Small state, big brother

Assam-Mizoram violence is an outcome of BJP trying too hard to 'integrate' distinct northeastern states. This has unleashed latent regionalism

To understand why tiny Mizoram and Assam are fighting for territory with machine guns, we need to raise five questions. In the answers would lie the nub of the issue.

First, why does Assam have a major, contentious territorial dispute with four of the six northeastern states it shares borders with but not the remaining two? At least not any substantive ones. Here’s a counter question. Why did India have substantive border disputes with almost all its neighbours, and especially those that came into being after Partition?

The explanation is that just as Pakistan was carved out of India, and