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Introduction.- Part I: Historical Outline.- North-eastern India through the Ages.- Part II: The Land.- North-East India - Structural Framework.- Physical Setting of Northeast India.- The Drainage System of Northeast India.- Weather and Climate of the North-East.- Natural Hazards in the Northeast Region.- The Resource Endowment of the North-Eastern Region.- Forest and Grasslands of the North-East Region.- Part III:The People.- Early Colonisation of Northeast India.- People of the North-East.- Population of the North-eastern States.- Migration and its Impact on the Society and the Economy of the North-East.- Human Habitat in the North-East India.-Urbanisation and Urban Landscape in North-East India.- Part IV: The Economy.- Agriculture: Past and Present.- Industries and Associated Economic Activities.- Transport and Trade in Northeast India.- Socio-Economic Development of the North-East: An Assessment.- Part V: The Future.- Epilogue.

North-East India is industrially far less developed than most other parts of India. A few industries that have grown here are based on local raw material, where raw material is the primary governing factor in the location of these industries. Such industries are tea, petroleum, petroleum refineries and petroleum products, chemicals and fertiliser, plywood, pulp and paper, cement and thermal power-generating units. Besides, the region has a strong core of cottage industry, the most important of which is silk yarn and cloth and other forest-based industries, like bamboo products, furniture and a variety of domestic utility goods. Among the states of North-East India, Assam is the most industrialised state. In Assam, there are a very few industrial clusters which are concentrated in the North-Eastern corner of the state, centred around Digboi and Nahorkatiya, the two principal petroleum and gas fields. The four oil refineries are almost equally spaced in their location. These are at Digboi, Numaligarh in Golaghat district, Guwahati and Bongaigaon. The last station has also developed a mega thermal power unit with an installed capacity of 500 MW power generation. In Meghalaya, there are several cement factories that utilise the local limestone. A gas-based mega thermal power-generating unit is established in Tripura, using locally extracted natural gas. The greatest hope of the region lies in harnessing the hydroelectric potential of Arunachal rivers, which have a potential of 50,000 MW, 50 % of the total hydroelectric power potential of India. The contribution of industries to the economy of the region, as a whole, is limited to less than 20 %, and much of the income is generated from the tertiary sector of the economy.

North-East India, comprising the seven states, has a population of over 45 million, which is 3.76 % of India’s population. The overall density of population is 159 persons/km2, though Assam, the principal state of the region, has a population density of 397 persons to a km2. In contrast, the state of Arunachal Pradesh, occupying the foothills of the Himalayas, has an average density of 17 persons to a km2. The distribution of population is highly irregular that reflects the sequent of occupancy, the agricultural potential of a state and the ruggedness and accessibility of the terrain. The most densely populated parts of the region are the plains of Brahmaputra and Barak, the Imphal plain in Manipur and the western part of Tripura.

In any objective assessment of the North-East region, one finds variety and richness in its cultural and literary achievements, yet the economic picture looks subdued, if not outright dismal. Economically, the states of the North-East have to depend heavily on the support of the Central Government. Most of the states of the North-East receive, and justifiably so, a large contribution to their budget, not only their share of central taxes but a far greater share, in the form of grant-in-aid. The states of the North-East have to strive to ensure a healthy life, including proper nutrition, education, health care and a harmonious community living for their citizens. Any initiative in this direction requires resources besides a determined planned effort. A sound economy is, therefore, the sheet anchor for a healthy society and provides the necessary support for its cultural and literary achievements.

