Highland, Heartland and Hinterland Conflicts: Introducing a Typology of State-rebel Conflict in Northeast India

The many “forgotten conflicts” of Northeast India remain poorly understood. Important works have highlighted deep nuances and historical variation in patterns of state-society relations across the region’s highlands and plains. Despite this, variations in state-rebel conflict patterns remain under-theorized and comparative analyses remain limited. This article leverages Armed Orders in South Asia (AOSA) data (Staniland 2021), archival, newswire and secondary data to propose a threefold typology of state-rebel conflict in the region that reflects key spatial and temporal variations. In the peripheral Highland conflicts, state-rebel relations are fluid, with early total warfare transitioning into dealmaking and sustained, armed coexistence. In the Heartlands, the former princely states of Manipur and Tripura and the heartlands of Assamese nationalism, rebels are afforded far less space, leading to enduring low-level wars of containment. In Assam’s post-1985 hinterland conflicts, the state deals with pro-autonomy rebels, but is unrelenting in its containment of pro-secessionist groups.