Demographic Profile Of North East India

Seminar papers.

Contributed articles.

Papers presented at a seminar, held in 1996, organized by North East India Council for Social Science Research, Shillong.

North-East India, comprising the seven contiguous states around Assam, the principal state of the region, is a relatively unknown, yet very fascinating region. The forest clad peripheral mountains, home to indigenous peoples like the Nagas, Mizos and the Khasis, the densely populated Brahmaputra valley with its lush green tea gardens and the golden rice fields, the moderately populated hill regions and plateaus, and the sparsely inhabited Himalayas, form a unique mosaic of natural and cultural landscapes and human interactions, with unparalleled diversity. The book provides a glimpse into the region’s past and gives a comprehensive picture of its physical environment, people, resources and its economy. The physical environment takes into account not only the structural base of the region, its physical characteristics and natural vegetation but also offers an impression of the region’s biodiversity and the measures undertaken to preserve it. The people of the region, especially the indigenous population, inhabiting contrasting environments and speaking a variety of regional and local dialects, have received special attention, bringing into focus the role of migration that has influenced the traditional societies, for centuries. The book acquaints the readers with spatial distribution, life style and culture of the indigenous people, outlining the unique features of each tribe. The economy of the region, depending originally on primitive farming and cottage industries, like silkworm rearing, but now greatly transformed with the emergence of modern industries, power resources and expanding trade, is reviewed based on authentic data and actual field observations. The epilogue, the last chapter in the book, summarizes the authors’ perception of the region and its future.

Papers of the Seminar on Pattern and Problems of Population in North-East India: a Multidimensional Study, organized by the North-East India Council for Social Science Research, Shillong, 7-8 December 1984.

A Sociological Understanding of North East India attempts to discuss socio-cultural unity and diversity, demographic features, and the linguistic scenario of Northeast India. Traditional institutions of the northeastern region such as family, marriage, religion, and polity are described with examples. The concept of identity and the identity conflict of different ethnic groups, homeland and homeland politics, tribal autonomy, and other related contemporary issues in the northeastern region have been included in this volume. The promotion and development of the tourism sector and the tourist destinations in the eight states have been studied, and different government policies and programs of Northeast India are also incorporated in this volume for discussion.

This book analyses the quality of statistics such as geographic area, census population and sample survey statistics in a developing country. Using field interviews, archival sources, and secondary data covering the last seven decades, it explores the shifting relations between various kinds of statistics over their lifecycles and charts their cradle-to-grave political career. It uncovers a mutually constitutive relationship between data, development, and democracy and offers an exciting account of how government statistics are social artefacts dynamically shaped by political and economic factors. The book also quantifies the impact of data quality on the statistics of interest to policy makers such as household consumption expenditure and federal transfers. Numbers in India's Periphery makes a major contribution to the growing literature on the political economy of statistics in developing countries through a novel analysis of the shifting determinants of the nature of data in North East India.