In everyday parlance "development" and "progress" are almost interchangeable terms. However, evaluating development within the framework of the North East is a rhetorical device that gives rise to the idea of "underdevelopment." The region may have reached a level comparable to other states in the nation due to its cultural richness, plenty of raw materials, and strategic location. It also benefited from adequate internal political management and support from the central government. Scholars have recently debated the development and underdevelopment of North East India due to the Indian state's post-colonial initiatives that have left the region with a "lack" of development. Many academics have debated the North East region, its economic backwardness, and its conflict-prone condition, leading to polarised opinions. In the current era of globalization, market economy, and development as a means of reducing economic backwardness is thriving, but it has also been stated that the region has been continuously exploited and neglected from colonial times till the present. The North East has experienced persistent underdevelopment due to colonial exploitation, current extraction, and carelessness, which has caused the region to lag behind the rest of the country. So, it is a matter of time to see how the debates around development in the North East give us vivid ideas involved in its process of development that culminated towards underdevelopment in the region that will help further in taking actions for the betterment of North East India.