‘THE NORTH EAST FOUNDATION’ is a public charitable trust established by a donation of an Assamese writer of the royalties from his books and also the copyright of his twelve books. This trust is set up to stimulate intellectual endeavour, to spread education, to conduct research into various socio-economic, educational, cultural, environmental and political aspects of the society of the North East, in a wide national, Southeast Asian and global perspective.
Some of its main objectives are :
- Spread and advancement of literacy and education and diffusion of knowledge in the society including adult, nonformal and population education with special referance to woman education and empowerment.
- To conduct and encourage research into Social, Political, Economic spheres and history of the society of the North East.
- Policy research into various aspects of north east and to help formulate policy guidelines.
- To encourage development of art, literature and culture and to provide platform for expression and exchange; and to encourage preservation and development of traditional, folk and tribal art and culture.
- To help formulate policy guidelines for healthcare, health education, health awareness campaigns and to conduct such campaigns especially on AIDS prevention and drug abuse.
- To study the problems of adaption and promotion of appropriate technologies and intersectoral co-operation suited to the North Eastern region.
- To take up projects, pilot studies, to help formulate policies for economic upliftment of the rural population and to play an active role in defending and safeguard the rights of the poor and the downtrodden of the socially and educationally backward communities, of the tribal people and women.
North East Foundation is a non profit organisaton which is empowered to accept donations, contributions grants or subscriptions from persons, organisations, governments to augment its corpus fund and to carry out its activities.
AREAS OF STUDY AND ACTION – AN OUTLINE
The trust proposes to undertake research and academic activities in the following core areas in accordance with its decleared aims and objecives. The basic aim of projects taken up for this purpose should be to generate information and out look which have relevance for desirable social change and development of the region and improvement of the quality of life of the inhabitants of the region. Keeping these consideratons in view, the following thrust areas of research and core areas of academic enquiry and social activism may be identified.
- Development studies with special reference to North East Indian States:
Studies are to be undertake with an eye on appropriate development strategies for North-East India and identification of constraints of development. Within this, studies relating to problems of Industrial growth is an important sub-area. What should be the perspective of industrial development? The choice between hard and soft areas of Industrial growth need to be examined. It is, for example, said that the social cost of heavy Industrial development is often too high compared to small-scale Industries, the latter representing the softer among the two options. But the ground realities in North-East India are such that we cannot opt out of the prospect of heavy Industrialization. Research should be geared to develop an out look on what ought to be done to keep the social costs of heavy Industrialization low in the region. More generally, it is necessary to determine the contents of economic development, keeping in view the improvement of the quality of life of diverse communities of the region - Studies relating to traditional patterns of agriculture in the region:
Elements that have positive and negative potentials for agricultural development need to be identified. The work habits of the people, their out look and culture generally have been considered for long as restrictive factors to the growth of even a middle peasantry in the region. In this area, there are several related issues for investigation, for example, (a) Study of land management emergent patterns therein and relations of productions: (b) Prospects of inducing technological changes with reference to indigenous methods and goals of production and, (c) Spread and distribution of social and economic infrastructure, including transport and storage, along with assessment of the norms and criteria adopted for location and distribution of the same. - Population dynamics and social demography of the region:
This ought to be an important thrust area in view of the impact of population movements on social, cultural, political and economic fronts in all parts of the region. Immigration, inter-regional and intra-regional migrations are all important issues having a bearing on the character and tenor of social change and development - Ethno-history, ethnicity, inter-community relations, regionalism and social movements:
The Foundation aims to make a serious effort to delve into the area of ethno-dynamics to which are related various past and ongoing socio-political and ethnic movemetns. The regions has been for quite some years now in a state of ferment and no studies on problems on social change and development can be realised without taking into account the ethnic dimension.
