Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: April 1, 2021 at 5:22:07 PM EDT > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Asia]: Guyot-Rechard on Baruah, 'In the Name of the > Nation: India and Its Northeast' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Sanjib Baruah. In the Name of the Nation: India and Its Northeast. > Stanford Stanford University Press, 2020. 296 pp. $30.00 (paper), > ISBN 978-1-5036-1128-3. > > Reviewed by Berenice Guyot-Rechard (King's College London) > Published on H-Asia (April, 2021) > Commissioned by Sumit Guha > > When Sanjib Baruah's Durable Disorder came out in 2007, it quickly > established itself as an essential introduction to how northeastern > India--a region that was historically a crossroads between the Indian > Subcontinent, the Southeast Asian peninsula, and Inland Asia--became > associated with seemingly unending insurgencies and other forms of > "disorder," seemingly directed against the Indian state.[1] Baruah's > work helped the fledging historian I was then make sense of the > troubled relationship between "India and its Northeast" and raised > urgent questions about how to historicize the phenomenon. I cannot be > the only scholar of Northeast India to owe such a debt to Baruah. His > work once stood out as one of the few book-length touchstones on > Northeast India, alongside those of Amalendu Guha or Udayon Misra for > instance.[2] Not least of Durable Disorder's strengths was how Baruah > implicitly took South Asianists to task for their inattention to the > Northeast, and thus their imbrication in marginalization processes. > > Fifteen years later, it is encouraging to see how much has changed. > Scholarship on Northeast India is booming. The rise of > interdisciplinary borderlands approaches, pioneered by the likes of > Willem van Schendel, is redefining the study of South Asia from its > margins in.[3] Understandings of contemporary India increasingly make > space for Northeast India. Yet much has changed in another way, too. > The Modi era has highlighted the Northeast's centrality to battles > over the idea of India.[4] Delhi's "Act East" policy, the penetration > of the BJP and Hindu nationalism in a region with huge Muslim, > Christian, Buddhist, and animist populations, ongoing tensions with > China, and above all the fixation on rooting out "Bangladeshis" from > the region through murky citizenship registration processes have made > Northeast India a battleground for a new India. > > _In the Name of the Nation_ thus could not be timelier. In just under > two hundred pages, Baruah distills decades of research to offer a > powerful overview of the overlapping mechanisms that have made > Northeast India "an exceptional example of the shortcomings and > failures of the territorially circumscribed post-colonial > nation-state" (p. 3). Over six chapters, each rich in individual > insights yet echoing one another, Baruah takes on the dynamics of > region-building (chapter 1), the vexed issue of citizenship and > belonging (chapter 2), the politics of development (chapter 3), the > Naga conflict (chapter 4), and the entrenchment of the "security > state" (chapters 5 and 6). > > What gives the book its peculiar power is the presence throughout of > four interlocking strands: the rejection of "insurgency" as a frame > to understand Northeast Indian politics; the characterization of > development as an ideology and practice rooted in unequal power > relations; the entwined dynamics of incorporation and othering; and > finally, the contested, protean nature of the subaltern in Northeast > India. > > To think of Northeast India is to think of AFSPA: the Armed Forces > Special Powers Act. First applied to the Naga areas before being > extended across much of the region "with remarkable casualness," the > act infamously grants exceptional powers and immunity to Indian armed > forces in "disturbed areas" (p. 4). AFSPA, Baruah argues, is but the > centerpiece of an "exceptionally harsh security regime" that entails > the outsized assertion of military and police presence in a region > deemed ever unstable, unpredictable, and disordered. The leeway this > gives--not just to the military but to other armed forces and > nonstate actors like plantation owners--to behave with brutality > toward the entire population only ends up antagonizing _en masse_. > Tactical "counterinsurgency" decisions to give de facto amnesties, > protection, and license to bear arms to ex-militants turned > informants (as was practiced against the United Liberation Front of > Asom, in the 1990s), only increase violent crimes and destroy trust > in India's justice system and wider institutions. > > Rooted in the assumption that political strife and criminality can > only be dealt with through military means, the "AFSPA regime" is out > of proportion with the strength of armed militancy in the Northeast; > it also creates the very conditions it is supposed to quell. Framing > Northeast India in terms of "insurgency vs. counterinsurgency" is to > miss the fact that so-called insurgents seldom have the popular > approval, the reach, or the aim to topple the state, Baruah argues. > For some, armed resistance is rather "a