A restive corner of India is becoming more peaceful

HOW TO DIVIDE India into administrative units is a question that has vexed all its governments. For a time the main focus was to rationalise, as hundreds of feudal “princely” states were swept into the bigger provinces of the Indian republic. But since 1960 the number of states and territories has been rising, as different groups have successfully lobbied for their own unit, on the basis of language, ethnicity or administrative convenience. There were 20 in 1956; now there are 36.

Few areas have seen as much upheaval as the north-east, an ethnically mixed region of 50m people that was almost cut off from the rest of the country by the creation of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in 1947. It began as a single state, Assam, plus two principalities, Manipur and Tripura. It has since splintered into seven states, as Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland have been hived off Assam (see map). The region is still replete with disgruntled factions, however: it has spawned more than 125 insurgencies since the 1950s. Their varied struggles for statehood, independence or simply to clobber rival groups—many of these micro-conflicts have pitted “natives” against migrants—have left perhaps 40,000 dead.