India´s Northeast Resurgent
Ethnicity, Insurgency, Governance and Development
by B.G. Verghese
Konark Publishers, Delhi, 1996
475 pages.
This book is a product of some sustained thinking, if not one of very original research. B.G. Verghese belongs to the old school of Indian newspaper editors, who, once they pick up a subject to write on, try to look at all possible angles of the matter. That is what he has done in this book which shows a serious attempt to understand the problems of northeastern India in the wider geo-political context.
Mr Verghese has a positive approach. He does not assume the Northeast to be a problem area for India, as most ´mainstream´ writers tend to. Instead, he sees great potential for this region, which borders China, Burma, Bangladesh and Bhutan. The author rightly points out that if the Indian government were to manage the region properly, it could become India´s gateway to the adjoining regions. As one goes through the book, Mr Verghese´s optimism tends to get infectious.
The value of this work lies as much in the details presented as in the person who has put them together. When someone of Mr Verghese´s stature takes to writing about a neglected region such as the Indian Northeast, and does a reasonably good job of it, the region benefits from the national attention it attracts. The work of an intellectual heavyweight like Mr Verghese is bound to be taken note of in the right quarters.