form of claims-making" (p. > 4). What is more, in much of the Northeast, "state and non-state > armed entities are in de facto informal partnership." In this "hybrid > political regime," groups who make a show of their potential for > violence are co-opted by state power and continue exercising their > might over local society with the acquiescence, if not the > cooperation, of that power (pp. 7-8). "Shared sovereignty" practices > thus become the de facto norm in areas of Manipur and Nagaland where > NSCN-IM, the main winner in the cease-fire between Delhi and > militants for a greater, independent Nagaland, holds sway. The very > structure of the cease-fire undermines the possibility of lasting, > people-centered peace. > > Such insights matter far beyond Northeast India. Baruah makes a > powerful case for the need to stop analyzing democracy at the > national unit. In AFSPA, India has devised oppressive legislation > (inspired from colonial laws) whose power lies precisely in its > ordinariness. That AFSPA does not fall under constitutional emergency > provisions, but under ordinary law, means it is embedded at every > level of the Indian state in the Northeast. Faced with "a security > state that only seeks to offer protection and in exchange expects > unquestioned acceptance of its decisions, arbitrariness, without > accountability or democratic decision-making," Northeast Indians > assert their rejection of "securitized citizenship" (p. 162). > > The impossibility of democratic citizenship taints the vocabulary of > development that forms the other half of "the postcolonial state's > approach to Northeast India" (p. 42). In one of the most fascinating > chapters, Baruah draws on recent scholarship by Bengt Karlsson and > Dolly Kikon to explore development as the central ideology through > which a host of power holders--from the central state to regional > politicians, from militant groups to economic elites--can justify and > maintain their hold over society.[5] > > > For 150 years, Northeast India has been simultaneously resource _and_ > settlement frontier. Even as the label "tribal" reduced millions to > an unchanging, primitive identity, the region historically attracted > migrants from all around South Asia, and as far as China. Some of the > subcontinental migration continues. In this context, development > becomes "a site of cultural politics and contestation" (p. 88). This > new identity discourse can be deployed in the name of tribalness by > ethnic elites (and by state authorities keen to bring them on board), > so as to exclude entire peoples from the right to economic > prosperity, access to land, or decent working conditions. In the > hills of Meghalaya, coal mining has enriched Khasi and Jaintia elites > who, co-opted by the state, use their protected status to sanctuarize > their economic and political power while pristine "tribal" land is > destroyed and the mostly migrant population working the mines is > exploited. These issues of political economy deserve far more > attention than has so far been the case in a historiography more > preoccupied with identity issues, Baruah points out. > > Through constitutional provisions guaranteeing special economic > rights for "Scheduled Tribes," development imaginaries betray another > cornerstone of the Northeast's relationship to India: over there, > nation-state formation and internal othering go hand in hand. Much of > the region was incorporated late into India, sometimes only after > independence. Its inhabitants' Otherness was assumed based on those > same ideas of tribalness, along with specific (yet elusive) > physiognomic types. > > Seventy-four years after independence, none of this has disappeared. > The postcolonial state has enshrined "Northeast India"--a > directional, policy-driven place name inherited from colonial rule > and laden with power hierarchies--as the term to describe the region. > The Home Ministry's North-East Division and the Ministry of > Development of North Eastern Region mark out Northeast India as an > "Other within," which only "a prodigious 'big leap' in prosperity" > can incorporate into the nation (pp. 44-45). Absent that leap, and > given insurgency's "illness", Northeast India remains in the > perpetual antechamber of India, its inhabitants an object of policy > rather than fellow citizens (p. 13). Baruah's point will find echo in > scholarship on other parts of the world, such as Tibet.[6] > > > To grasp the most incisive point in _In the Name of the Nation_, > however, one needs to read chapter 2 only after the rest of the book. > The chapter explores how the legacy of colonial rule and Partition, > postcolonial ethno-politics, and the advance of Hindutva in the > region have combined to throw millions of people into a citizenship > limbo and existential vulnerability. Baruah insists that the > Northeast's ongoing cultural transformation should not be read > through the prism of Bangladeshization, vilified by Assamese > nationalists and Hindutva supporters alike. The diversity of Assamese > Muslim communities notwithstanding, Miya Muslims (of East Bengali > origin) have traditionally adopted Assamese as their language and > supported Assamese politicians. The problem for Assamese nationalists > today, Baruah argues, following M. S. Prabhakara, is not that their > culture will disappear, but that its standard bearers will be those > of Bengali origin.