North East India

Language, Articulation and Empowerment: The Chakma and Language Politics in the State of Mizoram

Language, Articulation and Empowerment: The Chakma and Language Politics in the State of Mizoram

Written by : Dr. Anup Shekhar Chakraborty Photo : Shutterstock.com The Backdrop Traditionally the Chakma occupy the South-West and the western belts of the territory between Mizoram and the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) now in Bangladesh and Tripura. The Chakma tribes speak a language heavily influenced by the Eastern Indo-Aryan language group; it is closely related to the Bengali language. They speak different dialects, and their connection with the Zo/Mizo is contested. Recent linguists’ observations have found that the modern Chakma language known as Changma Vaj or Changma Kodha (and a script ‘Ojhopath’) is a part of the South-eastern Bengali…
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Let’s Make History: Appropriating Histories to Make Newer Histories

Let’s Make History: Appropriating Histories to Make Newer Histories

Written by : Dr. Anup Shekhar Chakraborty Photo : Shutterstock.com Vexed Histories History writing, its interpretation, and conception of any event as history are markedly selective and involve ‘political’ choices and decisions. The methodology infused into the engagement and resource collection and documentation is strongly marked by familiarising and de-familiarising select events. Thereby the event is perceived through what Foucault calls a gaze. In many senses, the gaze of history which fills our knowledge/information for the common is marked by the statist enterprise (governance, governmentality). In short, history is a political engagement in many senses not merely because of the…
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Becoming Korean-Like in North East India: The Politics of Culture, Consumption, and Economics within

Becoming Korean-Like in North East India: The Politics of Culture, Consumption, and Economics within

Written by : Dr. Anup Shekhar Chakraborty Photo : Shutterstock.com Disgruntled Geographies I describe the borderlands on both sides of North East India and Chin state and Sagaing region in Myanmar as ‘disgruntled geographies’ precisely because of interweaving complexities of the geography (densely forested, mountainous, riverine, resource-rich) with that of the Anthropocene (ethno-linguistically heterogeneous, fragmented on religious/denominational lines, sparsely populated, resource contested). Also, the region as ‘disgruntled geographies’ has witnessed the mushrooming of armed insurgent groups exhibiting insatiable anger due to the paucity or the limited nature of connectivity, minuscule industrial growth, and lack of employment opportunities in the region.…
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