Thrust areas (iii) and (iv) are closely inter-linked, and those two in turn are related to (i) and (ii) for, ethnic processes and ethnic relations tie up with changes in the patterns of ownership of land, management and control of resources, problems of migration, land reforms and political processes, etc. - Studies relating to scheduled tribes of the hills and plains in the region with particular reference to problems of rapid social transformation and development:
While problems taken up under (i) to (iv) might substantially cove the Scheduled Tribes of the hills and the plains area of Assam and North-East India, their very unique problems of development, integration and adjustment to the demands of the nation call for a separate thrust area. Specific and concrete proposals of research having relevance to policy and implementation of development and welfare-oriented projects need to be undertaken. This might also be developed as an area of action research with due participation of the concerned people themselves. In other words, in the envisaged studies in this area, the researchers may formulate proposals and execute those in active collaboration for the communities to be investigated. This could be an ideal area for participatory research having scope for close and continuous dialogue between academics and the community. - Studies relating to woman and children:
There are specialized agencies and research cells, including voluntary agencies, involved in the study of problems of woman and children. Nevertheless, the Foundation might also in the foreseeable future involve itself in a well-designed programme in view of the great relevance of the area. - Studies relating to environmental problems, ecosystem planning and development:
The dimension of environmental problems require careful assessment. Resources of the region have been extracted in a manner to cause ecological imbalance some areas and the problems are likely to increase. The Foundation ought to develop research potential in this area in close collaboration with specialized agencies dealing with environment. - Studies relating to problems of integration of the North-Eastern Region:
In this area, research proposals could be developed focusing on proper identification of linkages between the peoples of this region and the rest of the country. Interdependence between North-East India and the rest of India as well as interdependence between the various entities of North-East India need to be properly explored and assessed. In addition, linkages and relations of the region with countries beyond the frontiers need to be assessed in historical and cognitive dimensions.
- Junior short-term fellowship (JSTF) programme: The programme should aim at human resource development in the social sciences and also generate field work based studies that are generally useful. Studies undertaken in this programme should be instruments for bringing about desirable social change and development. The JSTF programme should be made an annual feature of the foundation, as important studies on short-term footing could be conducted at low cost, while creating a band of young researchers in the social sciences. The scheme should provide avenues for undertaking urgent research on problems of a practical nature that cannot wait for the results of relatively longtime research projects.
- Consultancy service: With the expansion of the faculty, the Foundation ought to actively explore possibilities of research consultancy service to Government and public and private sector agencies, Monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment studies of various developmental and welfare projects while being socially meaningful exercises could be an important source of revenue for the Foundation.
- Seminars and workshops: The foundations should organize seminars on well-defined themes from time to time which relate to the aims and objects of the Foundation. In addition, workshops contouring round various projects undertaken for study should be held on a regular basis. Workshops on research methodology focusing on interdisciplinary approach must also become a regular feature of the Foundation’s activity.
- Provision for Visiting Faculty: The Center ought to create scope for having Senior social Scientists and other eminent persons interested in, and working on, problems of North-East India to come and spend some time (3 to 6 months, which may be extendable) in the Foundation to take up and supervise specific projects and also giving an opportunity to them to complete hour work which they have launched earlier in their respective parent organizations. The Foundation can greatly benefit from their presence since they could lend their services and expertise towards building up the centre as a centre of advanced research.
- Invitation lectures: The Foundation should create scope for invited lectures on topical subjects in various subjects having relevance to North-East India. There could be two types of lectures under this programme; (a) An annual lecture programme by distinguished persons on selected topics. Such lectures should subsequently be published as occasional papers of the Foundation. (b) Invitation to eminent persons, both from within and outside the region, to deliver lectures when they are in town in connection with some other activities. This way, the Foundation could become an active meeting ground of local social scientists.
- Publication Programme: The Foundation ought to have a regular programme of publication of research reports and occasional papers. Even the field work-based studies by short-term fellows should be multiplied for wider circulation.
- A centre for Inter-disciplinary studies: The Foundation should, by definition, be a multidisciplinary research centre in the social and creative sciences. But in a multi-disciplinary center also there is scope for the emergence of discrete cells and interest articulation contouring round each of the social science disciplines. The Foundation shall endeavor to create a full time faculty in the future to guide and carryout its academic and research activities. The ultimate aim shall be to develop the foundation into a deemed University of creative learning.
- Library: The Foundation library should have a clear orientation with regard to the collection it builds up. First, there should be a North-East India emphasis in the collection. Further, the Foundation library should be developed as a proper document library of reports and publications on North-East India not available in Book format. For instance, census Reports, including photo-copies of reports now out of print, Government Revenue Department reports, North-Eastern Council reports and sundry other reports acquired systematically will make the library a sort of data bank of secondary source materials for research. There should also be a planned drive to build up a collection of pamphlets, literature on various social and ethnic-identity movements in the region. In sum, the center’s library shall be a repository of source materials for research.