[7] > > > Clashes around migration, citizenship, and belonging betray the most > pressing question in the book: who exactly, in today's Northeast > India, is the subaltern? Constitutional provisions guaranteeing > specific rights for "Scheduled Tribes" (like the prohibition to own > land for nontribals in some areas) have permitted the > commodification, if not the destruction, of tribal land at the hand > of tribal elites allied with the state and "mainland" capitalists, > even as "traditional" culture is rapidly changing. Tribal elites' > capture of claims to indigeneity, resources, and political capital > bears the weight of a century and a half of reducing many people to > an unchanging, primitive, innocent tribalness. But in the present, it > rubs against the widespread reality of a deeply uncertain, vulnerable > life for anyone suspected of being "a migrant." Baruah ends by > warning us, via Mamdani, that if violence in Northeast India can > potentially be an act of citizenship by subalterns, this same > "subaltern identity" could, untransformed, "generate no more than an > aspiration for trading places, for hegemonic aspirations" (p. > 192).[8] > > > Such a short, panoramic book necessarily leaves things out. > International and transnational dimensions are the most telling > absences. The connection goes beyond the geopolitics-infused > racialization of Northeasterners in "mainland" cities as exotic or > Chinese-like (p. 17). It nestles within the very idea of "the > mainland," this place to which Northeast India is linked but by a > tiny strip of land. It is there in the way Northeast India, ever > since colonial and Nehruvian times, has been concurrently seen as a > conduit for invasion and subversion, a buffer-fortress whose function > is to protect India, and a conduit to the rest of Asia. And it is > there in the way China's nearby presence and deepening hold over > Tibet, and sights over Arunachal Pradesh, condition Indian > state-building.[9] Spelling out the impact of this geopolitical > framing of Northeast India would have enhanced an already fascinating > book. > > My other quibble is one of form. While absolutely engrossing for the > interested reader, the book may not be easily accessible for lay > audiences. The book's condensed and wide-ranging nature makes for a > dizzying read at times, which makes it difficult to assign to > students other than advanced ones. Since Baruah's insights deserve > the widest audience, this is a shame. > > That said, _In the Name of the Nation_ is a stellar exposure of the > fractal nature of the relationship between India and its Northeast, > one rich in insights for anyone seeking to understand not just > contemporary India, but also the pitfalls of postcolonial, would-be > nation-states. It will be read for a long time yet. > > Notes > > [1]. Sanjib Baruah, _Durable Disorder: Understanding the Politics of > Northeast India _(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007). > > [2]. Amalendu Guha, _Planter-Raj to Swaraj: Freedom Struggle and > Electoral Politics in Assam, 1826-1947_ (New Delhi: Indian Council of > Historical Research, 2006 [1977]); Udayon Misra, _The Periphery > Strikes Back: Challenges to the Nation-State in Assam and Nagaland_, > 1st ed. (Shimla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 2000). > > [3]. Willem van Schendel, "Geographies of Knowing, Geographies of > Ignorance: Jumping Scale in Southeast Asia," _Environment and > Planning D: Society and Space,_ 20 (2002): 647-68. > > [4]. Arkotong Longkumer, _The Greater India Experiment: Hindutva and > the Northeast_ (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2020). > > [5]. Bengt G. Karlsson, _Unruly Hills: A Political Ecology of India's > Northeast_ (New York: Berghahn Books, 2011); Dolly Kikon, _Living > with Coal and Oil: Resource Politics and Militarization in Northeast > India_ (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2019). > > [6]. Dibyesh Anand, "China and India: Postcolonial Informal Empires > in the Emerging Global Order," _Rethinking Marxism _24, no. 1 (2012): > 68-86. > > [7]. M. S. Prabhakara, "Of State and Nationalism," _Frontline, > _October 9,1999. > > [8]. The quote is from Mahmoud Mamdani, "Making Sense of Political > Violence in Postcolonial Africa," in _Fighting Identities: Race, > Religion and Ethno-Nationalism_, ed. by L. Panitch and C. Leys > (Lonson: Merlin, 2003), 144-45. > > [9]. Bérénice Guyot-Réchard,_ Shadow States: India, China and the > Himalayas, 1910-1962_ (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017). > > Citation: Berenice Guyot-Rechard. Review of Baruah, Sanjib, _In the > Name of the Nation: India and Its Northeast_. H-Asia, H-Net Reviews. > April, 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=55627 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#7695): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/7695 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/81794054/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
