Narrating political history about contested space: Tourism Websites of India’s Northeast

Those who have examined tourism for India’s Northeast have primarily focused on issues of development. However, as a contested, postcolonial space, wherein multiple groups produce contending knowledge claims about political history and belonging, I examine the political implications of tourism for the Northeast. Specifically, I examine the histories offered within state-produced tourism websites for the seven states historically comprising the Northeast. I compare these to twelve corporate tourism websites for the Northeast. I argue that the state websites especially obscure competing knowledge claims and advance the hegemonic narrative of the nation. In doing so, they also reaffirm the state’s racialized, sexualized production of knowledge about the Northeast. Ultimately, a focus on the political underscores the complexity of tourism for complex, postcolonial spaces such as India’s Northeast.

Research highlights
► I compare Indian tourist websites’ representations of Northeast Indian history.
► Both state and corporate websites advance nationalist versions of Northeast history.
► Both sets of websites elide alternatives to nationalist history.
► State websites are even more misleading than corporate websites.