One week after India registered its first Covid-19 case and just a month before the nationwide lockdown, Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled to Kokrajhar in Assam, the heart of autonomous Bodoland. It was a momentous occasion: his government had signed an historic tripartite peace accord that included the militant National Democratic Front of Bodoland. In exchange for considerable control over their own territory, and immediate economic aid of Rs 1,500 crores, 1,550 insurgents promised to surrender arms. This was real progress after two decades of strife, in which hundreds of people have been killed and dozens of villages destroyed.
That conflict – which barely registers a blip on the national and international radar – provides the backdrop for Uddipana Goswami’s subtle, superb “Colours”, one of the standout contributions to How to Tell the Story of an…