Introduction: The northeast and beyond: Region and culture

South Asia: Journal of South Asia Studies

Volumn 30, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 381-390

  de Maaker, Erik ^a   Joshi, Vibha ^b  

^a LEIDEN UNIVERSITY   (Netherlands)

^b UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 36549024053     PISSN: 00856401     EISSN: 14790270     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00856400701714021     Document Type: Editorial

References (20)

1. Nevertheless, between these nation-states large-scale illicit movements occur. Northeast India's international borders have been demarcated, but are not tightly guarded and therefore porous. See W. van Schendel, The Bengal Borderlands: Beyond State and Nation in South Asia (London: Anthem Press, 2005)
2. and S. Hazarika, Rites of Passage: Border Crossing, Imagined Homelands, India's East and Bangladesh (New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2000).
3. The term 'tribe' is used in South Asia (particularly in India) as part of a broader repertoire applied by the state to classify people into groups. These classifications are of great practical importance since they provide, among other things, grounds for measures of positive discrimination. See A. Beteille, 'The Idea of Indigenous People, in Current Anthropology, Vol.39, no.2 (April 1998), pp.187-91.
4. W. van Schendel, 'Geographies of Knowing, Geographies of Ignorance: Jumping Scale in Southeast Asia, in Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, Vol.20 (2002), pp.647-68. This discursive article highlights the political and academic reasons for the essentialised formation of these three geographical areas which in turn have divided the 'cultural area' between China, India, Myanmar (Burma) and Bangladesh.
5. This perspective has been taken up by the multidisciplinary 'Asian Borderlands Research Network, [http://asian borderlands.net/] which is particularly focusing on north-eastern India and the upland areas adjacent to it. The network intends to encourage new approaches to the region and to increase its visibility on the academic agenda.
6. See for example J.H. Hutton, The Angami Nagas with some Notes on the Neighbouring Tribes (London: Macmillan and Co. Limited, 1921)
7. J.H. Hutton, The Sema Nagas (London: Macmillan and Co. Limited, 1921)
8. J.P. Mills, The Lhota Nagas (London: Macmillan and Co. Limited, 1922)
9. J.P. Mills, The Ao Nagas (London: Macmillan and Co. Limited, 1926)
10. J.P. Mills, The Rengma Nagas (London: Macmillan and Co. Limited, 1937)
11. N.E. Parry, The Lakhers (London: Macmillan and Co. Limited, 1932)
12. and T.C. Hodson, Naga Tribes of Manipur (London: Macmillan and Co. Limited, 1911).
13. For more information and an analysis of the various conflicts in Northeast India see, for example, S. Baruah, Durable Disorder: Understanding the Politics of Northeast India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2005)
14. S. Hazarika, Strangers of the Mist: Tales of War and Peace from India,s Northeast (New Delhi: Penguin Books, 1995)
15. K.P.S. Gill (ed.), Terror and Containment: Perspectives on India,s Internal Security (New Delhi: Gyan Publishing House, 2001)
16. and S.K. Das, 'Ethnicity and the Rise of Religious Radicalism: The Security Scenario in Contemporary Northeastern India, in S.P. Limaye, M. Malik and R.G. Wirsing (eds), Religious Radicalism and Security in South Asia (Honolulu: Asia Pacific Centre for Security Studies, 2004), pp 245-71.
17. The two-day workshop was generously sponsored by the Research School CNWS (Leiden University), the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) and the Leids Universitair Fonds (LUF). We are thankful to Sabine Luning and Arlo Griffiths (both of Leiden University) for chairing the sessions.
18. One of the scholars participating in the workshop, Willem van Schendel, had already committed his paper elsewhere. Mandy Sadan was unable to attend the workshop in person. Arkotong Longkumer did not attend the workshop, bu was invited to contribute to this volume.
19. W. van Schendel, 'The Dangers of Belonging: Tribes, Indigenous Peoples and Homelands in South Asia, in S. Dasgupta and D. Rycroft (eds), Tribes in Colonial and Post Colonial South Asia (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2007 forthcoming).
20. Elizabeth Dell (ed.), Burma Frontier Photographs 1918-1935 (London: Merrell Publishers, 2000).