Celebrating or Consuming: Social and Ecological Implications of Public Cultural Festivals in North-East India

North-East India, a region comprising federal states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura, has a rich tapestry of visual, material and performative cultures along with abundant biodiversity. The region is often positioned as a ‘periphery’ because of its distinct topographical, geographical, ecological, social, political and economic situation. Often seen as lacking in ‘development,’ North-East India has been the recipient of various development policies of the central and state governments; Look-East Policy being a case in point. With limited opportunities for the consolidation of manufacturing and service industries, the last decade and a half saw numerous attempts to make the region a haven of cultural (read: indigenous) tourism. Thus, one can see the emergence of many public cultural festivals mainly organised between September and December every year attracting performers, participants and tourists from across the world. Although the festivals are portrayed as a window into the rich cultural heritage of the region, they have had a huge social and ecological impact including increased social inequalities and irreversible biodiversity loss.

Set in this context, this paper interrogates the numerous social and ecological issues and challenges resulting from increased tourist activities in the region by focusing on three popular festivals - Hornbill Festival (Nagaland), Ziro Festival (Arunachal Pradesh) and Cherry Blossom Festival (Meghalaya). The findings reveal the complex re-negotiation of the broader terrains of identity, culture, commodification, consumption, development and ecology. They further highlight the need for sustainable tourism practices underscoring the importance of integrating local cultural knowledge and practices with conservation efforts by including community stakeholders to preserve the ecology and biodiversity of the region. Through this, the paper intends to add to the existing body of knowledge on the contentious relationship between development and ecology especially in the context of global south.