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Yes / This mini report on Northeast India is one of 13 case studies (all of the case studies are available at www.bradford.ac.uk/cics). This research draws upon secondary data sources including existing research studies, reports and evaluations. As DFID does not have any direct development engagement in Northeast India, this report does give any direct programming or policy recommendations. However, it does highlight key issues which need to be addressed for armed violence to be reduced in the region. The authors would like to thank David Seddon for comments made on an earlier draft. The analysis and opinions expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views or policy of DFID or the UK government.

This dissertation explores some of the ways in which precarity takes form in a reeling present. Many social and political analysts have described the contemporary socio-economic and political situation in the Northeastern states of India, marked by a situation of civil war for more than half-a-century, as an “impasse.” With particular focus on Manipur, one of the eight Northeastern states, this dissertation looks at some of the ways in which people live through this “impasse.” Through a series of extraordinary and ordinary scenes, brief encounters, public testimonies, biographical sketches and autobiographical accounts it speaks of the precariousness of life, relationships, rituals and cultural categories even as people suffer and respond to the ongoing “crisis” of law and order, a defining feature of the “impasse.” Inspired by the affective turn in Critical Theory, this dissertation does not see precarity as necessarily traumatizing, thereby keeping the trope of trauma at a critical distance while attending to the lives of people in a situation of low-intensity armed conflict of long duration. It does not claim to provide any final explanation of what is happening in Manipur today rather it offers an innovative way to revisit anew some of the old anthropological questions about people and places undergoing dramatic changes. / text

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1994. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 197-205).

Ancestral knowledge exerts itself in the daily lives of the Nagas in Northeast India, whether through passed down clan genealogical knowledge, or through dreams and waketime omens. The Angamis, one of the Naga tribes, articulate a close relationship between the ancestral spirits they meet in their dreams, and ruopfü, one’s always-perceiving soul or life-being, complicating the boundary that would separate dreaming and waking states. In mediating these two states, the Angami ruopfü therefore has a powerful ability to inhabit these two spaces simultaneously, thus allowing for their reversibility. These processes of inhabiting the ‘real’ in waking and dreaming, occur in the midst of significant political turmoil, and this thesis examines the ways in which dreams index terrains of clan and state power in relation to a broader cosmic struggle. Moreover, as a guiding principle of personhood, dreaming, and reversibility elucidate the ways in which Angamis explore, understand, and generate alternative futures. I begin the discussion in the domain of the kitchen hearth. Within this gendered space characterised by a continuous rhythm of quotidian practices and attentiveness to dreams and omens, a significant political counter-narrative to the enduring pattern of clan patriarchy emerges. This tense symbiosis is characterised by a relationship of nurturance, but at the same time resistance to patriarchal meddling in domestic affairs. I then describe how this tension mirrors a power dynamic perceived by many in their dreams in which the clan collectively confronts morally ambivalent spiritual forces that inhabit spaces outside of delimited clan domains. This recalls earlier times when public life centred on the propitiation of powerful spirits in order to preserve harvests, and protect clan settlements in times of war. With the advent of Christianity, public discourse is transformed not solely via the iconoclastic demands of the American missionaries, but through a spatiotemporal reorientation of public life towards regularised church membership, and the development of missional institutions. Traditional public rituals, and ritual objects gradually faded, but informal inspirational practices such as divinational healing and dreaming, rooted as they were in the domestic sphere, remained integral to community life. In contemporary Nagaland, Christian charismatic groups have reconsidered the efficacy of traditional practices, and the inspirational potential of dreams, and opened spaces for supervised spirit mediation. These practices, however, have the potential to disrupt the church, and the community, and community elders are alert to their potential dangers, often seeking to defuse spirit mediated charisma as it emerges. The elder generation frequently cites the role of divination in spurring upheaval, and within living memory a young Naga prophetess, inspired by powerful dreams, succeeded in mounting a tribal uprising against British rule in the region. The power of visions and dreams to inspire political movements has not been lost on more recent Naga political groups, and in the final chapter I draw parallels between the nature of charisma to inspire political agency, and the function of the oneiric in normative patriliny, especially in public events, and ultimately in the construction of nationalist ideology. Finally, though the material and social circumstances separating public and domestic spheres in Angami life-worlds continually produce divergent political imaginaries, reversibility reveals how these formations emerge, how they coexist and continuously shape daily life, and how they produce the potentialities for unified political resistance.

Thesis advisor: Robert J. Starratt / A qualitative case study of three high schools was conducted to identify and profile school practices employed in educating a traditionally low-achieving subpopulation in northeast India. By the considerably higher than average retention and graduation rates among their students who come from indigenous tribal communities, these schools stand out as effective. The study was centered on the following research questions: 1) What were the teaching practices that characterize three high schools with successful records of graduating (upwards of 100%) indigenous Northeast India tribal students? 2) How were these successful schools affected by the school leadership? A body of related literature provided the theoretical rationale and informed the researcher in collecting data, doing analysis, and processing interpretation. The researcher reviewed specific categories of literature focused on the following: dropout influences, effective teaching practices, school leadership, indigenous tribal life contexts, spirituality, and worldview of the peoples of Northeast India. The findings indicated that these three schools with low dropout rates reflected authentic and effective teaching practices that were student-friendly and based on a coherent mix of various principles of learning, instructional strategies, classroom management, and the personal dedication of the teaching faculties. Furthermore, the schools tried to create an atmosphere of social connectedness and community, based on the values of the indigenous people of that area. The school leadership was proactive in an effort to sustain the sense of community through a variety of school activities and cooperation with parents. The researcher found that the ethos of the schools motivated students to focus on their studies in view of a better economic future. A contextualized pedagogy that took into account the background and learning styles of a wide variety of students helped the students to focus on their learning in the various academic disciplines. Pedagogical practices that promoted academic achievement in concert with indigenous values sustained the interest of the students and moved them to actively involve themselves in the life of the school. The leadership provided the necessary vision and direction to make the objectives and goals of the school understood and obtainable. The visible presence of the principal and his/her affirming interaction also helped to maintain the motivation of the community on all levels of operation. The findings of this research have implications for educational practice, policy, teacher preparation and school leadership in the context of rural India. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Administration and Higher Education.