This book covers themes related to the geosphere, biosphere, sociosphere and ecosphere dealing with changing geographical, environmental and socio-economic realities to plan a sustainable future for the northeast region (NER) of India. The NER consists of eight states—Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Sikkim—and they carry political, economic and social importance. The book integrates the past, present and future of geospheric attributes incorporating progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to meet the demands for improving human wellbeing under diverse and challenging socio-economic, political and environmental conditions. The key SDGs, as in food and agriculture, health, education, water, energy and other overarching goals of the region, have yet to incorporate providing sustainable jobs and promoting equality and inclusive development, although there have been a few studies in that regard. The challenges to achieve SDGs in the NER are formidable compared to the rest of India. The NER has put a great deal of effort into achieving the SDGs, mainly in poverty (SDG-1), good health (SDG-3), education (SDG-4), gender (SDG-5), decent work (SDG-8) and reduced inequalities (SDG-10), similar to the rest of the country. However, the standard development indicators such as road length, access to health care, power consumption and other measures are far below the national average. A multi-pronged strategy has played a pivotal role in the region, but development strategy to attain the SDGs 2030 must be more inclusive in empowering people with maximising self-governance, considering the resources, needs and aspirations of the people. This book evaluates the performance of the SDGs and fills in the gaps. It includes case studies focusing on different SDGs using advanced cartographic, statistical and GIS techniques and methods. It also provides unique findings that serve as valuable resources for planners and policy-makers so that a sustainable future in Northeast India can be achieved.

This book gives a detailed assessment of the scope for strengthening economic capacities across sectors, ensuring economic prosperity through connectivity, and discusses the resource gaps. It comprehensively captures the wide range of economic possibilities existing in the north eastern region of India in terms of sectors, local resources, and expertise. Further, the book identifies gaps in supply chains and host of other factors around limited economic capacities and continued connectivity deficiencies that hold the region back. Key indicators like poverty and social sectors like health and education are presented in detail to cover the context in terms of the development parameters aligned with the SDGs. The wide variation in state-specific contexts has been captured based on full utilization of available data and information. In this book India's north-east comprising of eight states have been looked at from the perspectives of India's Act East policy, development cooperation with the neighbouring countries, promotion of trade including border trade, connectivity and economic corridors, infrastructure, and industrialization. In this direction, it makes several recommendations on drivers of economic growth and enablers of social sector development.

This book offers an understanding of the expectations and challenges of Northeast India in the context of India's Act East policy. It critically examines how the policy is being pursued by the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government and analyses its relevance from local perspectives. Contributors to the book provide an examination of the differences between Look East and Act East policy and explanations of the expectations of India's neighboring countries, particularly Myanmar, towards Northeast India. They ask the following questions: a) What is to be done to integrate India’s Northeast region meaningfully into the Act East policy? What is the motive of linking this policy with these states? How is this policy received by the local communities? b) What are the challenges of the Northeast region? What are their needs and priorities? How can these states showcase their potentials to Southeast Asia and East Asia? c) What is the significance of the changes from Look to Act East Policy? Has the regime change affected the continuity in the policy? What are the short- and long-term goals? d) What are the expectations of Southeast Asia and East Asia? By addressing these questions, they bridge the knowledge gaps that exist in the understating of the the Northeast region of India vis-à-vis the Act East policy. The first book to combine a balanced view of India's Act East policy and Northeast India, it will be of interest to policy makers and academics in the fields of Development Studies, International Relations, Northeast India and South Asian Politics.

Contributed articles chiefly with reference to rural development in Northeastern India; includes articles on cultural history of the region.

This volume foregrounds some of the unknown or lesser-known incidents of xenophobia and genocide from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, South Africa, and Rwanda. It critically analyses the cultural and structural contexts triggering these various forms of genocides and xenophobia, and situates them within modern histories of violence and human tribulations. The book discusses various non-Western case studies, which include the communal violence incited by anti-CAA protests in Delhi; the expulsion and displacement of Kashmiri Pandits; xenophobic attitudes against illegal immigrants in Assam; genocide in Sylhet during the Liberation War of Bangladesh; the 1994 genocide in Rwanda; and incidences of human rights violations across the world. A comprehensive and transdisciplinary text, the book will be useful for students and researchers of human geography, sociology, political science, social work, anthropology, colonialism and postcolonialism, nationalism, imperialism, human rights, and history.

Routledge Readings on Security and Governance in Northeastern India: Resource Conflicts, Militarisation and Development Challenges presents some of the finest essays on a region that stretches across the Northeastern Himalaya, eight Indian States and many tribal and non-tribal peoples. With a lucid Introduction, this and its companion volume, Routledge Readings on Colonial to Contemporary Northeastern India offer a compelling look into the society, polity, contemporary security and developmental issues in northeast India. It covers several critical themes and unravels complexities fraught by the unique biogeography and socio-political history of the region. The fifteen chapters in this multidisciplinary volume, divided into three sections, examine land laws, conflict and resource management and local governance. It discusses the political interplay of ethnicities and resource appropriation in a modernizing, globalizing economy as well as instances of conflicts and violence in highly militarized spaces in the region. It offers an engaged and insightful look into the rural and urban human development contexts in the region from authors who have contributed significantly to the academic and/or policy discourse on the subject. This book will serve as essential reading for students, scholars, policymakers, practitioners of South Asian studies, Northeast India studies, history, development studies, labour studies, sociology, public administration, environmental studies, law and human rights, regional literature, cultural studies, geography, and economics.

Routledge Readings on Northeastern India: Colonial Encounters, Customary Practices, Gender, Livelihoods presents some of the finest essays on a region that stretches across the Northeastern Himalaya, eight Indian States and many tribal and non-tribal peoples. With a lucid new Introduction, it covers a vast range of issues and offers a compelling guide to understanding the northeastern India, from colonial and missionary encounter to contemporary security and developmental issues in South Asia. The book covers several critical themes and unravels the complexities fraught by the unique biogeography and socio-political history of the region. The fifteen chapters in the volume, divided into three sections, examine gender, community: customary law and practices, land, agriculture, livelihoods, work, health, and education. This multi-disciplinary volume interweaves geography and history, culture and politics; the contested construction of identities, communities and nationalities; the political interplay of ethnicities and resource appropriation in a modernizing, globalizing economy; conflicts and violence in highly-militarized spaces. It includes engaged and insightful perspectives from major authors who have contributed to the academic and/or policy discourse of the subject. Routledge Readings on Northeastern India brings together a cluster of key readings to capture important research directions, policy suggestions, current trends, and aspects of history and future trajectories in the humanities and social sciences. It will serve as essential reading for students, scholars, policymakers, practitioners and the general reader interested in a nuanced understanding of India’s northeastern region, and especially those in South Asian studies, Northeast India studies, area studies, history, politics and international relations, labour studies, conflict and peace studies, gender studies, sociology and social anthropology. It will also appeal to those interested in public administration, development studies, environmental studies, law and human rights, regional literature, cultural studies, population studies, geography, and economics.