As India advances its Act East Policy, the Stilwell Road has re-emerged as a route of strategic and economic interest linking the northeast to Southeast Asia. But the road, built during World War II under extreme conditions, is more than a connectivity project. It carries a layered history of displacement, labour, and survival that continues to shape how the region is remembered.
During World War II, the rapid advance of the Japanese army into Burma (now Myanmar), accompanied by relentless bombing of towns and cities, caused a complete breakdown of communication and led to the collapse of British administration in the region. As Allied forces retreated, they destroyed key infrastructure, strategic installations, oil refineries, and important bridges such as the Ava Bridge over the Irrawaddy River in an effort to slow the Japanese advance. Amid widespread panic, hundreds of thousands of non-Burmese residents, including Europeans, fled toward India using any available means of transport, while many others were forced to undertake perilous journeys on foot. Continuous bombing further worsened conditions, forcing thousands of refugees from the Northern Shan States and the Kachin Hills to cross the difficult terrain of the Patkai Hills into India via Pangsau pass. This route, once vaguely remembered by British officials as the “Old Opium Track,” had long been used by local communities such as the Shan, Singpho, Khampti and Tangsa for trade, social interaction, and even opium smuggling from the Kachin Hills.