Looking into the Past for a Future: Shared History of Northeast India and its Neighbors
FY2019
Implementing Agency | Sasakawa Peace Foundation |
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Partner(s) | Omeo Kumar Das Institute of Social Change and Development (OKDI/India) |
Year | Second year of a two-year project |
Project Type | Self Operated |
Budget | 13,000,000 yen |
Project Outline
The Indian government's Act East Policy has drawn increased domestic and international attention to Northeast India, the region that links South and Southeast Asia. In recent decades, attempts have been made to reestablish connectivity between countries in this unofficial region, which includes the area known as Northeast India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar, through a series of multilateral infrastructure initiatives to link the region and create a shared future. However, it seems that the results of such initiatives are profoundly conditioned by “social reconciliation,” based on people-to-people contact established through mutual trust, shared confidence, and friendships. To better understand these underlying factors, this project aims to consider a) whether the “shared history” of the region can constitute the core of the social capital essential to forge effective people-to-people ties and b) the scope and possibility of accommodating such an initiative to understand this “shared history” within the broader framework of regional cooperation. In particular, attempts will be made to forge academic collaborations among individuals and institutions in answering these two questions.
Program Officer
Yui Nakamura