Volume-XI, Issue-IV, July 2025 |
Reinterpreting manifestation
of Cultural heritage, Memory, Folk tradition of Northeast indigenous Naga, Bodo
and Meitei Communities: An ethnographic study of select stories of Linthoi Chanu
and influence of Kokborok language
Susanta Nole, Asst.
Professor, Department of English, Ramananda College, Bankura, West Bengal,
India |
Received: 15.07.2025 | Accepted: 25.07.2025 | Published Online: 31.07.2025 | Page No: | ||||
DOI: 10.29032/ijhsss.vol.11.issue.04W.117 | |||||||
ABSTRACT | ||
This article attempts an exploration of postcolonial issues like quest for cultural identity, past nostalgia, the process of remembering cultural past by focusing on the individual and collective memories of the characters in the short story collection Wari and Wayel kati : The Quest of Seven Gurdians by Manipuri writer Linthoi Chanu. This study seems to provide insights into the different socio-cultural sides, practices and beliefs of ‘Meitei community' in Manipur, Naga and Bodo community in Nagaland and how different types of memory play an important role in the formation of emotion, identity and sense of harmonious coexistence in Indigenous tribal lives. The North-eastern part of India was the victim of double colonization; one was internal and the other was externally implemented on the people of exotic region surrounded by mountains. Consequently, people were not only exploited by European colonized power but the remaining part of India also bifurcated this literary and cultural body from its mainstream society, literature and culture for multiple socio-political and ethnic conflicts. Prospective authors from this region recently have started to reclaim their identity by revivifying their collective emotions and recalibrating their cultural memories by creative writings. The present ethnographic study seeks to explore how the functions of cultural memory, social memories are constructed through the paradigm shifts of memory and to what extent the nostalgic memory creates a space of shelter and solace to the people of present day Manipur. The author Linthoi Chanu's intention behind implementing the sense of cultural harmony in diversity in them by introducing folklores, beliefs in myths and fantasy, individual and collective memory through her narrative technique of story to preserve the cultural glory intact. The salient purpose of reimagining the study is to examine how memory of things creates sense of emotion, passion, nostalgia and trauma within the characters of the stories. The concluding part will try to objectify how the memories of a aboriginal Tribal help to create the sense of oneness among the community to reinvigorating the quest for identity. Apart from that, another striking relevant objective of this paper is to analyse the role of Kokborok language in preserving Tipra cultural heritage and to explore how oral traditions, folklore, and rituals contribute to language retention. Keywords: Ethnolinguistic transmission, Collective emotion, Cultural memory, indigenous identity and conflict, resistance of Tribal Communities, kokborok language, Cultural preservation, Oral Tradition. Socio-cultural and geo-political ethos |