A seminar marking the bicentenary of the Treaty of Yandaboo concluded that the pact, which saw Burma, present-day Myanmar, cede control of Assam and Manipur to British India, should “not be seen as a past event, but as an ongoing influence shaping governance, identity, memory, ecology and the indigenous issue in the Northeast”.

The treaty, signed on February 24, 1826, not only ended the First Anglo-Burmese War but also compelled Burma to cede Arakan, Assam, Manipur and Tenasserim to British India. Burma also had to pay one million pound sterling to the British in indemnity.

The seminar was organised by the North Eastern Social Research Centre (NESRC) in Guwahati on February 24 and 25. It brought together scholars and thinkers from multiple disciplines to reflect on the treaty’s enduring impact on the Northeast.

Father Walter Fernandes, director of NESRC, said the Yandaboo Treaty transformed Northeast India (NEI) from a conglomeration of tribes and kingdoms into a British colony. “It had profound social, political, economic and religious implications. Until 1826, many areas of Assam, Manipur and Tripura had felt the religious and cultural influence of Peninsular India, popularly known as ‘mainland’ India. Politically much of NEI was in the Burmese zone of influence. With this treaty, for the first time, the region became part of India’s political map,” he said.

Professor H. Srikant of NEHU, who delivered the keynote address, observed that Yandaboo was a watershed moment in the history of the Northeast, as the new administration and economics introduced by the colonial forces disrupted the interdependent relationship between communities.

“Overall, the seminar showed that the Treaty of Yandaboo should be seen not as a past event, but as an ongoing influence shaping governance, identity, memory, ecology and the indigenous issue in Northeast India. The Yandaboo legacy continues to shape identity, resources and authority in the Northeast, but these are also being challenged as communities assert belonging, reinterpret history, and imagine different futures,” the NESRC said in a statement.

Alak Kumar Buragohain, vice-chancellor of Royal Global University, added that the demographic shift caused by the immigrants brought to the region by the colonial regime has affected the equilibrium between people and ecology, between people and animals, and among people. He suggested that the negative influences of the Yandaboo Treaty cannot be undone, instead there should be an overall restructuring of the traditional architecture.

Prof Arupjyoti Saikia of IIT Guwahati dwelt on the history of migration that the colonial regime encouraged to change the region’s economy to suit the needs of the British industrial revolution, at the cost of the people of the Northeast while Prof Saswati Choudhury, director of Omeo Kumar Das Institute, spoke of the need to rethink the approach to migration and the indigenous issue.