Reform, Identity and Narratives of Belonging The Heraka Movement in Northeast India

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. >

1. Introduction2. Circling the Alter Stone: Bhuban Cave and the Symbolism of Religious Traditions3. Millenarianism and Refashioning the Social Fabric4. Changing Cosmology and the Process of Reform5. Negotiating Boundaries6. Community Imaginings and the Ideal of Heguangram7. ConclusionBibliographyAppendices