Northeast India insurgency

The Northeast India insurgency refers to a long-running cluster of armed conflicts in India's seven (now eight, including Sikkim) northeastern states, where ethnic, tribal, and separatist movements have fought the Indian state and each other since the 1950s. The region is connected to the rest of India only by the narrow Siliguri Corridor ("Chicken's Neck"), and shares borders with China, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal — a geography that has shaped both grievance and strategy.

The earliest theatre was Nagaland, where the Naga National Council under A.Z. Phizo declared independence in 1947 and launched an armed campaign; successor groups, notably the NSCN factions (NSCN-IM and NSCN-K after a 1988 split), continue to negotiate with New Delhi, with a Framework Agreement signed in 2015 but no final settlement. Mizoram saw the Mizo National Front uprising from 1966 until the 1986 Mizo Accord, widely cited as India's most successful insurgency settlement. Manipur hosts multiple valley-based Meitei groups (UNLF, PLA) and hill-based Kuki and Naga outfits; ethnic violence between Meitei and Kuki communities flared severely in 2023. Assam has been shaped by the ULFA insurgency (founded 1979) and the Bodo movement, partially resolved through the 2003 and 2020 Bodo Accords. Tripura insurgencies largely subsided by the 2010s.

Key legal and institutional features include the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA), which grants the military broad immunity in areas declared "disturbed" and has drawn sustained criticism from human rights bodies including the UN. India has also pursued cross-border cooperation with Myanmar and Bhutan — notably Bhutan's 2003 Operation All Clear against ULFA camps.

Drivers commonly cited include contested citizenship and migration (the Assam Accord of 1985, the NRC process), competition over land and political representation among tribal and non-tribal groups, underdevelopment, and porous borders enabling sanctuary and arms flows.