Vision 2020 or re-vision 1958: the contradictory politics of counter-insurgency in India's regional engagement
Insurgency in Northeast India has long been explained as an outcome of poverty and isolation that in turn produces further poverty and militancy. In order to break this cycle and achieve ‘peace and prosperity’, the Indian Government released North Eastern Region Vision 2020 in July 2008 – a comprehensive policy agenda to achieve ‘peace and prosperity’ in the Northeast. This is to be realised through deeper economic and political engagement with neighbouring countries and a ‘paradigm shift in development strategy’ that will be simultaneously more participatory and more infrastructure intensive. This paper argues that in practice the political manifestations of increased regional engagement are contradictory. Each measure designed to break the region's isolation is countered by measures to maintain control of borders, trade, and the movement of people. At the heart of this new development vision is a re-visioning of counter-insurgency underpinned by the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (1958). Far from signalling a new era in the region, the measures contained in this new development vision appear more likely to exacerbate the grievances of people in the region and reinforce the ways the region has been governed through five decades of counter-insurgency.
State of strife : the dynamics of ethnic conflict in Burma
Since independence in 1948, Burma has been the scene of some of the most-sustained and diverse ethnic insurgencies in the contemporary world. This study examines the dynamics of conflict that have caused internal wars to become so uniquely entrenched in one of Asia's most troubled lands. Against a backdrop of conflict, different nationality movements have been able to adapt and survive, utilizing the changing political, economic, and international conditions in the country. In the process, armed opposition became a way of life in the borderlands, while the central state became increasingly militarized. Burma's conflicts, however, have not been static. This study identifies five major cycles of conflict that have seen the national government transform from a parliamentary democracy at independence through Gen. Ne Win's "Burmese Way to Socialism" to the current military State Peace and Development Council. As the political impasse continues, ethnic ceasefires and open-door economic policies are changing the structures of conflict. In an overview of humanitarian and international dilemmas, the study concludes that conflict resolution-with integrated support from the international community-remains a primary need if Burma and its peoples are to achieve peace, democracy, and a stable nation-state.
Searching for Human Security in 'Disturbed' Areas: Women as Agents for Change in Manipur, India
This paper takes issue with normative theories of civil society and operational aspects of human security and seeks to contribute to a more empirical understanding of the potential of civil society to act as an emancipatory agent. In Northeast India, decades of insurgency and counter-insurgency have left civil society fragmented and partisan, severely undermining the prospects of human security for the people of the region. Using the state of Manipur as an example, this paper examines the role of women in challenging this status quo and argues that in a largely ineffective civil society the actions of a small group of women has redefined civil society and the distinctions between the public and the private. This has brought the issue of insecurity caused by insurgency and counter-insurgency operations in the state into the wider discourse over the future of the Indian Armed Forces in the Northeast region and reclaimed a space for other civil society organisations to voice their protest.