(a) Ethnicity is the underlying cause which poses a great challenge in the resolution of the problems in the North-East region of…

(a) Ethnicity and Conflict in the North-East

Ethnicity remains a profound underlying driver of instability in North-East India, where historical tribal-versus-non-tribal cleavages have repeatedly fueled sub-national assertion. This is visible in Naga nationalism, from the Naga National Council's declaration of independence in August 1947 to the NSCN(IM)'s demand for a unified 'Greater Nagalim' and the still-unfinished Framework Agreement of 2015, the Mizo insurgency, ended by the Mizo Accord of 1986, the Bodo movement (accords of 2003 and 2020), and ULFA's nativist mobilization in Assam. Today, ethnic anxieties animate the hill-valley divide in Manipur between Meiteis and Kukis, demands for the expansion of the Inner Line Permit (ILP), and contestations surrounding the NRC-CAA framework. Furthermore, institutional safeguards like the Sixth Schedule have shown limitations, frequently ossifying inter-tribal boundaries and creating nested minority grievances within autonomous councils.

However, attributing the region’s challenges exclusively to primordial ethnicity overlooks significant structural factors. Ethnicity has often been deployed as a constructed political tool by local elites to secure patronage. Unresolved grievances are equally rooted in chronic economic underdevelopment, infrastructural isolation, porous border management, and long-standing alienation compounded by security measures such as the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA, 1958), though its removal from large parts of Assam, Nagaland and Manipur since 2022 reflects improved conditions. Sustainable resolution requires addressing these economic and governance deficits alongside ethnic reconciliation.

(b) Constitution as an Attempt towards 'Social Revolution'

Granville Austin famously characterized the Indian Constitution as an instrument for a 'social revolution' designed to reconstruct a deeply stratified society. The framers embedded transformative guarantees directly into the constitutional architecture. Fundamental Rights abolished untouchability (Article 17) and prohibited discrimination, enabling access to public spaces and temple entry. Articles 15, 16, 46 and 330–334 institutionalized affirmative action for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and Article 25(2)(b) allowed the state to open Hindu temples to all castes. In tandem, the Directive Principles of State Policy laid out an egalitarian blueprint, while early constitutional amendments diluted property rights under Article 31 to facilitate zamindari abolition and land reforms.

Yet, this social revolution was deliberately evolutionary rather than coercive. The initial insistence on compensation for acquired property, fiscal constraints, and the adoption of a gradualist legalism slowed structural redistribution. Persistent caste-based violence, gender disparities, and economic inequalities demonstrate that constitutional transformation remains incomplete - the "life of contradictions" between political equality and social and economic inequality that Ambedkar foresaw on 25 November 1949. Nonetheless, by balancing radical social ideals with institutional stability and the rule of law, the Constitution established an enduring framework for ongoing societal democratization.

(c) Regional Parties, Democracy, and the Federal System

Regional parties have profoundly deepened Indian democracy and transformed federal dynamics. During the coalition era from 1989 to 2014, regional actors dismantled single-party dominance, compelling national coalitions to accommodate state-specific priorities. They have historically safeguarded linguistic and cultural pluralism, as seen in the DMK-led anti-Hindi agitation of 1965 and the TMC’s assertion of Bengali regional identity, and pushed the centre-state debate forward through the DMK government's Rajamannar Committee (1969) and the Akali Dal's Anandpur Sahib Resolution (1973), which fed into the Sarkaria Commission. Formations such as the BJD in Odisha have pioneered localized welfare models, the Shiromani Akali Dal articulated Punjab’s agrarian interests, and the rise of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which took its Delhi governance model to power in Punjab in 2022 before losing Delhi in 2025, showed both the promise and the fragility of scaling sub-national experiments.

Conversely, the ascendancy of regional forces presents clear systemic challenges. Leadership succession in several regional parties has become family-centred, and some have occasionally fostered parochial regionalism at the expense of national integration. Sub-national posturing has at times strained inter-state relations over river waters and fiscal transfers, testing the limits of asymmetric federalism. On balance, regional parties have strengthened democracy by widening representation and strengthened federalism by pressing for state autonomy, while constitutional institutions such as the Election Commission, the courts and the Inter-State Council have contained their excesses.