A journalist's history of the short yet troubled life of this 'new' region bordering China and
Southeast Asia, exploring its significance for the idea of India.
As India and the world are roiled by questions of nationalism and identity, this book journeys into the history of one of the world's newest and most fascinating regions: Northeast India. Having appeared with the stroke of a pen in 1947, as the British Raj was torn asunder and partitioned into India and Pakistan, this is a region of river valleys and hills inhabited by myriad tribes. Until colonial rule, several of these tribes had lived in their ancient ways, largely unmolested by their neighbours, who were rather keen to avoid their traditions of headhunting.
Samrat Choudhury chronicles the processes by which these remote hill tribes, and the diverse other peoples inhabiting the valley of the vast Brahmaputra river, became parts of the 'imagined nation' that is India. He explores two other ideas of India that remain in daily competition: Bharat, the Hindu nationalist conception of the country, and Hindustan, the Persian-origin name by which India is still known as far west as Turkey. Taking a long view, this absorbing political history chronicles the separate pathways by which imperialism, Christianity and the British love of tea brought each of the contemporary region's constituent states into modern India.
Review
'A persuasive, fascinating and unputdownable work of history. I have not come across any other book on Northeast India which reads like fiction, yet leaves untouched almost no aspect of the region, its areas and its people.' - Sajal Nag, Professor of History, Assam University, and author of Contesting Marginality: Ethnicity, Insurgency and Subnationalism in North-East India
'This book brings great clarity and insight to the history of India's Northeast - a region of mind-boggling diversity, where competing powers have struggled to impose their authority and to delineate boundaries that remain disputed even today. Essential reading, warmly welcomed.' - James Manor, Professor Emeritus, School of Advanced Study, University of London, and author of Politics and State-Society Relations in India
'Samrat Choudhury's sweeping political history captures, in one book, India's diverse Northeast, famous for its hundreds of languages and many ethnic groups. His accessible and authoritative history is an excellent primer for anyone trying to understand the region. A monumental achievement.' - Manoj Joshi, journalist and author of Understanding the India-China Border
About the Author
Samrat Choudhury is an author and journalist from Shillong, and a former editor of broadsheet newspapers in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. He currently divides his time between India and the Philippines and writes op-eds, analyses and occasional reportage for a number of national and international publications.
Samrat's previous book was The Braided River: A Journey Along the Brahmaputra, 2021. He has earlier authored a novel, The Urban Jungle, which was nominated for the Man Asian Literary Prize. He also co-edited an anthology titled Insider/Outsider, on this issue with relation to Northeast India. His other projects include Partition Studies Quarterly, an online journal focused on the forgotten causes and experiences of the Partition of India in its Northeast, of which he is one of the three founders.
Samrat was the Asian Leadership Fellow from India at the International House of Japan in Tokyo in 2018 and a Chevening Scholar at the University of Westminster, London, in 2019.
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