Early in history, Brahmaputra and Barak, the two principal rivers of North-East India, served as the main arteries of transport. Boats, for a long time, were the principal mode of travel and transport. During the medieval period, several east–west land routes, known in Assamese as Alis in Brahmaputra plain, both to the north and south were opened. The 560 km long northern route, known as Gohain Kamal Ali, was built by the Koch kings in the mid-sixteenth century. Similarly, many routes were laid by the Ahom kings, principally in south Brahmaputra plain. However, there was hardly any wheeled transport in the region till late nineteenth or early twentieth century. The arrival of the British changed things. They connected Assam with the Bay of Bengal by a metre gauge railway between Digboi in the North-Eastern corner of Assam and Chittagong, a port in Bengal. The hilly terrain of the region has always been a problem in laying down an efficient network of transport. With the building of several bridges over Brahmaputra in Assam and the conversion of the existing metre gauge routes into broad gauge, Assam has been linked with all parts of India. A noteworthy fact is that the region has a relatively dense network of airports and air services. With the international airport at Guwahati and the proposed Trans-Asia road network, North-East India may be very effectively linked with Southeast Asia, to its economic advantage.

The entire North-East of India is drained into the Bay of Bengal, largely through the two principal rivers of the region, Brahmaputra and Barak, flowing through Bangladesh. The drainage of a small area of Manipur, in its eastern part, finds its way into Chindwin, a tributary of Irrawaddy, which flowing by Yangon (Rangoon) traverses its delta and falls into the Gulf of Martaban, a part of Andaman Sea. Another area not included in the catchment of either of these two principal rivers is the southern part of Mizoram, drained principally by Kaladan, which falls directly into the Bay of Bengal, on the west coast of Myanmar at Sittwe (Akyab). Though the catchment of Brahmaputra extends into Tibet and Bhutan, besides India, much of the rain falling in the North-Eastern states finds its way in the territorial waters of either Bangladesh or Myanmar, before being discharged into the Bay of Bengal.

North-East India is the least urbanised state of India with only 18 % of the region’s population living in 414 towns of variable size. Guwahati, the capital of Assam, is the only million city in the region. Besides, there are half a dozen towns with a population of over 100,000. The largest number of towns falls in the group having a population of 5,000–10,000 people. Many of these towns have a statutory status as a town, without fulfilling either the conditions prescribed by the Census of India, and don’t have an economic base to sustain a local self-body. The region, however, boasts of a past urban culture and many historic towns some of which exist only as ruins. Most towns are administrative or service centres, and only a few are industrial towns. A few industrial towns that exist in the region are in Assam in, or close to, industrial clusters. Among important towns, one may mention Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Silchar, Jorhat and Tezpur in Assam, Shillong and Tura in Meghalaya, Imphal in Manipur, Kohima and Dimapur in Nagaland, Aizawl in Mizoram, Tawang and Ziro in Arunachal Pradesh and Agartala in Tripura. Guwahati, earlier known as Gauhati, is the capital of Assam. Located on the left bank of Brahmaputra and on a bridgehead and having an international airport, it is the gateway to North-East India. Equally important is Shillong, the capital of Assam during the colonial regime for over 70 years and a hill station located at 1,500 m ASL. As the capital of Meghalaya, the town is the administrative and cultural seat of the state. Mention has to be made of Digboi, the oil town of Assam, with a petroleum refinery and several petro-based industries. Kohima, the capital of Nagaland, became famous after the 1944 battle when the Japanese forces were routed in the Battle of Kohima and forced to retreat. Agartala, in Tripura, is an upcoming capital city and so is the newly planned town of Itanagar, the capital of Arunachal Pradesh.

Agriculturally, North-East India lies in the Southeast Asia rice domain. Rice is the principal food crop. Besides, the region, especially Assam, is famous for tea. New plantation crops that have entered the area are rubber and several varieties of tropical and temperate fruits. The most traditional tree crop that is grown in homesteads, and not in commercially organised plantations, is areca nut. The region, however, does not have much cultivable land, which is confined to the two alluvial valleys of Assam. Only 16 % of the area of the region is under cultivation, and the total cropped area including area under multiple cropping doesn’t exceed 22 %. Rice, the major crop, claims over 85 % of the cropped area. The region is known for ‘slash and burn’ type of shifting cultivation, locally known as jhuming. About 12 % of the net sown area is under shifting cultivation, and over 400,000 families are still engaged in this kind of farming. Lately, the land under shifting cultivation is being brought under horticulture. Besides rice, other important crops in the region are pulses and maize. Rubber plantation is becoming a popular commercial plantation in Tripura. Agriculture, in the region, suffers from low productivity, and floods frequently damage even better crops. The average yield of rice for the region is around 1,600 kg/ha, though in Manipur the rice yields are higher and linger around 2,400 kg/ha. Tea plantation is the principal plantation crop of the region. The region has over 30,000 large and small tea estates, occupying roughly 280,000 ha of land. Over 95 % of the area of the region under tea is in Assam, centred largely in Darrang; Lakhimpur, on the north bank; and Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Sibsagar and Jorhat on the southern bank of Brahmaputra.

