Making of India's Northeast: Geopolitics of Borderland and Transnational Interactions by Dilip Gogoi

Author:Dilip Gogoi [Gogoi, Dilip]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780367898328
Google: HR_mzQEACAAJ
Goodreads: 50180758
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-10-04T00:00:00+00:00

Northeast India (NEI) in the Look East policy

Geo-strategically, Northeast holds an important position, as it shares 1,643 kilometres of direct land borders with neighbouring Myanmar, which is India’s gateway to the Southeast Asian nations. In contemporary time, the region is marked by a troubled history of frequent uprisings of armed insurgency, and it remains underdeveloped with ‘backlogs in basic minimum services and infrastructural needs’ (GOI 1997) for quite a long period of time due to its peculiar geography with landlocked conditions and mal-governance. Although Northeast is geographically and culturally closely connected with the neighbouring countries, in the domain of India’s foreign policy, the region has never attained prominence or figured in bilateral and multilateral economic diplomacy for overcoming its underdevelopment with its neighbours until the initiation of the Look East policy. Traditionally, the central government’s approach towards Northeast has been dominated by national security and strategic considerations, rather than consideration of economic development in the peripheral region. Until the initiation of economic reforms for liberalisation, no minimum interventions have been made by the Government of India for improving the traditional hill economy and institutions. In fact, the Government of India has been lacking in definite policy framework towards economic development of the Northeast region for a long period of time. It is the Look East policy which has brought an opportunity to the Northeast through the integration of national economy with the dynamic Southeast Asian economies. Two questions arise: Why does the centre choose Look East policy through Northeast of late? And, why was it not being considered in the initial phase of the Look East policy for fostering economic ties with the Southeast Asian region? These questions will be addressed in the subsequent part of the chapter.

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