With just 17 persons inhabiting one square kilometre, India’s biggest state in the Northeast is also the country’s most thinly populated state. It is also a turf where China plays out its strategic ambitions by calling it ‘Zangnan’ or the southern part of Tibet.
The Chinese claim to territorial suzerainty over Arunachal also prompted Beijing in recent years to go on a naming spree wherein about 32 places in the hilly state were given new names by Beijing.
The much-laboured Chinese claim is based on Arunachal Pradesh’s perceived subordination to the Tibetan kingdom headquartered in Lhasa and hence by extension to Beijing.
The very fact that the country’s third Film and Television Institute, after the one at Pune and Satyajit Ray Film And Television Institute at Kolkata, is being set up in Arunachal Pradesh is indicative of the intent to depict soft power by New Delhi. All these institutes are under the administrative control of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting.
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Located in Jollang-Rakap (Jote) in Papum Pare district, the institute is 24 km away from Itanagar, and aims to provide students “with the knowledge, skills, and creativity necessary to craft captivating narratives across audio-visual platforms” that will “promote the rich cultural heritage and creative talent of the region while contributing to the national growth of the film and television industry”.
While the institute has begun its online classes, it is yet to be formally inaugurated. “It may be inaugurated in a month or two as everything is more or less ready,” a source familiar with the development told THE WEEK.
Interestingly, in October, the Indian Army inaugurated the Kameng Culture and Heritage Museum at Nyukmadung in the West Kameng district which besides showcasing the state’s rich cultural heritage will also establish the hilly state’s “deep-rooted connection to Indian civilisation”.
The region that is now Arunachal is believed to be the Prabhu mountains mentioned in the Puranas. The first mention of the region is found in the literature of the Kalika Purana, a text from the medieval period but believed to have been composed much earlier.
