Are there differences between Tamilian and Keralites? There are! How about the differences between Gujaratis and Marathis? Well, there are differences here as well!
People in the North East follow different religious beliefs. Christianity does not have the highest number of followers; it is Hinduism. Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland have more Christians than others in the state. Manipur too has a significant percentage, around 40%. But Assam and Tripura the two most populous states of the region are almost entirely made up of Hindus. Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim have a significant Buddhist presence, but even in these two states Hinduism is the main religion.
Religion is a significant component of the people's lives. But equally significant, if not more, is the ethnicity they belong to. Many people must be aware that the NE have many armed underground groups fighting for different things. These groups are not religion based groups; they all have something to do with the demand of an ethnic group. The particular ethnicity may follow a particular religion, but their demand would be for the ethnic group. For example, if one would look at the difference between LTTE and Al-Qaeda, we would see that LTTE is an ethnic based armed group (of the Tamils) whereas Al-Qaeda is more about a particular religious group. The armed groups in the NE are more like LTTE; they are an ethnic based armed group. To read the armed groups as Christians' or Hindus' is to miss the point.
How important is their ethnicity to them? Just more or less as the Malayalis or Gujaratis would consider about themselves!
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