[Assam] Post Frontier Blues

[Sanjib Baruah]

Dear Mahanta,

Many thanks for your kind words about my Postfrontier thesis. It is always 
satisfying when one finds readers reading ones work carefully and engaging 
it.  Since this publication is freely available on the net, I hope, more 
people would read it.

Whether the powers that be pays heed is of course always a difficult 
question.  While the Northeast is not neglected the way it once was, it is 
far from clear that spending money in the name of development or knee-jerk 
counter-insurgency are going to be the magic bullets.  Without attention 
to institutional reforms more development money could even make our region 
a less attractive place to live.  As I said in that paper, you dont have 
to be a radical to recognize that. Even the World Bank points out that, 
poor institutional arrangements is the source of Northeast Indias problems 
with water resource management. The Banks example of how dysfunctional the 
institutional arrangements are is the case of an embankment project in 
Assam being opposed by the very people that it is designed to benefit. 
This point can be extended to other areas. People have very little trust 
in the institutions that are in place because there is very little input 
from locals in decision-making. Recently Rabin Deka had pointed out in 
a post that Government of India funded dams in Bhutan have caused 
floods and immense misery in certain parts of Assam. That certainly would 
suggest that people are right in not trusting institutions.

Unfortunately there is very little patience in our style of policy-making 
for handling the kind of complexity that Northeast Indias frontier-like 
conditions present.   Once upon a time forming high-powered commissions of 
inquiry was a way of bringing in a level of complexity to approaching 
policy questions. But now that hardly happens.

Democracy is not only about elections. Unfortunately, there is very little 
interest in India in questions about the quality of our democracy. We 
even become defensive about criticisms. There is almost a Soviet-style
economic determinism  that the magic of development will answer all our
problems.

Good wishes,

Sanjib Baruah


On Mon, 27 Aug 2007, Chan Mahanta wrote:

>> It seldom happens. Let us see, whether the suggestions in the book come 
>> handy to the Rulers or not.
>
>
> *** That is a function of how the citizenry , which would be your 
> 'intelligentsia' responds, if at all.  During recent years, the 
> 'intelligentsia's' creativity and imagination has been on vacation and were 
> consumed by 'security' and jingoist rants.
>
> And for the intelligentsia  to discuss and debate them and generate an 
> informed public opinion they need exposure. I am not always up to snuff on 
> what Assamedia chooses to air and what it is either too afraid to or are 
> unwilling to air. The only exposure so far that I am aware of was thru a 
> Kolkata tabloid.
> For all practical purposes, desi-media's attention or absence of it regarding 
> Assam issues will ultimately fall into deaf ears, if not snuffed out by the 
> sekurity-wallas in Delhi who hold the powers over desi political imaginations 
> as far as our region is concerned..
>
>
>
>
>
>
> At 4:00 AM +0100 8/27/07, uttam borthakur wrote:
>> We wish so many good things from the Rulers. But those usually do not 
>> happen unless and until the vested interests of the rulers become one with 
>> the aspirations of the people. It seldom happens. Let us see, whether the 
>> suggestions in the book come handy to the Rulers or not.
>> 
>> Chan Mahanta <cmahanta at charter.net> wrote:
>> 
>> Dear Baruah:
>> 
>> Read the book on one sitting. It was an almost unprecedented
>> accomplishment for me, since I left college. I found it extremely
>> informative, as always. I was particularly impressed by your
>> realistic analysis of the unsustainable two-tiered citizenship, of
>> the ethnic homeland model and the proposal of for citizenship of
>> India as well as a state. Most of all, for me, it is the first
>> comprehensive attempt at finding an attainable and sustainable
>> resolution of these indigenous/immigrant conflicts that have so riven
>> Assam and the other 'states' around it. In that it stands out from
>> the xenophobic cacophony that has dominated the discourse not only in
>> Assam but has even spilled over to assamnet.
>> 
>> Big question however is if the powers that be will pay any heed?
>> 
>> Best.
>> 
>> m
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> assam mailing list
>> assam at assamnet.org
>> http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Uttam Kumar Borthakur
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Did you know? You can CHAT without downloading messenger. 
>> <http://in.rd.yahoo.com/tagline_webmessenger_2/*http://in.messenger.yahoo.com/webmessengerpromo.php>Click 
>> here
>