“The British viewed the Northeastern frontier as a buffer between India and China. They were not keen on demarcating borders between British India and Burma, as Burma was also part of British India. There was no change even when Burma was separated from India in 1935. They were more focused on the external border because of military or strategic reasons. They no doubt imposed direct colonial administration in the valleys of Northeast which yielded considerable revenue, but they showed little interest in the hill areas which were variously classified as partly excluded, fully excluded, and unadministered areas,” says H Srikanth, Professor, Department of Political Science, North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU).