2010/01/01 · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #South Asian Studies and Conflicts #Indian History and Philosophy #Anthropological Studies and Insights #Identity (music) #Negotiation #Narrative #Gender studies #Tribe #Ethnic group #Nationalism #Reform movement #Sociology #Religious identity #Political science #Anthropology #Social science #Aesthetics #Law #Politics #Art
paper · doi:10.5040/9781472549211
openalex publication_date 2010/01/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2025/11/06
Reform, Identity and Narratives of Belonging focuses on the Heraka, a religious reform movement, and its impact on the Zeme, a Naga tribe, in the North Cachar Hills of Assam, India. Drawing upon critical studies of ‘religion’, cultural/ethnic identity, and nationalism, archival research in both India and Britain, and fieldwork in Assam, the book initiates new grounds for understanding the evolving notions of ‘reform’ and ‘identity’ in the emergence of a Heraka ‘religion’. Arkotong Longkumer argues that ‘reform’ and ‘identity’ are dynamically inter-related and linked to the revitalisation and negotiation of both ‘tradition’ legitimising indigeneity, and ‘change’ legitimising reform. The results have deepened, yet challenged, not only prevailing views of the Western construction of the category ‘religion’ but also understandings of how marginalised communities use collective historical imagination to inspire self-identification through the discourse of religion. In conclusion, this book argues for a re-evaluation of the way in which multi-religious