On the Edge of Empire
Four British Plans for North East India, 1941–1947
- David R. Syiemlieh - Former Member and Chairman, Union Public Service Commission
For too long, secondary references have been used in writing about these plans as the original documents were not easily available for research. This book compiles the four British plans into a single volume. There is a connection between the four plans of Reid, Clow, Mills and Adams. All four were members of the Indian Civil Service, all four served in various capacities in the region and all officers left their accounts/notes perhaps not mindful that even if these were not implemented the notes would come up for discussion many years after their departure.
A great work for those who are interested in tribal development and more specifically the development of the northeast of India...indeed an eye-opener...[The authors’] painstaking efforts to bring out all the important documents from the concealed vaults and let them speak for themselves are really laudable...the notes contained in this volume show this can really be done with real love.
Syiemlieh’s painstaking scholarly effort will provide scholars with materials for rethinking the politics and economy of this region and eventually empower the subjects of history...the book is a must read for not only intellectuals and policy makers of this region but for those social and political groups who claim to vice the aspirations of ethnic communities in the region...through such a project Prof. Syiemlieh has and will strengthen the ground for doing alternative history.
“[This book] brings into the public domain primary sources on a crucial aspect of planning for the region following the departure of the British administration establishes a solid empirical foundation on which future debates can now be anchored…the book, in chronological order takes readers through plans written by four different colonial administrators towards the end of the Raj…. [It is] hugely significant in providing direction for further research that might give greater clarity to the events that followed, and which determined the fate of the region.