Reconfiguring the Tribe
Changing Ethnic Affiliations in India’s Northeast
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10560106 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Roderick Wijunamai (0000-0001-8592-7160, Cornell University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 73 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 494-506 |
| Publication date | 2024-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sociological Bulletin (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0038-0229 • E-ISSN: 2457-0257 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00380229241287461 |
| OpenAlex | W4403847646 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 17 |
This essay sees the form and functioning of the Zeliangrong Naga community as a work in progress. Rather than a perennial, historically immutable and delimited entity, the (relatively recent) formation of the Zeliangrong community indicates that tribes can be formed afresh and that tribal identities are constantly in flux. I begin by tracing and placing the origins of the Zeliangrong Naga as told by Zeliangrong elders and circulating origin and migration stories. Then, continuing my focus on ethnic alignment and realignment, I studied the Zeliangrong movement that emerged in the 1920s. At first, they advocated a Naga Raj through the ousting of the colonial government. Over time, however, this rebellion changed direction and reduced its ambitions to the creation of a Zeliangrong homeland that would unite the Zeliangrong people who currently inhabit three different states of Northeast India, namely Manipur, Nagaland and Assam. Drawing both on historical analysis and fresh ethnography this essay shows how over time the Zeliangrong ethnic identity has come under strain and is increasingly internally contested with its constituent parts now expressing divergent political aspirations while also struggling over status, standing and dominance within
Ethnic group · Ethnology · Geography · Political science · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Tribe · Anthropology · South Asian Studies and Conflicts · South Asian Studies and Diaspora · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies
Time and the Other
Origin and Migration Myths in the Rhetoric of Naga Independence and Collective Identity
Evangelising the Nation
Ethnicity without Groups
Remembering the Present
Religious and Economic Reform
Social Identity of Zeliangrong People of Asssam, Manipur and Nagaland
The Zeliangrong Movement in North-East India
Empire on their Backs
Sending out the spears
The making of tribes
In the Shadows of Naga Insurgency
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |