Foothills

The valleys of the Brahmaputra and the uplands around the valley meet each other in the foothills of Northeast India. This entry explores, through pre-colonial history and current day situations, the role that the foothills have in the relationship between the hills and the plains. Historically, the foothills were both borders and sites of negotiations between the different kingdoms of the Brahmaputra Valley and the residents of the uplands surrounding the valley, with the duars standing out as feats of diplomacy between the two regions. These negotiations concerned religious identity, control over trading areas and resources, political alliances, ethnicity, identity amongst other aspects of life. In today’s Northeast India, the foothills continue to mediate between the hills and plains, albeit in a different political and economic landscape. More importantly, these sub-montane regions have acquired their own specificities, forged out of their roles as mediators and sites of negotiations. It is these specificities that distinguish the foothills from the other regions of the Northeast. This entry seeks to highlight the importance of the ‘foothills’ and set them apart as an area that deserves to be studied in its own right.