For long, North-East India was a terra incognita firstly because of its physical isolation but no less because of its being in a remote corner of India far away from the early ruling dynasties which were confined largely to the Ganga plain. The earliest known kingdom in the region, known as Pragjyotish/Kamarupa, was established by the Varman dynasty in the third century AD. The most illustrious ruler of Assam in the pre-Ahom period was Bhaskarvarman (AD 594–650). Through a succession of dynasties, viz. Varman, Salastambha, Pala and Vaidyadeva, all of which have left their imprint on the region, the region passed in the hands of Ahoms who came to Assam in the early thirteenth century, from the Shan region of Myanmar, settled in the eastern part of Brahmaputra valley, and ruled over Assam for 600 years. During the medieval period, Assam developed as a distinct politico-cultural unit. The region suffered repeated invasions from the Nawabs of Bengal, but none of the invaders could establish a permanent foothold in the region. Some of them even suffered defeat and had to retreat. Besides the Ahoms who ruled over much of the Brahmaputra valley, there were other dynasties who ruled in other parts of the region. The Koches ruled over western Assam during the sixteenth century. The 600-year reign of Ahoms came to an end in the early nineteenth century with the arrival of the British who dislodged the Ahoms and occupied the Assamese territory. The British, besides establishing their rule and administering Assam, expanded the Assamese territory, before they quit India in 1947.

Land, water, forests and minerals are the concrete non-human resources of the region, of which forests are discussed in an independent chapter. Of the total area of North-East India, over 63 % is mountainous, another 8 % exists as plateau and only 29 % of the region’s area can be classified as plains, suitable for cultivation or other human activities requiring flat terrain. The Brahmaputra plain, forming 21.4 % of the area of the North-Eastern territory, is the main agricultural land of the region. The Cachar plain in Barak basin, together with west Tripura and much smaller flat surfaces like Pasighat–Roing–Namsai plain and Imphal valley, contributes another 6–7 % to the total availability of good agricultural land. The scope for an exclusively agriculture-based economic development is limited. The mountains, with a thin population, are sites for horticulture and tourism. The region has 24 billion cubic metre of utilisable surface water, which forms 3.47 % of the total utilisable water of India. Though the region receives over 17 % of the total volume of rainfall in the country, the proportion of utilisable water is far less because of terrain condition. North-East India has heavy rainfall and abundant surface flow, but there is no avenue for its utilisation, and much of the discharge is drained into the sea. The only important utilisation is in the generation of hydroelectric power by harnessing the relief energy in the mountainous terrain of Arunachal Pradesh.

