State-initiated development and the Reang ethnic minority in Tripura (North East India)

This paper explores the wider implications of state-led development on the Reang ethnic minority in the North East Indian state of Tripura, and in doing so presents a critical view on such development endeavours. Basing itself on the study of the relationship between the state and the ethnic minorities, this research argues the following: – first, most state-led development programmes are formulated on a preconceived notion of ‘backwardness’ in the ethnic minorities. Second, state-led development projects create internal fissures and ruptures within ethnic minorities on issues of what constitutes development. Third, often, state-led development programmes create an image of oneself as inherently ‘backward’, whereby the conditioning of the mind plays an important role in extending the desire of the members of an ethnic minority to achieve this ‘imagined modernity’.