| Abstract: | The arrival of Britishers in Asia is associated with an important shift in the region from frontier to border demarcation. Before the ascendancy of Britain, the whole region of South Asia was very much a fluid cultural organism. Colonial cartography became important as it drew boundaries in the region to bring in a western legal notion of political units. At the time of independence, the North East’s regions were made up of the princely states of Manipur and Tripura, the hill districts, the North Eastern Tracts (NEFT) of the North Eastern borderland, and the Assam lowlands of the former Assam Province. Following independence, the Indian government was unable to appropriately address the complex circumstances of the North East and follow the colonial policy of isolation and alienation. In the post- colonial period, Northeast India especially Assam has been plagued by inter-state border conflicts and immigration since the early 1960s, when the process of separating states from the undivided Assam began. It is in this context the paper aims to analyse the colonial origins and present a genealogical study of the border conflicts in Assam. The paper also aims to suggest policy recommendation to the present-day immigration and border issues. |
