From "Disturbed Areas" to Development Zones: How Northeast Bharat Reclaimed Peace and Purpose

 

For decades, the Northeast, often referred to as Ashta Lakshmi in Bharatiya culture, symbolising the eight forms of prosperity, faced fragmentation driven by ethnic separatism, cross-border militancy and porous international frontiers. Organisations such as the NSCN, ULFA and UNLF exploited historical grievances, disputes over resources and the strategic vulnerability of the Siliguri Corridor, commonly known as the Chicken's Neck, to challenge Bharat's unity.

 

Between 2014 and 2026, however, this narrative underwent a decisive transformation. What was once managed primarily through counter-insurgency operations has steadily evolved into a model of security anchored in development, democratic consolidation and national integration.

 

 

The Armed Forces Special Powers Act, enacted in 1958 for the Northeast, was designed as an emergency response to extraordinary security threats. Rooted in a colonial-era ordinance used during the Quit India Movement, the Act granted sweeping powers to the armed forces in areas officially notified as "disturbed".

 

For decades, these notifications were routinely extended with little differentiation between peaceful and conflict-prone zones.

 

The period after 2014 marks a clear departure from this inertia. Rather than political grandstanding or abrupt withdrawals, the rollback of AFSPA followed measured, review-based security assessments. The guiding principle remained firm: where violence receded and institutions stabilised, extraordinary legal provisions would retreat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The most compelling evidence of the Northeast's transformation lies in measurable indicators.

 

 

 

 

 

 

From 2014 to 2022 alone, extremist incidents decreased by 76 per cent. States such as Assam and Tripura reached near-zero levels of violence. After 2023, residual incidents were largely concentrated in Manipur, underscoring that security challenges had become localised rather than regional in character.

 

This sustained decline created the objective conditions necessary for scaling back AFSPA, conditions that had remained absent for decades.

 

 

A cornerstone of this transformation has been a series of peace agreements signed between 2020 and 2023, formally closing chapters on several long-running insurgencies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unlike earlier ceasefire arrangements that merely paused hostilities, these settlements focused on disbandment, surrender, rehabilitation and constitutional integration. Insurgency therefore concluded structurally rather than tactically.

 

 

Security normalisation in the Northeast has been inseparable from infrastructure expansion under the Act East Policy, launched in 2014. This policy reimagined the region not as a frontier challenge but as Bharat's gateway to Southeast Asia, structured around the three pillars of commerce, connectivity and culture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This physical integration dismantled the logistical isolation that had once sustained insurgent ecosystems and reinforced alienation.

 

 

The Northeast's security environment has always been shaped by geography. The Siliguri Corridor, or Chicken's Neck, and more than 5,400 km of international borders with China, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan historically amplified vulnerabilities.

 

In recent years, however, progress has also been made in resolving inter-state boundary disputes that had previously fuelled ethnic tensions:

 

 

 

 

These developments reduced flashpoints, strengthened cooperative federalism and further weakened the rationale for continued "disturbed area" classifications.

 

By neutralising insurgency through peace accords, restoring governance through democratic confidence and embedding the region within Bharat's economic and strategic future, the Northeast has moved decisively from insurgency to integration. What was once defined by emergency legislation and counter-insurgency has progressively transformed into a framework centred on stability, connectivity and opportunity.