North-East India™s Academic Renaissance

A learning revolution embracing primary, secondary and higher education has awoken the people of the geographically isolated North-east states to the need for sustainable industrial development sensitive to the abundant natural resources available in the region. Dilip Thakore reports ETHNICALLY AND CULTURALLY distinct from mainland and peninsular India but adding rich colour and high potential to the diversity of the subcontinent, the eight states of North-east India are on the threshold of an academic renaissance which offers the hope of this politically unstable and restive region strengthening its tenuous bonds with the Indian Union. A learning revolution embracing primary, secondary and tertiary education has awoken the people of the geographically isolated North-east states to the need for sustainable industrial development sensitive to the abundant natural resources available in the region. To a significant extent, the politics and socio-economic development (and isolation) of the eight North-eastern states of Assam (pop. 31 million); Sikkim (600,000); Meghalaya (3 million); Tripura (3 million); Arunachal Pradesh (1 million); Nagaland (2 million); Manipur (3 million) and Mizoram (1 million) is shaped by history and geography. On the west, three of the states ” Tripura, Meghalaya and Assam ” share a common border with Bangladesh which itself shares a long (2,216 km) border with West Bengal, and four states ” Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal ” share a common border with Myanmar, with Arunachal also bordering Tibet (China). With the politics, geography and topography of Bangladesh having subjected this densely populated nation to frequent cyclonic storms, and flooding by the Brahmaputra, Teesta and other rivers, there™s a continuous flow of displaced people from Bangladesh into the Indian states ” particularly the sparsely populated North-east ” which offer opportunities for arable farming. Although the Census of India 2001, records 84,826 people of Bangladeshi origin in the country, it™s widely acknowledged that the actual number of illegal migrants, including Hindu refugees from Bangladesh, exceeds this number by far, generating ethnic and sub-nationalist tension ” and frequent riots and pogroms ” in the region. With private investment reluctant to flow into the seven sister states (Sikkim is generally regarded as sui generis) of the North-east because of the precarious law and order situation created by uncontrolled immigration from Bangladesh and sustained neglect by successive Central governments, there™s been a steady outward flow of citizens, especially youth, from this region to other parts of the country, particularly metros such as Delhi and Bangalore, where they are widely regarded as foreign. Although welcomed by entrepreneurs and businesses, particularly service industries, because of their superior English speaking skills ” the outcome of the promotion of a large number of English-medium schools established in the North-east by pioneer (and proselyting) Christian missionaries during the past century ” they are often targeted for racial and sexual abuse by lumpen elements which has had the effect of stoking resentment against mainland Indians in the seven sister states. But with few higher education institutions and employment options, the outflow of youth determined to assert their fundamental right…