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Governing India's Northeast pp 45–66Cite as

Shifting Strategies of Peace

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Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Political Science ((BRIEFSPOLITICAL,volume 13))

Abstract

This chapter makes a distinction between peace being achieved through defeating an adversary and therefore being threatened constantly by the spectre of conflict and war, and peace based on the triadic foundations of rights, justice and democracy. The first kind of peace serves only as a deterrent to the achievement of the second kind of democratic peace. The chapter makes a detailed case study of the history of peace talks with one of the major insurgent groups particularly since the early 1990s, the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), and argues that peacemaking in Assam may have led to peace of the first kind—but not enhancement of rights, justice and democracy. The study shows how peace becomes an object of governance. While the new citizen too is sought to be governed and brought under the ambit of governance, peace constituency in the Northeast faces the threat of becoming a part of governmentality. The quality of peace is likely to depend on the outcome of the tussle between the forces of governance and new citizenry.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/states/assam/data_sheets/majorincidents.htm accessed on 20 August 2012.

  2. 2.

    These eight organizations are: Adivasi People’s Army (APA), All-Adivasi National Liberation Army (AANLA), Santhal Tiger Force (STF), Adivasi Cobra Militant Army (ACMA), United Kukigam Defence Army (UKDA), Kuki Revolutionary Army (KRA), Kuki Liberation Army (KLA) and Hmar People’s Convention (Democratic).

  3. 3.

    A report telecast on the Frontier TV channel on 24 January 2012 mentions this.

  4. 4.

    For a theoretical review of various kinds, see Das (2004).

  5. 5.

    Reported in The Hindustan Times (New Delhi), 27 September 2000.

  6. 6.

    This is only a brief summary of an otherwise detailed biography of the ULFA from 1979 to 1991. See Das (1994: 68–89).

  7. 7.

    The ULFA has more or less consistently stuck to these three conditions since 1992 until recently.

  8. 8.

    news.webindia123.com/news/ar_showdetails.asp?id...cat=&n, accessed on 6 April 2013.

  9. 9.

    Pu. Rualchhina in an interview on 3 December 2010 in Aizawl told me: “Ours was a national army—its task was to defend our people rather than anything else.” In an interview held in Aizawl on 4 December 2010, Pu. Tawnluia, formerly the chief of Mizo National Army (MNA) pointed out: “We were sure that we could not win but what we definitely could was inflict some casualties”.

  10. 10.

    G. Das has shown how development and insurgency form a nexus and how the nexus has actually tied the economies of this region down to a “low-equilibrium trap” (G. Das 2009, mimeo). Chakraborty shows how increasing dependency of the hill states on the Centre cuts into the states’ ability to spend—particularly on the social sector, and foments “movements for autonomy, exclusive ethnic homelands and right to self-determination in order to attract more share of the state expenditure” (2010:14–15).

  11. 11.

    Badiou describes it as the “egoism” of democracy and its “desire for petty enjoyments” (Badiou 2010: 5).

  12. 12.

    All those whom I had interviewed irrespective of ethnicities and communities unequivocally acknowledged its non-ethnic character.

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  1. University of North Bengal, Darjeeling, West Bengal, 734013, India

    Samir Kumar Das

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Das, S.K. (2013). Shifting Strategies of Peace. In: Governing India's Northeast. SpringerBriefs in Political Science, vol 13. Springer, India. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1146-4_3

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