People and development: With special reference to the tribal peoples of north-east India

Northeast India is comprised of seven states peopled by tribes and communities majority of which are culturally and ethnically different from the rest of India. After India’s independence from the British in 1947, the Government- both at the state and central level has been implementing several development programmes in the region on poverty alleviation, employment, infrastructure, education, agriculture etc apparently to positively transform peoples’ lives in the region. However, inspite of these initiatives, several decades of intensive development programmes and strategies has somehow seen more failures than success. While development should have brought a positive change in peoples’ lives, it has instead become more and more conflict sensitive resulting in intense and often fatal socioeconomic, socio-political and socio-environmental disasters between and among communities in Northeast India. Why is this happening, how did it happen and how can this problem be solved are the questions being asked. The main aim of this paper is therefore to briefly try and see the essence and ethics underlying development along with the need for it as perceived by many, its impact on the societal cohesion of the people of Northeast India and the urgent need for a shift in the current development paradig