The earliest signs of human occupance in the North-East region are generally believed to have occurred during the Neolithic or at the earliest, mid-Palaeolithic times. The widespread occurrence of Megaliths in the region suggests a continuation of human culture for millennia. Whether these very early settlers evolved into successive generations of proto- and early historic human societies is a difficult question. The present distribution of different racial and linguistic groups leads one to believe that the earliest colonisers of this region were the Mongoloid people. On the basis of language, three distinct groups occupying three distinct regions can be identified. The Mongoloid people, speaking Tibeto-Burman language, were perhaps the first group to arrive from Tibet or adjacent areas, followed by people of eastern peripheral mountains, including the Nagas who spilled over from the Burmese highland. The Austric or Austro-Asiatic group, represented by the Khasis-Syntengs, is like an island in Bodo speaking sea of humanity. By all accounts, Bodos and Bodo-speaking people were one of the first to colonise Assam, away from the flood plain of Brahmaputra. The Bodos, as they dispersed, adopted different identities, like Garos, or Mech, or Kacharis or any other. They are the oldest and the most widely diffused group in the North-East region. The next important group that arrived in North-East India, though remained confined to Brahmaputra valley, were the Indo-Aryans who brought with them an Indo-Aryan language and a culture that reflected the tradition and style of a different ethnic group. In fact, the Indo-Aryans gradually absorbed in their fold a large section of Bodo and allied groups through conversion to their faith. The arrival of Ahoms in Assam in the thirteenth century brought another group in the reckoning. Most of these groups finally adopted an Indo-Aryan language – in the present case, the Assamese, and Hinduism as their faith, till Islam made its appearance with the invaders from Bengal in the fourteenth century. The early settlers were certainly the Mongoloid people, the Bodos, who assumed different names in different regions. The coming of Indo-Aryans in the region, however, changed the complexion of the society.

Lying very close to the Tropics, North-East India displays, to a large extent, the character of tropical climate, especially in the valleys. The region has a monsoon climate with heavy to very heavy rains, confined within four summer months from June to September. The southwest monsoon is the main source of rain, and June is the rainiest month. There are three seasons in the area, winter, summer and rainy season, though rainy season, as in the rest of India, coincides with summer months. There is a climatic contrast between the valleys and the mountainous region. While the mean January temperature in the valley region of Assam is around 16 °C, the temperatures in the mountainous region of Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland hover around a maximum of 14 °C and a sub-zero minimum temperature. The summer temperatures in the plains vary between 30 and 33 °C, while the hills have a mean summer temperature of around 20 °C with a mean minimum of 15 °C. Nowhere in the region, there is heavy snow except in the higher parts of Arunachal Pradesh, like west Kameng and Tawang areas. No part of North-East India receives rainfall below 1,000 mm. Shillong plateau with its southern limit marked by a 1,200-m-high scarp overlooking the Bangladesh plain receives very heavy rains. Cherrapunji, situated on the top of the scarp, receives a mean annual rainfall of 11,465 mm. The average rainfall of Brahmaputra valley is around 2,000 mm with local variations. Guwahati, being in the rain shadow of the Meghalaya plateau, receives only 1,717 mm of rain. About 90 % of the rain is received during the southwest summer monsoon, and June is by far the rainiest month. The hilly areas of the region receive 2,000–3,000 mm of rain, though places like Kohima in Nagaland and Imphal in Manipur, because of their being in the shadow of the mountains, receive less than 2,000 mm of rains.

North-East India, occupying the extreme North-East corner of the country, is largely a mountainous territory with two-thirds of its area occupied by hilly and mountainous terrain. It is like an amphitheatre, surrounded by the Himalayan ranges on the north, the Indo-Myanmar peripheral chain of hills on the east, and the hills of Mizoram and Tripura on the south and opening out to the west in the valleys of the river Brahmaputra and Barak. The region presents an enormous amplitude of relief, with heights ranging from 50 m ASL in Brahmaputra valley to 7,000 m ASL in the Himalayan borderland. The eastern hilly region, characterised by a series of parallel and subparallel north–south-trending ridges and valleys, lies on the Indo-Myanmar plate boundary on the east and is separated from Brahmaputra valley by Naga–Disang thrust on the west. The north–south alignment of low hills continues in Mizoram, lying on the Myanmar border, and in the state of Tripura, which shares its international border with Bangladesh. The western part of Tripura is a plain, drained by the west-flowing streams that join the river Meghna in Bangladesh to find their way to the Bay of Bengal. The region is seismically active, and the plains of Assam suffer frequent and sometimes most intense floods that cause huge loss of life and property.

