Guwahati, Nov. 8 -- By Ranju Dodum

On the morning of October 23, men and women sat outside the closed shops of Yingkiong's main market in Upper Siang district, Arunachal Pradesh, talking about ordinary things, even though life in the Siang valley has been anything but. The market was deserted on account of a bandh, following weeks of unrest over the Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP). Armed personnel in fatigues roamed the streets, and by the afternoon, the internet had been shut down in the entire district.

"It feels as if they are deploying armed forces against us by force; like fighting an enemy on the border," said Katin Burang, 44, a paddy and orange farmer from Gosang, a village near Yingkiong, who was at the market that day....