Conflicting Nations in North-East India

Ethnic groups in India's north-east, while challenging the state constructed definition of a nation, are seeking to construct new narratives to define their own nationhood. This paper sets out to deconstruct the idea of the 'nation from below' and examines strategies and tactics such movements resort to in the process of decolonisation. At the same time, it appears that in their quest for freedom, such ethno-national movements, while dealing with other subordinate nationalisms living in worse socio-economic and political conditions, adopt a similar path of colonisation and subjugation as their erstwhile rulers.