The Routledge Handbook of Tribe and Religions in India

The Routledge Handbook of Tribe and Religions in India
Author: Maguni Charan Behera
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 471
Release: 2024-09-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1040114334

This handbook explores the diversity of religious practice in tribal cultures in India. It looks at the interactive spaces where the religious practices of tribes and other communities have changed and adapted through the years in contemporary India. Tribe as a social category emerged in India during the colonial period; this handbook departs from the conventional approaches to studying ‘tribal religion’ and analyses the intersections of spirituality, rituals, gender and identities within tribal religion through a crosscultural and pan-Indian perspective. Tribes in India follow various religious denominations including Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, and traditional indigenous faiths. The chapters in this volume provide insights into the cross-cultural religiosity of tribes via ethnographic accounts and the study of animism, life cycle rituals, ancestor worship, shrines and religious institutions, revivalism, religious identities, religious conversion, transcendental religious spaces and the space for gender, identity and politics within religious traditions. It also discusses conflicts, contestations, anxieties within and the politics of religious traditions and identities in India and how tribal communities and the state negotiate with these issues. This and its companion handbook, The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Readings on Tribe and Religions in India: Emerging Negotiations, provide a comprehensive look into the religious life and practices of a very diverse group of tribes in India. This book will be of interest to academics and researchers working in the fields of religion, anthropology, indigenous and tribal studies, social and cultural anthropology, sociology of culture, sociology of religion, development studies, history, political science, folkloristic, and colonialism.

The Tiwa Ethnohistory

The Tiwa Ethnohistory
Author: Raktim Patar
Publisher: Notion Press
Total Pages: 162
Release: 2021-02-14
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1637455186

This book aims at presenting, as far as possible, a comprehensive understanding of the ethnohistory of the Tiwa people. It addresses the issue of origin, migration, traditional belief system, the evolution of the social institutions of the Tiwa. It also covers the continuity and changes that had occurred among this tribe in recent years. The information about this tribe available in the Assamese chronicles, colonial records and other literature of the pre-independence period are devoid of its origin, migration, settlement pattern or social organization. Similarly published works of the post-Independence period do not provide a clear understanding of this tribe. Available published works are descriptive accounts of the socio-economic and cultural features of the Tiwa, as they appear in recent times. There is no mention of their early history or the circumstances leading to the bifurcation of the Tiwa into two groups (Hill and Plain) with distinct patterns of social organization and belief system. Furthermore, there is neither enough information on the socio-political institutions of the Tiwa nor an adequate understanding of the same. It is against such a backdrop that systematic documentation, description and reconstruction of the history of the Tiwa is necessary and which the present work seeks to address.

Northeast India Through the Ages

Northeast India Through the Ages
Author: Rituparna Bhattacharyya
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2022-07-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000623904

This volume explores the rich pre-history, history, and oral history of the northeast region of India––a land-locked region that is home to over 350 ethnolinguistic communities. Despite its uniqueness and diversity, little is known to the outside world. The book studies the vibrant and diverse socio-political and cultural history of this region through a transdisciplinary perspective, covering a wide range of topics such as the pre-history, medieval and colonial histories of Assam, the geopolitics of the creation of independent states from undivided Assam, oral narratives from Manipur, prehistoric cultures of Meghalaya, the Naga National Movement, Sikkim’s Namgyal dynasty, and Tripura’s transition from monarchy to democracy. It also discusses the invaluable contributions made by Professor Mohammad Taher (1931–2015), who laid the foundation of geography in Northeast India. A compelling exploration of this geo-politically contested space, this volume will be of interest to students and researchers of anthropology, archaeology, history, human geography, South Asian studies, and minority studies.

Cultural Forms and Practices in Northeast India

Cultural Forms and Practices in Northeast India
Author: Kailash C. Baral
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2023-05-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9811992924

The present book examines cultural diversities of Northeast India. The sixteen essays included in the volume cover various aspects of cultural forms and their practices among the communities of Northeast. The present volume is expected to serve as a bridge between vanishing cultural forms and their commodification, on the one hand, and their cultural ritual origins, evolution and significance in identity formation, on the other. The book analyses continuity of cultural forms, their representations and often their reinventions under globalisation. Further, the book underlines historical forces such as colonialism and religious conversion that have transformed communities and their cultural practices. Yet some of the pre-colonial, ritual-performative traditions hold on. Through insightful analyses, this book offers an informed view of the region’s historical, ethnic and cultural practices. It is expected that the volume will be useful for scholars and students interested in Northeast studies.