Volume-XII, Special Issue, April 2026 |
From the Margins to the Frontlines: Gendered Histories of Anti-Colonial Struggles in North East India Nanidi Longmailai, Research Scholar, Department of History, Assam University, Silchar, Assam, India |
Received: 06.04.2026 | Accepted: 09.04.2026 | Published Online: 10.04.2026 | Page No: 453-464 | ||||
DOI: 10.29032/ijhsss.vol.12.issue.specialW.313 | |||||||
ABSTRACT | ||
Women’s studies, as a field of academic inquiry, has long occupied a marginal position within mainstream scholarship. For a considerable period, historical writing, research, and curricula largely neglected women’s experiences, roles, and perspectives. The emergence of women’s studies must be understood within the context of this exclusion, as an intellectual and political effort to foreground women’s voices, particularly those belonging to oppressed and marginalised communities. This paper focuses on two notable female figures from Northeast India, Rani Gaidinliu of Manipur and Joya Thaosen of the North Cachar Hills, who played significant roles in the anti-colonial struggles against British rule. Challenging both patriarchal constraints and the limitations imposed by their geographical location, these women mobilised resistance grounded in indigenous identity as well as a broader nationalist consciousness. The study argues that their leadership not only contributed to the wider struggle for independence but also marked an important shift in gender relations within tribal societies of the region | ||
Keywords: Joya Thaosen, Marginalised women, Northeast, Rani Gaidinliu, Resistance movement |