
Reform, Identity and Narratives of Belonging
The Heraka Movement in Northeast India
Arkotong Longkumer(Author)
Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.
Published on 4. March 2010
Book
Hardback
274 pages
978-0-8264-3970-3 (ISBN)
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.
Reviews / Votes
"This is a compelling and unusual book, written from the inside (by a Naga) and the outside (by a skilled anthropologist). It is a valuable addition both theoretically and ethnographically to a rich literature on the Nagas and to the rapidly expanding field of comparative religion. It is beautifully written and gradually reveals an extraordinary world with great sensitivity." - Professor Alan Macfarlane, F.B.A., Emeritus Professor of Anthropological Science and Fellow of King's College, Cambridge. The author's personal encounters and fieldwork experiences enliven this greatly textured study... The references to theoretical sources...are useful for setting the data within wider socio-historical and anthropological debates. -- Suzanne Owen, Leeds Trinity University, UK * Temenos: Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
15
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
578 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8264-3970-3 (9780826439703)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Dr Arkotong Longkumer is Lecturer at the Centre for South Asian Studies, University of Edinburgh, UK.
Content
1. Introduction; 2. Circling the Alter Stone: Bhuban Cave and the Symbolism of Religious Traditions; 3. Millenarianism and Refashioning the Social Fabric; 4. Changing Cosmology and the Process of Reform; 5. Negotiating Boundaries; 6. Community Imaginings and the Ideal of Heguangram; 7. Conclusion; Bibliography; Appendices.