Quandaries of Developmentalism: Framing Research on Central and Northeast India

Abstract

The Indian state has continually, over the years, permeated into ‘disturbed regions’ through its developmentalist imperative – especially that of Central India and Northeast India most prominently. Researchers working on either of these regions have highlighted how regimes of violence towards indigenous communities have been normalized and justified. However, while trajectories of militarization and violence have continued unabated, it has yielded often converging yet different responses to political questions in the region – ranging from representation to rights over resources and the making of (often contested) political identities.

While the continued impoverishment of Adivasi communities, a resultant process of the loss of their lands and livelihoods at the hands of the state-corporate nexus is evident, tribal communities in Northeast India have had different trajectories within the region itself. Contemporary research on Northeast India has focused on questions of militarization and development and importantly so. There has been a similar framing of these questions in Central India as well. Narratives of resistance have therefore been one of the main analytical frames through which historians and sociologists working on Northeast India have approached social, political and economic questions on the region. Scholars working on Central India and Jharkhand have often framed the research questions centred on critiques of statist developmentalist paradigms. Where do researchers working on both these fields diverge and converge on these questions? The paper attempts to bring into conversation and reflect on how scholars researching these regions can meaningfully engage with some of these concerns.