Paper short abstract:

This presentation looks at the continuity of tradition across ethnicities in Northeast India through religion. Micro-traditions, existent in the vernacular discourse, subverts the political borders and indicates how historically there has been much more co-operation between different tribes.

Paper long abstract:

In Northeast India, mong both the Amri Karbi and the Bhoi indigenous communities may be found narratives, rituals, and expressions of belief about a feminine non-human entity called Klingmekar/Klengmekar. Along the Khasi borderland, in Jhare magical practice, numerous divinities source power and invest authority to the tradition. In one origin account of Jhare, she is the originator of the ritual. However, the Karbi and Khasi both orally describe her to be a feminine entity. In Jhare magical practice, she is the most dangerous goddess who consumes people ‘raw’. Among the Karbi, Klengmekar is three women and in narratives, they were the ones who helped Karbi people in their migration route. But they also were cannibals who devoured Karbi people and in retaliation, Karbis killed them.

This presentation looks at the continuity of tradition across ethnicities through the case study of the deity Klingmekar. Border areas between Khasi Hills and Karbi Anglong become sites of the dense exchange of narratives that address questions and issues most significant to the tribe. I argue that this micro-tradition, existent and present in the vernacular discourse of contemporary Karbi and Khasi, subverts the political drawing of borders, and indicates how historically there has been much more co-operation between different tribes than are actually acknowledged. Further, a salient feature of the present study is it’s exposition of how peripheral narratives, communities, and deities point to strategies in which folklore is deployed to divide and ‘other’ communities from dominant, authoritarian discourses.