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BY WALTER HAUSER
India against itself: Assam and the politics of nationality Few books in recent years have come to grips so powerfully or convincingly with what is certainly one of the central issues confronting the Indian state as does India Against Itself. This is a book about Assam and the Northeast but it is at the same time a compelling examination of the very nature of the federal polity or, as the Constitution defines it, the Union of India. Sanjib Baruah is concerned about the "tame commitment" of the constitution-makers to a full concept of federalism, and more so with the emergence of an all-powerful Centre in the 52 years of post-colonial independent India. It is the policies that have emerged from this pan-Indian political equation and how they have disturbed the lives and liberties of the several subnationalisms of the nation that Baruah examines so effectively in these pages. As his chapter titles show, Baruah is as concerned with the colonial antecedents of the problem and its transformations since 1947 as he is with its contemporary manifestations on the eve of the 21st century. His chapter titles speak for themselves: Theoretical Considerations: The Limits of "Nation Building"; Colonial Geography as Destiny: Assam as a Province of British India; The Making of a Land Frontier: Assam and Its Immigrants; Cultural Politics of Language, Subnationalism, and Pan-Indianism; Contested Identity, Culture Wars, and the Breakup of Colonial Assam; Protest Against Immigration, Ethnic Rifts, and Assam's Crisis of Governability; Militant Subnationalism, Human Rights, and the Chasm with Pan-Indianism; "We Are Bodos, Not Assamese": Contesting a Subnational Narrative; Conclusion: India Against Itself. Baruah, himself Assamese, or "ethnic Assamese" as he was surprised to learn from an interlocutor in his home state, comes to his inquiry from the perspective of the political scientist. He chairs his department at Bard College in the United States. But at the same time he brings to bear on his analysis a rich historical sensibility which makes of this small volume in the Pennsylvania Critical Histories Series a model of cross-disciplinary scholarship. It is a book that defines the issues and the crises of governability they pose, but which is not without hope of the possibilities for change. In an essay so well-written as this one, I can do no better than to quote Baruah himself on the argument he makes: "A radically reformed federalism," he suggests, "would at least have [had] the potential for some day developing a more effective politics of accountability and of better accommodating the logic of subnationalism within a pan-Indian polity." It is an argument the author elaborates for the Northeast, and specifically Assam, but with the clear implication that while the terms of engagement may vary, the logic applies with equal meaning to other regionalisms, including those of Punjab and Kashmir. Reformed federalism for Baruah would soften the "big brother" role of the Central government and create space for a more autonomous state-level political arena, for example with respect to immigration and enfranchisement, issues of culture and vis a vis development policy and control over resources. In the important matter of development Baruah cites Assam's former commissioner of planning and development to make his point, showing that the major beneficiaries of the increase of Central development funds in the northeastern states have been a group of contractors and license holders -- mostly from outside the region -- whose "main ambition is to make a fast buck and get out of the area as quickly as possible." Then as development funds are increased in response to rising subnational discontent, there is an enhanced siphoning off of these funds, and worse, local officials are seen to be in league with the adventurer-entrepreneurs. Baruah's point is not that a radical federalism would resolve this debilitating crisis; but that it would introduce a politics of accountability and at least begin to move in the direction of change. Written well before the just-concluded 13th general elections, Baruah nevertheless anticipates more than a glimmer of hope in what can best be described as the pluralizing of politics in the multi-ethnic social and cultural environment that is India. The large number of regional, or subnational political parties, to use Baruah's term, and the coalition governments of which they have become a part, effectively five times between 1977 and the multi- party, Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government sworn in on October 13, 1999, make the point well. This recent history suggests that coalition politics is not a passing phase, and apart from the moderating influences it may bring to bear on the ideological disposition of the BJP, the expectation is that it may also serve to moderate the policy influences of the all-powerful Indian state in its dealings with the regional, or subnational components of the Indian Union. Baruah begs for such an inclusionary politics of accommodation in this thoughtful consideration of how the Indian polity functions and how it might improve on the process. I conclude with Baruah's own conclusion: "Those at the helm of the Indian State, I hope, will be able to distance themselves from the derivative, suffocating, and quite out-of-date paradigm of nation-building and return to a more confident vision of the civilizational unity of the subcontinent. It is only such self-confidence that can enable India to launch a bold project of genuine federation-building, which ultimately is the only way to bring subnationalism and pan-Indianism closer together." It is a hope and optimism many will share.
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