meitei community been let down by those who speak for them?
The Meitei tribal community likely admires individuals who consistently represent them in various media spaces.
The Meitei tribal community likely admires individuals who consistently represent them in various media spaces.
During our village school days, while we used to graze our cattle on the vast rice field, we often witnessed a glowing series of hills on the northern horizon illuminated by the evening sunlight; it was the Land of the Thunder Dragon, officially known as the Bhutan Kingdom at the eastern Himalayan foothills.
Dr Manmohan Singh's association with the Northeast goes beyond political representation—it is a story of deep-rooted ties and sustained efforts to address the region’s unique challenges.
It was a unique literary confluence of author-translators, art connoisseurs, critics, budding writers, commentators on economics and history, and young people, who assembled for the Pragjyotishpur Literature Festival 2024, showcasing a series of panel discussions, special sessions with authors, workshops on creative writing and environmental protection, a multilingual poetry recitation and a few cultural programs at Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra in Guwahati.
The ongoing religious persecution of Bengali Hindus in Bangladesh, coupled with their attempts to find refuge in India’s northeastern states like Tripura, Assam and Meghalaya, has sparked an intense debate over the country’s refugee policies.
In 1947, when Angami Zapu Phizo raised the banner of Naga nationhood, it was based on the simple premise that the Nagas were neither under the Assamese nor Manipuri rulers and that the Britishers were the first to rule them, and by that account, when they leave the subcontinent, they should be left alone. Phizo, however, was aware that each Naga village or tribe exists as a republic of their own and that each had a different dialect and that the only visible and practical way to bring them together on a common platform was their faith in Jesus Christ.
Unnoticed in the rest of the country, the structures and processes of civil administration have been undergoing such drastic changes in Assam, which now has 35 districts and 184 revenue circles, and to a lesser extent in other states of the north-east that it is necessary to examine these developments from a larger perspective.
The latest in the opposition to the India-Myanmar border fencing and scrapping of the Free Movement Regime (FMR) is the Naga Insurgent Groups (NSCN-IIM), who have come out strongly against the decision. The NSCN-IM is currently in the process of peace talks with the Government of India.
It was apprehended that the Supreme Court of India would pronounce the verdict in favour of 1971 as the cut-off year to detect and deport all illegal migrants from Assam, as the signatories of Asom Chukti endorsed the same, even though the larger indigenous population expected the judgement in support of the base year, applicable to the whole nation.
Guwahati, northeast India’s biggest city and a sort of “regional capital” for the seven (now eight with Sikkim added) states, is reported to be the second most polluted city in Central and South Asia.
