Published Paper Details:

North East India has been witnessing a series of socio-political movements in the ethnic line since the time of independence of the country. Almost every community of this region is seen to be resorting to such movements for registering its demands. Such demands of a particular group are also noted to be changing with the passing of time in response to changing socio-political contexts. But Indian and regional political elites have been utter failures in resolving the longstanding demands of various ethnic communities leading to socio-economic and cultural anxieties. In view of the prevailing exclusionary tendencies it may be contended that most of the institutional means of accommodation such as granting autonomy to particular ethnic groups in a particular region and even the formation of separate state for some communities failed to yield desired results. The exclusionary tendencies created by both the governments and the dominant communities lead to the ethnic assertion of certain ethnic communities. This paper is an endeavour to engage with the question of whether these proliferating ethno-national movements can be understood as the reflections of the top-down model of nationalism of the larger Indian state or they can be read as something more organically evolved at their local specific situations such as exclusionary tendencies.