Generals as Governors

The parallel political systems of Northeast India

In the militancy-affected Indian Northeast, New Delhi's containment policy of the last four decades has produced a peculiar equilibrium, one in which democracy and authoritarian governance coexist with disturbing ease. The paternalistic carrot-and-stick approach— routine use of military force with development money spread about in the 'backward' region—assumes an imperious "foreknowledge of the destiny" of the Northeast. Indian policy must respond with constitutional reforms that respond to the region's history which animates the insurgencies. It must conduct a democratic dialogue involving the peoples of the Northeast and not rely on secret negotiations between bureaucrats and insurgents. But then will that be allowed by a system that appoints generals as governors?

Isn't there a brigadier in Shillong?" This was how Sardar Vallabbhai Patel, India's deputy prime minister responded in 1949 to reports that the "native state" of Manipur might be reluctant to merge fully with the Indian Union. In September of that year, the governor of Assam, Sri Prakasa, accompanied by his adviser for Tribal Areas, Nari Rustomji, flew to Bombay to apprise Patel of the situation. The fate of Manipur and other indirectly ruled "native states" presented a significant constitutional problem when British rule of India ended in 1947. Indeed, the decision of the Kashmiri Maharaja to accede to India was the beginning of the Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan. Patel and other senior Indian officials might perhaps have pondered more on the potential difficulties that could arise from decisions by major 'native states' like Kashmir and Hyderabad on the postcolonial dispensation in the Subcontinent. But the thought that tiny and remote Manipur on India's border with Burma, might hesitate about fully joining India had probably never crossed their minds. The meeting of Sri Prakasa, Rustomji and Patel was brief. As Rustomji recalls in his memoir, Enchanted Frontier, apart from asking whether there was a brigadier stationed in the region, Patel said little else. It was clear from his voice what he meant, wrote Rustomji, and the conversation did not go any further.