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Wars without End: The Case of the Naga Hills

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Marcus Franke*
Affiliation:
University of Heidelberg, Germany

Abstract

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When placed into longer historical perspective using an interdisciplinary approach that fuses historical anthropology, history and political science, as well as hitherto unutilized primary sources, it can be demonstrated that the newly independent Indian Union right from the start under Nehru used constitution and law as instruments of subjugation that, since the latter remained incomplete, have prepared the ground for a war without end in the Naga Hills of Northeast India. Moreover, its history since the 1820s shows that constitution- and law-making are in essence shaped by power politics only to be countered by force, leading in this constellation to an unending guerrilla war transforming ever larger circles of terrain into a low-level war-zone and firmly enthroning a culture of violence with all its concomitants.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © ICPHS 2006

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