Armed Ethnic Conflicts in Northeast India and Resurgence of Women’s Movement

Abstract

In India, the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution provides for safeguarding the minorities. However, despite many provisions, the term ‘minority’ has not been defined even in the Constitution. Significant to this concept is where women stand. Women form 48.5% of the total population in India. For a long time, women in India have been subjected to discrimination in all spheres of life, however, women of minority or indigenous groups—especially in the northeastern states—experience double discrimination in the form of different kinds of violence. Militarization of the people in the region has become a very familiar phenomenon. This has been further aggravated after the introduction of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in 1958. More than 50,000 lives have been lost in the violence. This paper shows how women’s groups in northeast India have developed powerful programmes that are direct, non-violent, and action-designed to confront the fire of insurgency that has for long engulfed this strategic region since the late 1940s.

The author acknowledges the immense support of Control Arms Foundation of India/Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network Research team members, Yuri Luikham, and Kalyani Mathur in framing this article.