Northeast India: A Political History by Samrat Choudhury

19 July 2023

HarperCollins

presents

NORTHEAST INDIA

A Political History 

by Samrat Choudhury

The only political history of Northeast India,  written by author and journalist Samrat Choudhury.

As India and the world are roiled by questions of nationalism and identity, this book journeys into

the history of one of the world’s most fascinating regions: Northeast India.

Paperback | Non-fiction| Politics | History |432 pp | Rs 699

Available Wherever Books Are Sold | Releasing 26^th July 2023

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‘Samrat Choudhury’s sweeping political history captures, in one book, India’s diverse Northeast, famous for its hundreds of languages and many ethnic groups. His accessible and authoritative history is an excellent primer for anyone trying to understand the region. A monumental achievement.’

– Manoj Joshi, journalist and author of Understanding the India-China Border

Author, Samrat Choudhury, says, “The book I’ve written is one I had long looked for as a reader: a simple overview of the history of Northeast India. There were none, and with good reason. This area is incredibly diverse and complex, different communities often have clashing versions of their own histories, and putting it all together in one book is scarily difficult. I would have given it up as impossible but took heart from the fact that others, braver and more capable than me, have written histories of larger spaces such as all of India, and even of the whole world. This book is meant to be a simple introduction and overview of the political history of all the states that constitute the region, and of the region as a whole. I hope that students, civil services aspirants, policymakers, and anyone else interested in a brief and easy text on the region will find it useful.”

Associate Publisher, HarperCollins India, Swati Chopra, says, “‘After The Braided River, his lyrical travelogue tracing the journey of the Brahmaputra, Samrat Choudhury is back with an ambitious project – a comprehensive history of India’s Northeast. The book deftly delves into the region’s fractured past to contextualise its current faultlines, making it a must-read for anyone who is interested in the complex history of conflict in the region, and indeed in contemporary Indian history.”

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ABOUT THE BOOK

As India and the world are roiled by questions of nationalism and identity, this book journeys into the history of one of the world’s most fascinating regions: Northeast India. Having appeared with the stroke of a pen in 1947, as the British Raj was torn asunder and partitioned into India and Pakistan, this is a region of river valleys and hills inhabited by myriad tribes. Until colonial rule, several of these tribes had lived in their ancient ways, largely unmolested by their neighbours, who were rather keen to avoid their traditions of headhunting.

Samrat Choudhury chronicles the processes by which these remote hill tribes, and the diverse other peoples inhabiting the valley of the vast Brahmaputra river, became parts of the ‘imagined nation’ that is India. He explores two other ideas of India that remain in daily competition: Bharat, the Hindu nationalist conception of the country, and Hindustan, the Persian-origin name by which India is still known as far west as Turkey. Taking a long view, this absorbing political history chronicles the separate pathways by which imperialism, Christianity and the British love of tea brought each of the contemporary region’s constituent states into modern India.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Samrat Choudhury is an author and journalist from Shillong, and a former editor of broadsheet newspapers in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. He currently divides his time between India and the Philippines and writes op-eds, analyses and occasional reportage for a number of national and international publications.

Samrat’s previous book was The Braided River: A Journey Along the Brahmaputra (2021). He has earlier authored a novel, The Urban Jungle, which was nominated for the Man Asian Literary Prize. He also co-edited an anthology titled Insider/Outsider on Northeast India. His other projects include Partition Studies Quarterly, an online journal focused on the forgotten causes and experiences of the Partition of India in its Northeast, which he co-founded along with two others.

Samrat was the Asian Leadership Fellow from India at the International House of Japan in Tokyo in 2018 and a Chevening Scholar at the University of Westminster, London, in 2019.

PRAISE FOR THE BOOK

‘A persuasive, fascinating and unputdownable work of history. I have not come across any other book on Northeast India which reads like fiction, yet leaves untouched almost no aspect of the region, its areas and its people.’

– Sajal Nag, Professor of History, Assam University, and author of Contesting Marginality: Ethnicity, Insurgency and Subnationalism in North-East India

‘This book brings great clarity and insight to the history of India’s Northeast – a region of mind-boggling diversity, where competing powers have struggled to impose their authority and to delineate boundaries that remain disputed even today. Essential reading, warmly welcomed.’

– James Manor, Professor Emeritus, School of Advanced Study, University of London, and author of Politics and State-Society Relations in India

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For reviews, excerpts, interviews, and more information, please contact Vandana Rathore at
vandana.rathore@harpercollins.co.in