Reform, identity and narratives of belonging : the Heraka movement in Northeast India / Arkotong Longkumer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Longkumer, Arkotong.

Contributor:

Louis A. Duhring Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Zeme (Indic people)--India--North Cāchār Hills--Religion.

Zeme (Indic people).

Heraka movement.

Group identity--India--North Cāchār Hills--History--20th century.

Group identity.

Nationalism--India--North Cāchār Hills--History--20th century.

Nationalism.

History.

Religion.

India--Dima Hasao.

Physical Description:

xiv, 258 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Continuum, 2010.

Summary:

Reform, Identity and Narratives of Belonging focuses on the Heraka movement and its impact on the Zeme, a 'Naga tribe', in the North Cachar Hills of Assam, India. Sales Points Reflects and advances the rapidly growing interest in South Asia in the areas of Religious Studies, South Asia Studies, Anthropology and the Sociology of Religion. Analyses the importance of 'religion' in relation to indigenous religious traditions that highlight the world religions 'paradigm' and the larger implications this can have with regard to how a distinctly religious community is shaped and formed. Demonstrates how the understanding of conversion as a function of social and spiritual relations will be of relevance to furthering the understanding of conversion as a process of 'reform' and 'generational change'. Description Reform, Identity and Narratives of Belonging focuses on the Heraka movement and its impact on the Zeme, a 'Naga tribe', in the North Cachar Hills of Assam, India. The Heraka is a religious reform movement derived from the traditional practice known as Paupaise. It began as an anti-British and anti-Christian movement. It was organised from disparate groups of the early 1930s into a centralised and effective movement in 1974. This book will examine the formation of the movement through to its present state. The Processes by which the movement has evolved, exhibiting the contextualisation of an indigenous identity, grounded in custom and tradition, are also outlined. By examining ideas of reform and identity, the book also analyses concepts such as millenarianism, ethnicity, nationalism, boundaries, pilgrimages, agrarian reforms, oral history, and the use of religious texts and the sacralisation of space to determine the efficacy of community formation. A critical examination is made regarding important concepts such as 'religion' within the corpus of the study, which offers better insights into the concept by rejecting universalist ideas embedded in the 'world religion' paradigm, while privileging local expressions. Moreover, an important theme emerges from the latter observation. Due to various exigencies, small religious communities such as the Heraka are also finding the 'world religion' paradigm a helpful tool to project themselves as pure, systematised, and believing communities-partly for the purpose of increasing their political profile or partly to accentuate the accepted paradigms of 'religion' as a form of survival for their own religious practice, at the same time invoking a discourse of indigeneity. Book jacket.

Contents:

Circling the altar stone : Bhuban Cave and the symbolism of religious traditions

Millenarianism and refashioning the social fabric

Changing cosmology and the process of reform

Negotiating boundaries

Community imaginings and the ideal of heguangram.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Louis A. Duhring Fund.

ISBN:

9780826439703

0826439705

OCLC:

423388246

Publisher Number:

99937668673