From Guardians to Ghosts: The Presence of Spirits Reflecting Ethno-Religious and Ethno-Cultural Identity in Northeast Indian English Literature

Abstract

The socio-cultural framework of ethnic communities in Northeast India revolves around traditional beliefs, spirits, and indigenous practices. These spiritual beliefs have gradually diminished because of mass conversion, colonial otherization, and the increasing influx of immigrants from neighboring states. Regional Anglophone literature, often described as political literature, primarily addresses regional insurgencies, imperial subjugation, decades of militancy, paramilitary intervention, and transnational regionalism. The representation of ethnoreligious practices and the role of spirits in tribal social life are prominently reflected in regional Anglophone literature, thereby preserving and articulating the cultural identity of transnational Northeast India. Indigenous communities believe in two categories of spirits: malevolent spirits, associated with harm and misfortune, and benevolent spirits, associated with protection, fortune, and prosperity. This dichotomy is also reflected in the theoretical frameworks of animism, totemism, and hauntology. Spirits such as U Rangba, U Blei, Ka Blei, Ka Hok, Ki Singi, and U Blei Nong-thaw occupy a significant place within indigenous cosmologies, and communities perform rituals and offer sacrifices to seek protection from misfortune and maintain spiritual harmony. Indigenous communities maintain lifelong spiritual connections with these spirits, which provide guidance, healing, prosperity, and favorable agricultural yields. They believe that ritual practices, sacred mantras, and spiritual connections with the supernatural world possess the power to heal or harm individuals. This paper critically examines the role of spirits within the Anglophone literary corpus of Northeast India and investigates how indigenous literature functions as a cultural archive that preserves ethno-religious and ethno-cultural identity amidst colonial otherization, migration, and socio-cultural transformation.