Underdevelopment and Ethnic Conflict in the States of Northeast India

Conflict has been a feature of human society since time immemorial and global phenomena. Disputes that arise may be organized around social class, ethnicity, religion, competition for land. The struggle can be over economic opportunities like employment as well as an aspiration to dominate the space. In this situation, the status of being an indigenous group becomes a contestable issue. Ethnic conflict is not necessarily irrational, but a product of fulfilling aspirations and asserting identity, therefore, a balanced debate is required in its analysis. Conflicts make poverty reduction and growth difficult to achieve. Many contemporary conflicts have an ethnic dimension, such as ethnic territory as ethnicity is a strong uniting force. The author studies the underlying factors for the cause of conflicts in the Northeast India, one of the most backward and underdeveloped region in the country and represents a diverse ethnic group belonging to mongoloid race. Mapping the distribution and composition of population in the region as well as socio-economic conditions, would identify space dimension of the ethnic groups. The land based occupation and education would give great impetus in studying the cause of conflicts. Keywords - Social Sciences, ethnic territory, conflicts, mapping, India