Geologically, North-East India presents a stratigraphic sequence which ranges from pre-Cambrian to Quaternary with huge hiatuses in between. The oldest geological formation of the region is represented by the pre-Cambrian gneissic complex of Meghalaya plateau, a craton, and the Karbi-Anglong plateau, both of which are parts of the old Gondwanaland. The Himalayas, occupying the northern border of the region, ranging in height from 1,500 to 7,000 m ASL consist of formations ranging in age from Protozoic to early Palaeozoic in age. These consist of low-grade metamorphics in the southern section to high-grade schists towards the crest of the mountains. The foot zone of the Himalayas is formed by the Tertiary rocks, largely Mio-Pliocene deposits of post-orogenic phase. The rest of the region is formed by Tertiary rocks with different marine facies, ranging in age from Eocene to Pliocene. The movement of the Indian plate to the north as well as to the north-east and east has caused a number of thrusts. The Himalayan Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) and the Naga–Disang thrust separate the Himalayas and the eastern hilly region from Brahmaputra valley. The most notable fault of the region is the Dauki fault, running west–east and separating the Meghalaya plateau from Bangladesh, by a vertical displacement of over 1,000 m. This fault, with a few patches of Cretaceous deposits, at 1,200 m ASL, suggests a post-Cretaceous uplift of the plateau. The north–south ridges and valleys of Mizoram, formed in the Neogene sediments, represent the anticlines and synclines following a balancing compressional movement from the east. The Indo-Myanmar plate boundary is characterised by hills resulting from the underthrusting of the Indian plate and the appearance of ophiolite in the region.

Of the total forest area of around 68 million hectares in India, the North-Eastern states account for over 17 million hectares, roughly one-fourth of the forest area of the country. All the states of North-East India, with the exception of Assam, have 50–80 % of their area under forests. High temperatures, combined with heavy to very heavy rains, have stimulated the growth of forests at lower levels. Even in the mountainous regions, there are heavy rains in summer, and lower temperatures during winter don’t cause excessive evapotranspiration and thus limit the possibility of any moisture stress in the soil. The forests in the hilly regions, despite the destruction of forests by slash and burn cultivation, have survived and are regenerated. These forests have enormous variation in their typology and floral characteristics, ranging from tropical evergreen at lower altitude in upper Brahmaputra valley to pine forests in the Himalayas and birch–rhododendron scrub at still higher levels. Dipterocarpus macrocarpus (Hollong in Assamese) and Mesua ferrea (Nahar in Assamese) are the principal type trees of Assam valley tropical evergreen forests. In the tropical moist deciduous forests, Shorea robusta is the principal species with several associates like Schima wallichii (Makna Sal). The subtropical wet hill forests, as in Meghalaya, have several varieties of oak (Quercus spp.). Richness of flora because of the wet hills presents a climate condition, which combines the characteristics of tropical as well as temperate climate. At higher altitudes, mixed coniferous and coniferous forests occur followed by sub-alpine pastures, rhododendrons and scrubs at still higher altitudes.

North-East India is afflicted by three main natural hazards: floods, earthquakes and landslides. Of these, the earthquakes are most unpredictable. Earthquakes are generally grouped under four categories depending on their severity, measured on the Richter scale. In common parlance, these are known as ‘slight’, ‘moderate’, ‘great’ and ‘very great’ earthquakes. These categories, on the Richter scale, measure as 8, respectively. The frequency of these earthquakes varies with the intensity of the earthquakes, slight earthquakes occurring more frequently than the great or very great ones. The low-intensity tremors occur quite frequently in the contact zone of plate boundaries or along the lines of structural weakness, like the Main Boundary Fault (MBF) or the Main Central Thrust in the Himalayan region or along a chain of thrusts extending from Lohit district (with Mishmi fault) in the north to Manipur and further south. From the mid-nineteenth century till date, there have been seven earthquakes with an intensity of >7.0 on the Richter scale, of which the two occurring in 1897 and in 1950 were very severe, the first one measuring 8.7 and the second one 8.5 on the Richter scale. The earthquake of 1950 not only caused tremendous loss of property and life, but even changed the course of many rivers including the morphology, especially depth profile of Brahmaputra.

