Ethnicity, Ethnic Assertion and India’s Northeast

At present all the regions and sub-regions of the world have been experiencing several forms of ethnic assertion and tension. The ethnic groups are mobilized on the basis of ethnicity for asserting their ethnic rights. However, the ethnic assertion should not be dismissed as an outburst of emotive and irrational sentiments. The ethnic assertion is not something which is irrational and impulsive but it is a cover through which the elites compete and struggle for power. This paper is an attempt to deal with the moot question – how ethnicity is a cause of inter-ethnic conflict and how it is being used by the elite of different ethnic groups to mobilize the respective community in the context of Northeast India in general and Assam in particular.