Read the following paragraph carefully and answer the five questions that follow:
In the North-East, regional aspirations reached a turning point in the 1980s. This region now consists of seven States, also referred to as the ‘Seven Sisters’. The region has only 4 percent of the country’s population but about twice as much share of its area. A small corridor of about 22 kilometers connects the region to the rest of the country. Otherwise, the region shares boundaries with China, Myanmar, and Bangladesh and serves as India’s gateway to South-East Asia.
The region has witnessed a lot of change since 1947. Tripura, Manipur, and Khasi Hills of Meghalaya were erstwhile Princely States which merged with India after Independence. The entire region of North-East has undergone considerable political reorganization. Nagaland
State was created in 1963; Manipur, Tripura, and Meghalaya in 1972, while Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh became separate States only in 1987. The Partition of India in 1947 had reduced the North-East to a land-locked region and affected its economy. Cut off from the rest of India, the region suffered neglect in developmental terms. Its politics too remained insulated. At the same time, most States in this region underwent major demographic changes due to an influx of migrants from neighboring States and countries. The isolation of the region, its complex social character, and its backwardness compared to other parts of the country have all resulted in the complicated set of demands from different States of the North-East. The vast international border and weak communication between the North-East and the rest of India have further added to the delicate nature of politics there. Three issues dominate the politics of North-East: demands for autonomy, movements for secession, and opposition to ‘outsiders’. Major initiatives on the first issue in the 1970s set the stage for some dramatic developments on the second and the third in the 1980s.
