Contemporary realities of NE deliberated
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, October 22 2016: A two-day National seminar on 'State, Development & Geopolitics in North East India : Engaging the Contemporary Realities' organised by Department of Geography, Moirang College and the Centre for Alternative Discourse, Manipur (CADM), concluded today at Moirang College.

The seminar which was opened yesterday was co-sponsored by University Grants Commission, NERO-Gauhati & Department of University and Higher Education, Government of Manipur.

Scholars and activists from Delhi, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim participated in the two day deliberations.

The inaugural session was graced by Dr Lokendra Arambam, former Director, AVRC, Manipur University; Dr K Anand Singh, Principal, Moirang College; Dr Krishnendra Meena, Assistant Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; Dr Bindu Ranjan Chakma, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Ramthakur College, Agartala; Dr Rajen Upadhyay, Namchi College, Sikkim and Laishram Churchil, Director, Centre for Alternative Discourse, Manipur.

The proceedings of the seminar witnessed twenty eight resource persons speaking on several issues concerning 'State, Development & Geopolitics' .

The key note of the seminar highlighted the need for revisiting North East India from the perspective of geopolitical approach while flagging off issues of State-making, demography, citizenship, deprivation of resource rights, overlapping assertions over space and cartography, and people's aspirations.

During the deliberations, Dr Arambam Lokendra talked about the geopolitical personality of North East India characterised by an imperial scramble for power during the colonial North East India. Commenting on the theme of the seminar, Pradip Phanjoubam, Editor � Imphal Free Press, extensively discussed the importance of understanding the nature and manner in which the world powers got entangled in the Aksai Chin, Tibet and North East India as a geopolitical space constituting a site for power and control.

On the whole, the seminar discussed questions relating to the fast-tract approach of National integration politics in India, claims and counter claims over spaces and territories in the North East India as a continuing reality since colonial days.

Talking about contemporary North East, one is generally reminded of three important sites � State-making, development and the geopolitical.

The sites are closely intertwined in a complex manner, and the sites become detrimental to explicating the contemporary personality of the North East India.

Such an identity is, ironically, considered both as a region's opportunity and a bane.

Most of the papers in the seminar contended that the colonial and contemporary official discourses have shown a great deal of geopolitical determinism that shapes the governmentality and nature of the people's movement in North East India, conveyed a press release issued by B Anilkumar Sharma, seminar convenor and Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Moirang College.

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