1st Edition
Infrastructure of Injustice State and Politics in Manipur and Northeast India
This book examines the dynamics of infrastructure development in Northeast India, especially Manipur, from a socio-anthropological perspective. It looks at the pattern and distribution of infrastructure in the region to analyse the impact of education, roads and health care on the livelihoods, ecosystems, governance and social futures of communities.
The volume examines the infrastructure deficit in the conflict-ridden state of Manipur, focusing especially on electricity and roads. The author shows how problems arising from poor infrastructure are further complicated on account of corruption, insurgency, ethnic unrest and the politics of marginalisation. Looking at the discourse around development in the northeast, the volume also highlights the structural inequality in Manipur and other states. It further shows how infrastructure development can become a means for enabling trade, creating markets, diluting boundaries between varied ethnic groups and connecting people.
This book will be useful for researchers and scholars of development studies, economics, social anthropology, sociology and public policy – particularly those interested in India’s northeast.
Lists of tables. Preface. List of abbreviations. Introduction: infrastructure of injustice 1. The place of infrastructure in development 2. Political economy of development in Manipur 3. State of contestation and negotiation 4. Political highways and its tributaries 5. Electricity: regularly irregular 6. Social and political processes of infrastructure development 7. Conclusion: beyond Unholy Trinity. Index.
Biography
Raile Rocky Ziipao teaches in Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Guwahati Off Campus, Nagaland Regional Centre. He was the former Raghunathan Family Fellow, Harvard University. His research interests include critical infrastructure, political economy of development, northeast studies and tribal and indigenous epistemologies.
