‘Northeast’ India, the appellation with which India’s far east is known, is home to immense ethnic and communal horrors — and a decades-old Naga conflict as well as a high-profile peace process that involves four gateway states — Nagaland, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam — and several million people. A series of callous and arrogant governments and enduring suspicion against the all-knowing ‘Mainland’ have all together made it a touchpoint of brutalised aspiration, identity, conflict and tragedy. It’s among the most militarized zones in the world, with laws applied across vast geographies that offer the army and police both immunity and impunity. It’s a playground of numbing corruption and engineered violence.
A keen observer and frequent chronicler of the region, Sudeep Chakravarti has for several years offered exclusive insights into the Machiavellian world of the Naga and other conflicts and various attempts to resolve these. In ‘The Eastern Gate’, he melds the skills of a journalist, analyst, historian, and ethnographer to offer a framework within which these conflicts — and the very aspiration of the people of India’s most diverse, dynamic and desperately hopeful region — needs to be seen.