Problem in Northeast India: a Case Study of Nagaland

Introduction The northeastern region of India has forever been a mosaic of the most conflicting images with the involvement of no less than 100 armed rebel groups of varying intensity. The contiguous “seven sisters” namely the states of Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Arunachal Pradesh(1) have a significant tribal population and very low infrastructure with a hilly and difficult terrain. Each state has a unique and diverse ethnic, cultural, linguistic, economic and political heritage of its own. Even the topography of each is different from the other. In the last two decades, violence and bloodshed have been perpetrated in the Northeast region because of the in-fighting between the states over the issues of ethnicity, inadequate resources and inaccessibility. These factors have adversely affected the process of development in the Northeast. The Indian Government’s ad hoc policies and its failure to provide necessities of life and