Bring North-East into mainstream, says Sinha

MUMBAI, May 9: Efforts to curb insurgency in the North-East should be directed towards inculcating a sense of common civilisation among the people, Assam Governor S K Sinha, said here today. Historically, the north-eastern states did not constitute a part of Indian nation state, but they certainly are the part of "Indian civilisation state", Sinha said, pointing at frequent references of the North-East in Indian epics.

Ethnically too the people of North-East could be traced back to the Mongolian race as different from the Aryan and Dravidan races that characterises most of the Indian mainland. Nevertheless, there were several strong civilisational links between the equally developed cultures of Ganga, Cauvery and Brahmaputra, he emphasised.

The post independence history, however, is a one of neglect, says Sinha. As a case to the point, he says, mainland India had still not recognised the contribution of Gopinath Borodolai, who was the member of Indian constitutional assembly and also the chief minsterof Assam until after his death.