Athidi Dhevo Bhava 180400
Beauty of Indian subcontinent is incomplete without mentioning its North Eastern region. It comprises of seven states which are otherwise called “Seven sisters “because of their uncanny resemblance in terms of natural beauty. They are - MMMANAT - no this is not some Bollywood flick! It is the abbreviation for Northeast India’s seven sisters - Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Assam and Tripura.
When India became independent from the United Kingdom in 1947, only three states covered the area. Manipur and Tripura were princely states, while a much larger Assam Province was under direct British rule with capital being Dispur. Four new states were carved out of the original territory of Assam in the decades following independence, in line with the policy of the Indian government of reorganizing the states along ethnic and linguistic lines. Accordingly, Nagaland became a separate state in 1963, followed by Meghalaya in 1972. Mizoram became a Union Territory in 1972, and achieved statehood - along with Arunachal Pradesh - in 1987. Various factors including ethnic and linguistic divides led to the formation of seven separate States, now popularly called the seven sisters.
The sobriquet, the Land of Seven Sisters, had been originally coined, coinciding with the inauguration of the new states in January, 1972, by Jyoti Prasad Saikia, a journalist in Tripura in course of a radio talk. Saikia later compiled a book on the interdependence and commonness of the Seven Sister States and named it the Land of Seven Sisters. It has been primarily because of this publication that the sobriquet has caught on.
The north-eastern region of India is the most varied. Before independence, the entire north-east was known as Assam Province. The North East is a frontier region in every sense. They share a border of over 2000 km. with China, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar but connected to the mainland via a 20km wide
When India became independent from the United Kingdom in 1947, only three states covered the area. Manipur and Tripura were princely states, while a much larger Assam Province was under direct British rule with capital being Dispur. Four new states were carved out of the original territory of Assam in the decades following independence, in line with the policy of the Indian government of reorganizing the states along ethnic and linguistic lines. Accordingly, Nagaland became a separate state in 1963, followed by Meghalaya in 1972. Mizoram became a Union Territory in 1972, and achieved statehood - along with Arunachal Pradesh - in 1987. Various factors including ethnic and linguistic divides led to the formation of seven separate States, now popularly called the seven sisters.
The sobriquet, the Land of Seven Sisters, had been originally coined, coinciding with the inauguration of the new states in January, 1972, by Jyoti Prasad Saikia, a journalist in Tripura in course of a radio talk. Saikia later compiled a book on the interdependence and commonness of the Seven Sister States and named it the Land of Seven Sisters. It has been primarily because of this publication that the sobriquet has caught on.
The north-eastern region of India is the most varied. Before independence, the entire north-east was known as Assam Province. The North East is a frontier region in every sense. They share a border of over 2000 km. with China, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar but connected to the mainland via a 20km wide