Not-So-Freeway: Informal Highway Taxation and Armed Groups in North-East India

Abstract

What are the implications of non-state armed group taxation on the business environment and conflict dynamics? Various non-state armed groups collect ‘tax’ along arterial roads in north-east India – of different types and amounts, with varying degrees of coercion and systematisation. Based on extensive fieldwork, including 100 interviews with non-state armed groups, businesspeople and state actors, we use the lens of the transit economy in the Indian state of Manipur along the Indo-Myanmar border to identify the long-term effects of non-state armed group taxation.