Abstract

This paper seeks to look at various forms of infrastructural initiatives, flow of war materials, reliefs and restorations measures, and subsequently the creation of two Southeast Asian nations – India and Burma – bringing about countless changes and tensions to the local communities in the Patkai Hills. This paper argues that the grid of military-economic spatial brought about by the Second World War not only brought tensions and complexities to communities in the Patkai range but also create a site to experience alternative forms of infrastructures, technologies, administration, labour, occupations, habits, tastes, market, etc., thereby re-shaping the fabric of their social, political, and economic sphere. In other words, I attempt to understand how the Second World War not only intensified the state presence in the Naga Hills, but also re-shaped the fabric of the political, economic, and societal ranging from labour extraction to monetisation, from urbanisation to demographic changes, from marketization to new tastes, habits, and occupation, and enhanced political mobilisation.