Northeast India is the eastern-most region of
India. It is connected to
East India via a narrow corridor squeezed between independent nations of
Bhutan and
Bangladesh. It comprises the contiguous
Seven Sister States (
Arunachal Pradesh,
Assam,
Manipur,
Meghalaya,
Mizoram,
Nagaland, and
Tripura), plus the
Himalayan state of
Sikkim, and
Jalpaiguri Division. Except for the
Goalpara region of Assam, the rest did not become part of political India until the 19th century and later. The
Brahmaputra valley area of Assam became a part of British India in 1824, with the hill regions annexed later. Sikkim was annexed to the Indian union through a referendum in 1975; it was recognized as part of Northeast India in the 1990s.