India’s North East is a region disconnected from the mainland and its collective imagination in many ways, geographically, historically and politically. Rarely has this divide been bridged. But now is one of those times. Football is creating common ground.



The North East loves the beautiful game and is keenly following the Indian Super League, the football tournament launched last month, especially its NorthEast United FC team. The games have not been memorable thus far. But in a country where cricket subsumes all sporting narratives, the league is a first step. It is an admission that India’s sporting culture needs football.



Football can mend hearts and break down fences. A common sport is perhaps the only unthreatening basis for the people of North East to unpretentiously participate in India’s "nation building".



The region, which is home to conflict and militarisation, is also the birthplace of some of the country’s finest sportsmen. Nearly a third of the players in the country’s best league are from the North East, a friend tells me. Each North Eastern state has a football league and fine clubs playing in it. Sikkim, from where Indian football star Bhaichung Bhutia hails, has eight clubs. The league in Assam has 10 participants, Mizoram has eight and Manipur 12.



Shillong, the fount of grand musicians, is also home to three renowned clubs: Shillong Lajong FC, Rangdaijaid FC and Royal Wahingdoh FC. Shillong Lajong FC partially owns the NorthEast United Football Club, which plays in the Indian Super League.



Loved across divides



Not all clubs possess the same resources, but the common love for football across the North East is a great equaliser. The game is loved across state lines and across divides of ethnicity, gender and age.



My mother is one such lover of the beautiful game. A woman who barely went to school has such vast knowledge of sports that it shames me. Her commentary makes watching the matches great fun. Spoiled by the high standards of the Fifa World Cup, she complained of “lack of energy and strategy” when NorthEast United FC played against Kolkata.



She believes that NorthEast United would be stronger if the best of the region play as a team. During its matches if the players miss a goal, she groans “Oh, man are you unwell?” and grumbles “Some of the players in our villages are better.”



Boxing and wrestling have brought some glory to India, but they are individual games. The spirit of a football team is unmatched. As is the spirit of the crowd in a stadium.



Invest in the Northeast



In the North East, the stadium crowds comprise people from different ethnicities who have suffered through conflicts and divisive politics. Yet they merge and blend while watching the one game with which the region truly identifies. In the matches at Guwahati’s Indira Gandhi stadium, where NorthEast United played against others, one banner read, “Football unites us.”



Nita Ambani, who is associated with Indian Super League, and John Abraham, a co-owner of NorthEast United FC, have become household names.



My mother complains that the league has too many foreign players. The matches are not lively, she says. Her daughter is no less cynical, but we need to give it some time.



Give football the boost it deserves in India, invest in the North East, groom the youth so that they can be nurtured into a Messi or Ronaldo and lead India into the World Cup. Perhaps then India will see the North East as a place with people, not just a strategic location threatened by China. Perhaps then North-Easterners travelling in India will go from being racially persecuted to socially included. Let us football.



Tungshang Ningreichon is a happy mother from Ukhrul, Manipur, and writes occasionally for the love of stories, histories and memories. She lives in Delhi.



