Abstract
Northeast India is the easternmost region of India and comprises the states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Tripura. This region is of immense geopolitical importance due to its terrain, location and peculiar demographic dynamics. It is one of the most challenging regions to govern and is India’s gateway to Southeast Asia, as here it is bordered by Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal and China. Therefore, this chapter provides an introduction to this edited volume which attempts to look beyond the almost daily debates and reports about the territory of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) in Northwestern South Asia, to focus on India’s Northeast region and its immediate neighbouring territories, home to numerous competing communities and historical entities – as in Kashmir – that continue to assert claims for national independence. Consisting of several sub-sections, this chapter conceptualises the varied concepts of home, homeland, belonging and ownership among the locals and the refugees. This chapter, further, briefs about the different borderland issues in Eastern South Asia. Finally, the structure of the book is described at the end in a clear and concise manner.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Al-Ali, N., & Koser, K. (2003). New approaches to migration?: Transnational communities and the transformation of home. Routledge.
Altman, I., & Werner, M. C. (Eds.). (1985). Home environments: Human behaviour and environment: Advances in theory and research (Vol. 8). PlenumPress.
Anthias, F. (2006). Belongings in a globalising and unequal world: Rethinking translocations. The situated politics of belonging, 1, 17–31.
Azmi, F., & Lund, R. (2009). Shifting Geographies of House and Home Female Migrants Making Home in Rural Sri Lanka.
Ballard, R. (Ed.). (1994). Desh Pardesh. The south Asian presence in Britain. Hurst & Company.
Banerjee, S., & Chaudhury, A. B. R. (2017). The 2015 India-Bangladesh land boundary agreement: Identifying constraints and exploring possibilities in Cooch Behar.
Blunt, A., & Dowling, R. (2006). Setting up home: An introduction. In Home (pp. 1–39). Routledge.
Chattoraj, D. (2017). Ambivalent attachments: Shifting notions of home among displaced Sri Lankan Tamils (Doctoral dissertation, Dissertation, Bochum, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 2016).
Chattoraj, D. (2022a). Sri Lankan northern Tamils in Colombo: Broken memories of home. South Asia Research, 42(2), 233–248.
Chattoraj, D. (2022b). Underlying Theoretical Aspects. In Displacement Among Sri Lankan Tamil Migrants (pp. 55–85). Springer, .
Chattoraj, D., & Gerharz, E. (2019). Strangers at home: Narratives of northern Muslim returnees in post-war Sri Lanka.
Chauhan, S. (2021a). “Insurgencies of the North-east explained”, Part 1. Financial Express, November 17. Retrieved July 12, 2022, from https://www.financialexpress.com/defence/insurgencies-of-the-northeast-explained-part-i/2370987/.
Chauhan, S. (2021b). “Insurgencies of the North-east”, Part 2. Financial Express, November 18. Retrieved July 12, 2022, from https://www.financialexpress.com/defence/insurgencies-of-the-north-east-part-ii/2371632/.
Chowdhory, N. (2018). Refugees, citizenship and belonging in South Asia. Springer.
Haokip, T. (2013). The Kuki–Naga conflict in the light of recent publications. South Asia Research, 33(1), 77–87.
Haokip, T. L. (2015). Ethnic separatism: The Kuki-Chin insurgency of Indo-Myanmar/Burma. South Asia Research, 35(1), 21–41.
Haokip, T. (2021). From ‘Chinky’ to ‘coronavirus’: Racism against northeast Indians during the COVID-19 pandemic. Asian Ethnicity, 22(2), 353–373.
Kashyap, S. G. (2017). ‘Greater Nagalim’ claims: As NSCN(IM) deal nears fruition, why three Northeastern states are agitated.” November 27. The Indian Express. Retrieved July 12, 2022, from https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/greater-nagalim-claims-as-nscnim-deal-nears-fruition-why-three-northeastern-states-are-agitated-4956070/.
Konch, K. (2019). A sociological understanding of north East India. Notion Press.
Kipgen, N. (2013). Politics of ethnic conflict in Manipur. South Asia Research, 33(1), 21–38.
Lamont, M., & Molnár, V. (2002). The study of boundaries in the social sciences. Annual Review of Sociology, 1, 167–195.
Majaw, B. (2021). Indo-Bangladesh borderland issues in Meghalaya. South Asia Research, 41(1), 100–118.
Mallett, S. (2004). Understanding home: A critical review of the literature. The Sociological Review, 52(1), 62–89.
Manipur Violence. (2023). Who are Meiteis and Kukis? What are they fighting over?, The Economic Times, newspaper article.
Marienstras, R. (1989). On the notion of diaspora.
McDuie-Ra, D. (2012). Northeast migrants in Delhi: Race, refuge and retail (p. 225). Amsterdam University Press.
Menski, W., & Yousuf, M. (Eds.). (2021). Kashmir after 2019: Completing the partition. SAGE Publishing India.
Perez-Murcia, L. E. (2019). ‘The sweet memories of home have gone’: Displaced people searching for home in a liminal space. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 45(9), 1515–1531.
Peri, D. (2021). “Assam Rifles Commanding Officer, family, four jawans killed in Manipur ambush.” The Hindu, November 13. Retrieved July 12, 2022, from https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/assam-rifles-co-others-killed-in-manipur-ambush/article37469920.ece.
Pfaff-Czarnecka, J., & Toffin, G. (2011). Introduction: Belonging and Multiple Attachments in Multiple Himalayan Societies. The Politics of Belonging in the Himalayas: Local Attachments and Boundary Dynamics, Delhi, Sage, pp. xi-xxxviii.
Ranade, V. S. (2023). Slender is the corridor. Journal of Defence Studies, 17(1), 147–156.
Ranjan, A. (2018). India-Bangladesh border disputes: Post-LBA dynamics. Springer.
Roy, A. G. (2020). Memories and Postmemories of the partition of India. Routledge.
Tatla, D. S. (2005). The Sikh diaspora: The search for statehood. Routledge.
Taylor, H. (2015). Refugees and the meaning of home: Cypriot narratives of loss, longing and daily life in London. Springer.
Ullah, A. A., & Chattoraj, D. (2018). Roots of Discrimination Against Rohingya Minorities: Society, Ethnicity and International Relations. Intellectual Discourse, 26(2), 541–565.
Ullah, A. A., Hasan, N. H., Mohamad, S. M., & Chattoraj, D. (2021). Privileged migrants and their sense of belonging: Insider or outsider? Asian Journal of Social Science, 49(3), 161–169.
Wimmer, A. (2008). Elementary strategies of ethnic boundary making. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 31(6), 1025–1055.
Yuval-Davis, N. (2006). Belonging and the politics of belonging. Patterns of Prejudice, 40(3), 197–214.
Yuval-Davis, N. (2011). The politics of belonging: Intersectional contestations. Sage.
Zamindar, V. F.-Y. (2007). The long partition and the making of modern South Asia. Refugees, boundaries, histories. Columbia University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Chattoraj, D. (2023). Introduction: Search for Home in Eastern South Asia. In: Ranjan, A., Chattoraj, D. (eds) Migration, Regional Autonomy, and Conflicts in Eastern South Asia. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28764-0_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28764-0_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-28763-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-28764-0
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)