PYQ Vault · Paper 1 · Caste, Religion & Ethnicity
Critically examine the ethnic conflicts in North-East India.
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes
R1 NE= one of India’s most ethnically diverse regions → along cycle of autonomy, insurgency and inter-ethnic violence R2 Varshney defines ethnic conflict → stake the question: born of diversity, or of state-building?
Body flow
forms of conflict → Nagaland (sovereignty demand / rejected Constitution / 1952 boycott / NSCN) → Assam (ULFA / anti-migrant / Bodoland) → Manipur (Meitei-Naga-Kuki) → Tripura (tribes vs Bengali migrants) → why? development school (Weiner: gaps, aspirations, unmet expectations) → instrumentalist turn (Muni: “creation of vested political interests”) → federation-building critique (Baruah: nation-state building ignored small communities; centralisation + AFSPA → alienation → “genuine federation- building”)
Counter-view
the state's accommodation (Sixth Schedule, Art 371, statehood, Assam & Mizo Accords, development packages) vs the persistence of coercion
Conclusion routes
Rk) Kohli: in a multicultural democracy assertion is expected → accommodation over force R2 conflicts are less natural to diversity than made by state-building → resolution lies in genuine federation-building
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
