The intricate interface between ethnic identity and indigenous consciousness constitutes a core thematic nexus within the modern novelistic tradition of Northeast India. This comparative research paper critically evaluates Rajanikanta Bordoloi’s Mirijiyari (1894), Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya’s Iyaruingom (1960), and Rongbong Terang’s Rongmilir Hahi (1981) to trace how indigenous worldviews withstand and adapt to socioeconomic and political pressures. By exploring these seminal Assamese novels across three distinct generations, this study unpacks the unique socio-cultural landscapes of the Mising, Tangkhul Naga, and Karbi communities. It maps out their historic transitions from insular clan structures toward multi-ethnic integration, political self-determination and defensive preservation of indigenous traditions against external incursions (Baruah, 1999). Through a rigorous, textually grounded comparative framework, this paper illuminates the shifting paradigms of subaltern agency, the psychic fracturing caused by external religious conversions, and the friction between custom-bound legacy and modernity. The analysis demonstrates that while Bordoloi approaches the Mising community with a benevolent, romanticized humanist lens, Bhattacharya evaluates the Tangkhul Nagas through an acute political lens of mid-century postcolonial crisis. Meanwhile, Terang crafts an inside-out cultural ethnography of the Karbis that highlights internal fissures and institutional resilience. The study contends that these narrative spaces act as critical socio-historical archives, preserving local subaltern memory while tracking the evolution of an active indigenous consciousness within the broader canvas of Indian national identity (Guha, 1997).
Ethnic Identity, Indigenous Consciousness, Assamese Literature, Iyaruingom, Mirijiyari, Rongmilir Hahi, Comparative Ethnography, Cultural Modernity.
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