Troubled Periphery: The Crisis of India's North East

A book that tells you the truth about the North-East of India―from first-hand experience―written as it is by a journalist who has spent entire career covering the region for various national and international media…. Drawing from an entire gamut of sources mostly primary, unpublished documents and interviews with insurgents, security personnel and activists, Troubled Periphery tells the story as it is. Because it does not confined to academic jargon and theoretical paradigms alone, but amalgamates deep academic scholarship of the region with a first-person immediacy, it will no doubt find a larger audience among people willing to know and learn about the North-East…. The book is also a treasure trove of original documentation, which goes a long way in demystifying the rebel strategies and the politics of counter-insurgency operations.

— The New Indian Express

With his new book, Troubled Periphery, Bhaumik explores the troubled terrains of the northeast in a way very few authors have. The book is a rather well-argued attempt at explaining the crisis faced by the region and India’s policy on it… The narrative is peppered with interviews of actors, rebel leaders, military and administrative officials, political leaders and even NGO activists.

— The Week

This informative work by well known Indian journalist and researcher, Subir Bhaumik, gives us a detailed ‘close-up’ of the identity politics of India’s North-East and probes in-depth the plethora of political and socio-economic issues riddling the region.

— The Island online, Sri Lanka

This book maps the reality of the region but goes beyond mere history to analyse why the region has been in perpetual crisis since Independence. It highlights how land, language and leadership issues have been talking points in the northeast and how factors like ethnicity, ideology and religion have shaped conflicts.… Troubled Periphery has briskly captured top bestseller slots in the non-fiction category in several bookstores across the country.

— Civil Society

A welcome attempt … [The book] provides us access to first-hand insights, interviews with key players, study of records and explanation of the background to the festering wounds there. A vital contribution to India’s nation-building effort, it unravels the tangled web of forces, events and ideas that are shaping the response of the north-east to its history…. Bhaumik analysis is painstaking and lucid.

— Economic & Political Weekly

A holistic approach built on well-constructed arguments to explain the ethnic crises of India’s North East…the book brings out many important insights from the state to politics, ethnicity to development and socio-political movements to state intervention in the region.

— Contributions to Indian Sociology

Showcases the evolution of India’s North-East into a constituent region of the republic and analyzes the crisis in the region since Independence. This book features, how linguistic and leadership issues have long been the seed of contention and aggravate the conflicts. It also throws light on the major insurgencies and internal displacements.