India Today – August 19, 2019

AUGUST 19, 2019 INDIA TODAY 43

BJP felt the bill was necessary to prevent Assam from becoming
a Muslim-majority state like Kashmir’. The growing resurgence
of indigenous politics all over the region based on exclusive
territorial claims could align with these ideological designs
articulated by Shah.
Finally, the Sangh Parivar forces actively seek to assimilate
the region within the larger Hindutva universe. They have done so
in several ways. Many indigenous national movements make an
assertion of historical difference: that the region was never a part
of ‘India’. The BJP and the Sangh Parivar, therefore, find ways to
demonstrate the region’s eternal connection. Stories are a power-
ful way to evoke this sentiment. Let me give you one example.

O

n March 28, 2018, the chief ministers of Mani-
pur, Arunachal Pradesh and Gujarat came to-
gether to celebrate the marriage of Lord Krishna
and Rukmini during the four-day Madhavpur
mela (fair) in Gujarat, a state in western India.
Thousands gathered at this mela from all over India, with around
150 cultural troupes from the Northeast as the bride’s represen-
tatives to celebrate the ‘immortal journey’ Rukmini undertook
from Arunachal Pradesh to Gujarat to marry Lord Krishna. The
coverage, broadcast on television and social media sites, demon-
strated colour, diversity and ‘unity’, the latter achieved through

bringing together the east and west under the

Union ministry for culture’s slogan of ‘Ek Bharat

Shreshtha Bharat’ (one India, great India). The

BJP-appointed governor of Arunachal Pradesh,

B.D. Mishra, captured the sentiment: “You are

here on the western border of India and we are

from the eastern border, 3,500 kilometres away.

But this distance has always remained connected.

If somebody from the other side of our border

claims that Arunachal belongs to them, they are

grossly wrong because if our princess could come

here 5,000 years ago and you could make her the

queen, it clearly means Arunachal has always been

with India and will continue to be so.”

This is a clear attempt to forge a common

history amid divergent voices arguing for the very

opposite, leading to the fragmentation and dis-

solution of the body politic of India.

What do these events mean in the face of Hin-

du nationalism, the celebration of Indian indepen-

dence and the accompanying feeling of patriotism?

Will Hindutva resurgence in the region reduce this

tension by promoting feelings of patriotism and

the celebration of ‘India’? Or will this simply make

the battle lines between ‘us’ and ‘them’ clearer for a

region that has seen violence in the past 70 years?

One could suggest that ethnic homeland poli-

tics all over the Northeast will have no place in the

overarching ideology of Hindutva that professes

a unitary territorial reality at its core. There is

no seamless narrative that tidies the edges and

smoothes the surface upon which history in the

Northeast is etched. Hindutva, like every modern

ideological force, will have to manage the complex

algorithms that characterise this mountain babel—

from the British, the American and Welsh mission-

aries, the Japanese and now the Indian state.

Yet, there is an interesting tension that goes to

the very heart of every nation-state. The stronger

the centrifugal force, the more adaptive the coun-

tervailing forces become. Patriotism for one’s coun-

try cannot simply be expected in a region where

the tumultuous and violent histories have scarred

the landscape, and where loyalties are distributed

amongst various entities. One can understand

Changrai’s reaction to Reid’s sentimentality upon

hearing of Gandhi’s assassination; perhaps it was

the beginning of all the trouble for the region and

its people. In Changrai’s honesty, there is an im-

portant truth that remains relevant even today.

Arkotong Longkumeris an anthropologist who

teaches at the University of Edinburgh, UK

Illustration by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY