NFI-IIC Lecture Series:

Beyond Borders- India’s Northeast bridging South and South East Asia

South Asia and South East Asia between themselves comprise two of the most populous regions of the world. Together with China, not to forget Japan and the Koreas, they account of over half the world's population. India has for nearly three decades now, looked east towards economically dynamic South East Asia for economic and strategic benefits. These are also areas of great ethnic, linguistic, cultural and religious diversity spilling over boundaries that sit uneasily with modern notions of the nation, hard frontiers, ethnic or linguistic dominance and chauvinism, rising religious fundamentalism and fusion of national and religious identities. The region is fractious and studies on it are primarily driven by disasters and conflict.

India’s Northeast is one such area until not long back marginal to Indian history, that has been caught in the throes of imperial expansion, nationalism, partition, isolation and dependence in the 20th century. The opening up of Myanmar after decades of military rule, India's 'Look East' rebranded as ‘Act East’, and the perceptible improvement of relations with Bangladesh, have opened up opportunities for the region to connect more easily with South East Asia and chart its own destiny as a bridge between South Asia and South East Asia.

This series of lectures hosted by National Foundation for India(NFI) and the India International Centre(IIC), hopes to shed light on the people and places that are caught in these larger forces and bridge at least some gaps in understanding between and within the two regions.

Jan 31st 2017, Seminar Hall 1, India International Centre, New Delhi

Ambassador Gautam Mukhopadhaya moderated by Kishalay Bhattacharjee

North East and Act East

Twenty five years after Prime Minister Narasimha Rao launched India’s ‘Look East’ policy, there is still quite a lot of confusion and some suspicion in the North East about what ‘Look’ or ‘Act East’, as it has now been rebranded, means to the North East, and how it could benefit from it. Hemmed in by the Himalayas and the Patkai ranges to the north and east and the ‘Chicken’s Neck’ to the west, the North East of India is geographically and politically part of South Asia, but (with significant variations), also shares ethnic and cultural affinities with South East Asia. The landlocked and neglected fate of the North East too is a function of geography, politics and history, particularly the partition of India that deprived the North East of its access to the ports of Kolkata and Chittagong, insurgency, and inward looking military governments in Burma/Myanmar. But with changes in India, Myanmar and Bangladesh, and not the least, the North East itself, new opportunities are opening for the North East to forge its own destiny and benefit from its location between two fast growing regions of Asia. In this lecture Ambassador Gautam Mukhopadhaya looked at some of the misconceptions regarding ‘Look/Act East’ and the opportunities that can be tapped for the North East.

Ambassador Mukhopadhaya started by clarifying some of the misconceptions of Look East Policy (LEP) and Act East; for many in the region, the LEP is just another slogan and it is bypassing Northeast India (NE) and at best it is well intended but has nothing in it for NE and there are no tangible benefits for the region. The counterpart of this in Delhi for those who have suddenly discovered the NE is a tendency to think that trade and connectivity of NE with Southeast Asia is now all but settled. But the fact is the LEP was conceived as an exhortation for India as a whole to turn to Southeast Asia where its footprint goes back by a millennia and where its future economic growth lies. So the LEP seen as an exclusive policy for NE is patently not the case.

The lecture went on to map a series of reality checks in understanding LEP. For example, the nostalgia and romanticism of Stillwell Road or the Pangsau Pass, he states cannot be a trade route and it never was. Reviving this road makes no economic sense. While there are several reasons for ‘acting east’, the realities of the region cannot be avoided. The impact of the Partition on the region was manifold but most importantly Assam lost its riverine and port economy. It is through the rivers that the British arrived there and if NE wants to expand its trade then it should follow the natural river routes.

While making a case for LEP, the speaker cautions against the tyranny of geography of the region, and argues that while culturally the NE may like to look east, the imperatives of geography, economics and physical connectivity oblige most of the NE, certainly the plains of NE to look south and not so much to the east. If that is the case the perhaps NE should ‘look south’ while rest of India should ‘look east’. Bangladesh then should be part of India’s LEP. This is extremely significant and a very fresh perspective.

He then presented an outline action plan for the whole NE where he conceived 7 clusters based on preparedness, opportunity, urgency and gestation period. Education, Health and Culture; Information and Communication technology; Connectivity; Tourism, Environment and Architecture; Agriculture, Horticulture, Livestock and Fisheries; Trade and Industry; Urban design, Planning, Sanitation, Parks, Sports.

Before he ended his talk, he mentioned ‘governance’ where he talked about a culture of dependence at grass root that serves only a patron- client relationship that political parties are eager to nourish. The single biggest change, he believes, that can happen is if northeasterners were to take their economic future in their own hands with ownership of projects.

***