The population of North-East India is formed of several racial stocks, principally, the Mongoloids, the Indo-Aryans, the Australoids or Austric and the Dravidians, the last being a very minor group represented by some immigrant population. While the original settlers were the Mongoloids, the Indo-Aryan and other groups arrived later. There is undoubtedly a dominance of Mongoloid element in the population of North-East India. Besides the racial differences, there is a tribal–nontribal duality recognised by the Constitution of India to secure certain benefits to the tribal community, to enable them to catch up with the rest of the society, in educational attainment and the level of living. Most of the tribes or tribal communities are concentrated in the hilly states of Arunachal Pradesh; Nagaland; Manipur; Mizoram, on Myanmar border; and Meghalaya, sandwiched between Assam and Bangladesh. While the tribes of Arunachal migrated to this region at a very early date, the arrival of the Nagas, Kukis and Mizos in their present habitat is relatively recent. Most of the indigenous people of North-East India have embraced Christianity, transforming the social ethos and cultural practices of the Nagas, the Mizos, the Khasi and the Garos. The Bodos, the largest tribal group of the region and largely confined to Assam, have adopted Hinduism and are known by different names like Bodos, Kacharis and Mechs. Some who came under the influence of the Royal Koch dynasty call themselves ‘Rajbanshis’, meaning people having royal lineage. The Kukis of Manipur and Tripurs of Tripura are other important tribal groups.

No other region of India has experienced such a huge, continuous and prolonged immigration as the North-East of India. Much of the brunt of this immigration is born by Assam, especially the Brahmaputra valley. There has been an equally intense immigration in Tripura during the last four decades, but Assam stands apart as a state, which has witnessed the severest impact of immigration from East Pakistan and subsequently Bangladesh. Starting from the recruitment of Bengali officials during the early years of British rule, continuing immigration as tea plantation workers and subsequently the peasants from Mymensingh looking for land to reclaim and settle in Assam – all have meant additional burden on the resources of the state. The population of immigrant Bangladeshi population has grown rapidly and has changed the demographic composition of the state. Today, in six districts of Assam, Muslims, with an inflated population because of illegal immigration from Bangladesh, form the majority religious group, and more districts are likely to turn into Muslim-majority districts. As a community, they have begun to exercise influence on the politics of the state. In the process of immigration, the Bangladeshi immigrants have suffered worst reprisals, but the immigration has continued unabated. The people of Assam perceive this illegal immigration as a threat to their economic security and cultural harmony. Another foreign immigrant group in Assam is that of Nepalis who are ubiquitous in all parts of the state but remain confined to service industry like transport and dairying.

Over 80 % of the population in North-East India lives in 40,000 villages. Over two-thirds of these villages are in Assam. The mean size of villages varies from one physical region to another and even from one state to another. The hilly states of Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya have small villages. The size of a village in these states is constrained by the availability of flat agricultural land. A small patch of cultivable land on a river terrace or a structural bench along a sloping mountain front attracts a small settlement. The settlements do not grow by accretion because of the non-availability of additional land. In such situations, the young migrate to another site. The hilly states, like Arunachal Pradesh, have less than 10, often 3 or 4 villages per 100 km2 of the area of the state. On the plateau of Meghalaya, villages are small, occupy small areas and yet are numerous. This is attributed to the clan structure of the society. By comparison, the villages in Nagaland are large in size. In fact, there are more large villages than small ones. A village of 5,000 people is a common site in Nagaland. These unusually large villages in the hilly Nagaland area are attributed to the offence as well as defence requirement of the Naga society. Interclan or intervillage conflicts were quite common in Naga society before the arrival of Christianity and the British administration. The mean size of a village ranges from 130 in the hills to 800 in Nagaland and over 2,000 in the plains of Manipur.