Sudeep Chakravarti
Nearly a seventh of India’s landmass. Almost 50 million people. A pivot for India’s so-called Act-East policy, and a gateway to a future of immense possibilities from hydrocarbons to regional trade, the very harbinger of prosperity with threads over land and water, with the help of Myanmar and a surging Bangladesh, that could create a Silk Route for this century and beyond. A bulwark of India’s security in the shadow of China. A cradle of worrying climate change dynamics and migration. A crucible of India’s fantasy of inclusive democracy.
‘Northeast’ India, the appellation with which India’s far-east is known, is all this and more.
Alongside immense hope and aspiration, it is also home to immense ethnic and communal horrors—and a decades-old Naga conflict and the high-profile peace process that involves four gateway states—Nagaland, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam—and several million people. A series of callous and arrogant governments and enduring suspicion against the all-knowing ‘Mainland’ have all together made it a touchpoint of brutalised aspiration, identity, conflict and tragedy. It’s among the most militarised zones in the world, with laws applied across vast geographies that offer the army and police both immunity and impunity. It’s a playground of numbing corruption and engineered violence.
This includes the cauldron that has been the Naga rebellion and the makings of peace, and the myriad rebellions that feed neighbouring Manipur’s political realities: an often-incendiary ethnic cocktail of Meitei, Naga, Kuki, Zomi. Only real peace as opposed to uneasy absence of conflict, and calm in both Myanmar and Bangladesh, will unlock this Eastern gate.
A keen observer and frequent chronicler of the region, Sudeep Chakravarti has for several years offered exclusive insights into the Machiavellian—Chanakyan—world of the Naga and other conflicts and various attempts to resolve these. He now melds the skills of a journalist, analyst, historian, and ethnographer to offer a framework within which these conflicts—and the very aspiration of the people of India’s most diverse, dynamic and desperately hopeful region—needs to be seen.
Employing a ‘dispatches’ style of storytelling, Chakravarti’s narrative provides immediacy to, and understanding of, ongoing attempts to transition from war to peace, even as he keeps a firm gaze on the future. If Northeast India is a force of unstoppable nature and the nature of man, then The Eastern Gate is a tour de force that captures this story of our times.
About The Author
Sudeep Chakravarti is an award-winning author of several best-selling works of history, ethnography, politics and conflict resolution, including Plassey: The Battle that Changed the Course of Indian History, The Bengalis: A Portrait of a Community, and Highway 39: Journeys through a Fractured Land. His other notable non-fiction works are Red Sun: Travels through Naxalite Country, and Clear.Hold.Build: Hard Lessons of Business and Human Rights in India, which won the Award for Excellence at the Asian Publishing Awards. He has written three critically acclaimed novels, and several short stories. His work has been translated into several Indian and European languages.
An extensively published columnist, and a media consultant and regional risk analyst, he has nearly four decades of experience in media. Sudeep has worked with major global and Indian media organizations including The Asian Wall Street Journal, where he began his career, and held leadership positions at Sunday, the India Today Group, and HT Media. Sudeep read history at St Stephen’s College, University of Delhi. Away from history, research, and writing, his other passion remains marine conservation. Follow him on Twitter@chakraview
