India’s Northeast borderlands present a distinctive terrain for the understanding of governance and development. This distinctiveness stems not only from their long history as sites of internal political struggles over self-determination and conflicts, but also from their experience of frequent shifts and shuffles of laws and administrative reforms for the governance of the regions. In this introductory chapter, the author provides a conceptual road map to the terrain covered in the book and presents an outline of the basic arguments on governance, politics, and borderlands. The central argument advanced here is that governance comprises a complex assemblage of governing practices undertaken by both public and private actors. These practices unfold across multiple levels and positionalities, operating within diverse governance orders and modes. By foregrounding perspectives and empirical sites from the ‘margins’, this chapter repositions them as analytically central and indispensable for a grounded understanding of governance, democratic politics, law, and institutions in India’s Northeast borderlands.