Before independence the North Eastern Region of India used to have multi-modal transportation networks (i.e.roadways, railways and riverine waterways) through the territories which are now Bangladesh and Myanmar to several ports [e.g. Chittagong, Sittwe and Yangon (then Rangoon)] as well as to what is now termed as Mainland India. Thanks to the enterprise of the British colonialists, trade from the region used to flourish; and in fact, tea and petroleum used to reach the Chittagong and Kolkata (then Calcutta) ports through the Brahmaputra-Padma-Meghna riverine waterway, as well as through railway lines passing through present-day Bangladesh.
The then undivided Assam therefore used to be one of the richer provinces of the country, and had a per-capita income higher than the national average upto 1950.
With the onset of freedom and the simultaneous partition exercise, along with the creation of Burma (Myanmar) as a separate country a decade prior to that; the age-old trade routes and transportation linkages of the region were suddenly snapped rendering it land-locked. As a matter of fact, security concerns prompted the gradual conversion of the 4500 odd kilometers length of international border that the region shares with no less than five countries of the subcontinent into a fortress-like formation. The artificial closure of the primeval trade routes and transportation links with and through the neighbouring countries of South and South East Asia, along with the trade and transport bottlenecks which thwarted the region from getting properly integrated into the economic system of the Mainland India, together resulted in economic stagnation of the region with serious consequences like social strife and insurgency. The response of the then Central Government was the imposition of further trade and travel restrictions – engendering a vicious cycle of psychological disconnect, sporadic violence and extortion, and skewed development in the region. The region thus came to be looked upon through the prism of internal security.
The scenario of looking at the region from that angle underwent a paradigm shift in 2001 with the setting up of the Department of DONER, specifically for the development of the North East Region. It may be safely surmised that this occurred because the country had undergone the massive liberalization exercise in the early nineties of the last century, the fruits thereof were beginning to be harvested around that time in the frontline states, and so it was felt that development needed to trickle down even to the north-eastern corners of the nation.
Meanwhile, another policy shift of the Central Govt. occurred a decade earlier with the adoption in 1991 of the Look East Policy – whose basic objective was to take advantage of the physical proximity of the fast developing economies of East and South East Asia. Over the years, the efforts did fructify with India being accepted as one of the strategic partners of the ASEAN bloc. Yet the endeavour was not initially inclusive of North East India, as it laid stress on marine connectivity with East and South East Asia through the ports on the Bay of Bengal.
However, under a progressive chain of events a revamped Look East Policy took shape in 2007, which came to incorporate the North Eastern Region.
