Reform, identity, and narratives of belonging
Subtitle: the Heraka movement in Northeast India
By: Arkotong Longkumer.
Publisher: Continuum
Published: 2010
Place of publication: London; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 258
ISBN-13: 9780826439703
Subjects: Zeme (Indic people) -- India -- North Cāchār Hills -- Religion; Heraka movement; Group identity -- India -- North Cāchār Hills -- History -- 20th century; Nationalism -- India -- North Cāchār Hills -- History -- 20th century
Description: "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 traditions interact to reshape identities and belongings."--Bloomsbury Publishing.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Circling the altar stone : Bhuban Cave and the symbolism of religious traditions; title: Millenarianism and refashioning the social fabric; title: Changing cosmology and the process of reform; title: Negotiating boundaries; title: Community imaginings and the ideal of heguangram.