The surge of cultural revivalism, demands for ethnic homelands and
affirmative action policies based on ethnic affiliation evince the establishment
of ethnic identity based politics in the eastern Himalayan borderland where
most political contestations are now made on the basis of ethnic claims (see
Caplan 1970; Subba 1992, 1999; Sinha 2006, 2009; Hangen 2007, 2010;
Vandenhelsken 2011). Ethnicity and ethnic identity may have emerged
recently as conceptual categories, but they have always formed an intrinsic
component of the lived experiences, history, politics and culture of the region
and what contemporary politics particularly highlights is the malleability with
which ethnic identity can adapt itself to changing political environments.