The Eastern Gate: War and Peace in Nagaland, Manipur and India's Far East

by Sudeep Chakravarti

Traders, Pushers, Soldiers, Spies.

A pivot for India’s Act-East policy. The gateway to a future of immense possibilities from hydrocarbons to regional trade over land and water that could create a new Silk Route. A bulwark against China. A cradle of climate change dynamics and migration. ‘Northeast’ India, the appellation with which India’s far-east is known, is all this and more.

Alongside hope and aspiration, it is also home to immense ethnic and communal tension, 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. It’s among the most militarized zones in the world. It’s a playground of corruption and engineered violence. Only real peace, 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 inside stories and a ringside view to the tortuous, no-holds-barred attempts at resolving conflict.

Employing a ‘dispatches’ style of storytelling, and interviews with rebel leaders, politicians, bureaucrats, policymakers, security specialists and operatives, gunrunners, ‘narcos’, peace negotiators and community leaders, Chakravarti’s narrative provides a definitive guide to the transition from war to peace, even as he keeps a firm gaze on the future. The Eastern Gate is a tour de force that captures this story of our times.

Genres: India, Nonfiction

526 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 6, 2022

Reviews

[Chitra Ahanthem · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is definitely NOT the definitive account on the many conflicts that dot Manipur, Nagaland and other parts of NE India. For that, you will have to follow the story tellers and journalists working on the ground, not go by the parachute vision and accounts that come from journalists who use their connections to people on the ground to be material for their book.

This one gets facts wrong and has an air of false bravado. My eyes are tired after all the eye rolling that came from reading this one.

[Sanjay Banerjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

An insight into the issues of insurgency and politics in India’s North East especially the states of Nagaland and Manipur. The book provides well-researched insights from a person who has been reporting on North East for a long time.

[Karthik Govil · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sudeep Chakravarti has an interesting writing style, but he makes an absolute khichdi (or maybe he prefers the word salad) of what he is trying to say, his perspective, his research, his experiences, his political opinions, and his preconceived notions.

The book follows his extensive travels, mostly unnamed interviews (which could also be extrapolation of interviews from his notes; where he only remembers what his confirmation bias lets him), along with the interjection of his perspective of "global laws" and "sense of justice" here and there.

The research of this book comes off as a bit flippant; or at the very least confused. For example, Haipou Jadonang is confused for Rani Gaidinliu, her cousin, when speaking of Animist Naga leaders. Such instances are not uncommon.

Further, his interview with separatists, drug cartels, etc, seems to paint his memory more vividly, merely because of the drugs and guns present (compared to the simpleton alcohol a govt servant may offer). This affects the narrative

It is worsened by his political insistence towards a light anti-Nehru stance and a strong anti-Modi stance. This objectifies the experiences of the villagers he has collected, to suit his preconceived agenda

The fear he holds of a population explosion of Bangladesh cutting off NE from Bharat, is exactly what the Chinese foreign policy aims at. And since he mocked the PM's English, I would like to tell him Pg360: china in china shop is with a small "c"

I recommend "Bharat: India 2.0" by Gautam D. to the author.

Overall, I actually liked the writing style of the book for what it is. I am interested now in other books by the author. But an ideological insistence, several mix-up of facts, ignorance of ancient traditions of Nagas, and a lack of solutions (beyond the UN-lingo fray), really make this book more annoying and counterproductive. It's like hearing a regressive boomer unkil rant on until he convinces you 10% of what he/she believes in.

If it was just ideology, or just his travel experience, or just politics, or just his party experiences, this would have been a great read. But to try to have them all reinforce one another to fit your world view is where it all becomes flimsy and rather one feels like they're being bullied by a salesperson to buy into your narrative.

Did I mention all the whitewashing of Muslim atrocities the author does? I guess that too falls under the biased narrative.

Overall, take everything with a grain of salt. You won't learn anything new or cool about Naga or Kanglei culture here. You will only understand the big head political discourses at best and nothing else. This could have had so much more to say with the book, but sadly it didn't.

4/10

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[JournalsTLY]

Had several opportunities to visit India in the past few years and asked a staff at airport where she was from . She replied ,”Mizoram”.

That was one my early introductions to the NE. Another was meeting a Naga eye surgeon.
Third - youtube has many superb Mizo singers !
Since then, had the privilege of visiting Assam on four occasions thus this book caught my eye.

The book is a very detailed and expansive account of the complex struggle in the “North East”. There are section of journal notes and others sections are report style .

Bewildering to keep track of the many groups and splinter groups , the messy colonial legacies and the rise and fading of local chieftains .

Peace talks in Zurich , meetings in Delhi , negotiations in Guhawati - they have not brought peace. Throw in the tough issue of drugs, HIV and corruption - the path to peace remains distant.

The cross border issues brought by the coup in Myanmar and the Rakhine refugee plus Bangladesh politics - this book gives us the litany of complexities facing the region.

A long read. A longer struggle.

[Pavan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn’t quite what I expected - more than an intro to the political flashpoints in northeastern India, this was more of a play-by-play of the GoI-Naga peace deal during the Modi era. At times, I found the meticulous reporting on the alphabet soup of factions to be a little too inside baseball. And the dispatch-style chapters, replete with the incomprehensible acronyms of small factions, got a little tedious. But the book did provide a good intro to the linkeages between Naga separatist movement and the civil conflict in Manipur. And when the book does zoom out to consider the linkeages with Burma, Sino-Indian competition, and the legacies of Partition, Bangladeshi independence, and colonialism, I found it to be very useful. Overall, while I’m not sure I’d recommend this as a primer on the conflicts in Northeastern India, nor as an academically rigorous account for a specialist, I still found it useful in understanding the evolution of Nagaland and Manipur.

[Uzair Qadri · Rating 5 out of 5]

As somebody who has followed the North-eastern parts of India for years now, I found this book very informative in its intent and educative in its purpose. Whatever the ideological underpinnings of the author, the book comes out to be a very honest assessment of the bludgeoning and knotted psychosocial, political, economic and ethnic geography of this part of the world. Read it to understand what all has gone into making the plot of this beautiful, but unfortunate, microcosm so thick and bloody. Recommended.

[Ananta Pathak · Rating 4 out of 5]

An detailed account of the intricate matter of naga peace process and it's role or effect on the area which at far eastern end of India. With his deep network of contacts and nuanced understanding of the Insurgency movement - particularly naga insurgency, the author has given us explained take on the various contours.

[Armaan Srivastava · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author has put his heart and soul into the book. He's also shared notes from time of writing thus adding even more person touch to this work. You cannot miss this book if you want to learn and understand the history and politics of nagaland and manipur.

[Sudhinder Murali · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book before traveling to the north east . It provides a very good insight into why the insurgency started in the north east and helps understand the intricacies of the far East.