THE EASTERN GATE

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 policy makers 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.