In several interviews given to various Indian newspapers and channels in the days before the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government, she uttered roughly the same warning, and each time used the phrase ‘Seven Sisters’ to refer to India’s northeastern region.
It is interesting to note that the word ‘North-East’ or ‘North-Eastern States’ is more commonly used to refer to the North-Eastern States in India. The word Seven Sisters was once popular but now Indians have almost forgotten it.
Although the term ‘Seven Sisters’ is almost obsolete in India, it is still the most widely used phrase in Bangladesh.
A few days ago, after a sudden flood in Bangladesh, hundreds of students were heard chanting on the campus of an educational institution, “If people die in the flood, there will be no Seven Sisters!” The video of that scene went viral in India too.
Perhaps the hint that Bangladesh has a direct relationship with the question of the so-called ‘Seven Sisters’ not being associated with India was hidden in that slogan of the students. Security analysts of Bangladesh have repeatedly emphasized this point.
In fact, almost two-thirds of India’s more than four thousand kilometers long land border with Bangladesh is with these Seven Sisters! More specifically, with four of the seven sisters – Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.