Counter-insurgency must be multi-pronged and cross-governmental to be effective. The various developmental ministries in the government have to play a concerted role. Lack of development and poverty are responsible for disaffection with the state and rise of insurgent movements. Enhanced economic progress can be an effective check on the inclination towards revolt. The developmental departments in the government thus have a major role in countering insurgency. The Police establishment should also be reformed to acquire integrity, accountability, capability and devotion. Measures should be taken to make the police free from political interference. The judiciary has to be made accountable. A judicial ombudsman to whom aggrieved litigators can make appeals could be a good beginning. The army and paramilitary security forces engaged in counter-insurgency should be given special training which emphasizes human rights education, respect for human and constitutional rights, and respect for ethnic and communal sensibilities. There is also an urgent need to establish an independent and powerful Bureau of Internal Affairs within the security forces which can probe excesses and abuse of authority without fear or favor to punish the indicted.

Ordinary citizens in insurgency affected areas should also be made aware of their rights and obligations. This could significantly deter the abuse of authority by the security forces, combined with an effective grievance redressal mechanism such as the proposed Bureau of Internal Affairs. The promotion of legal awareness can be achieved by a combination of governmental efforts and the involvement of non-governmental organizations. Wide publicity of basic rights through newspapers and pamphlets, seminars and their inclusion in the curricula of educational institutions would be useful. Besides, knowledge of basic rights can also be disseminated through established channels of community communication like the church, the village councils, and student bodies, depending on their feasibility in relation to a particular group or community.

The chronic insurgency in the northeast is, besides other factors, a product of withering governance and the predominantly military approach to counter-insurgency. By its very nature, insurgency is a challenge to the existing state of governance. It is a revolt against inadequate governance, which failed to meet the economic, socio-political, ethno-cultural and physical security needs of various communities, especially those on the periphery. Therefore, the first step towards tackling insurgency is to make the administration provide good governance. An efficient, effective and accountable administration, which sincerely and adequately meets the needs of the people would be the most viable counter-insurgency mechanism.

Counter-insurgency should also have a political content. When the crisis in governance gets prolonged, common grievances can acquire political hues. The grievances of a particular region or community that could have been redressed by timely administrative attention, when ignored, acquire political overtones that require political solutions. It is insufficient then to seek purely administrative and developmental remedies. Optimal doses of political decentralization and self-governance then become necessary to arrest the tide of political dissent. This is especially true of many insurgency movements in the North-East. Therefore, along with efforts to ensure good governance, an objective assessment of political decentralization and its timely administration is advisable given the unabated insurgency in the region.

Research in the last decade has suggested linkages between education, especially the teaching of history, and conflict. The content and interpretation in history text books, the inclusion or exclusion, inadvertent or otherwise, in chronicles of national histories, and the emphasis laid on civilizational, racial, religious and center-periphery contests are believed to inculcate conflict. Besides, the nationalist discourse, a dominant theme in most historical texts, which legitimizes nationhood, based on differences with ‘others’ tends to influence regional, ethnic and religious communities. Those on the periphery of a state whose heroes are not featured as heroes in the national historiography, whose cultures finds no mention in the national culture and whose religion is identified with ‘others’ and vilified are extremely vulnerable to the temptations of secessionism. Augmented by the lack of economic welfare and the collapse of governance, these disillusionments can give rise to revolts. This thesis fits the situation in North East India.

The focus should now be on evolving the peace-promoting role of education, and explore how education can bring about an understanding of the sources of conflict, promote conflict management, and contribute to post-conflict resolution and reconciliation. Given the comparatively high rates of literacy obtained in the North Eastern states, this approach deserves serious attention and could be tried out rather than continuing with the old and hackneyed carrot and stick policy.