Chronicles of Colonialism: Navigating the Naga Hills

This book offers fresh perspectives on the legacy of colonialism in the North-east frontiers of India, especially the Naga Hills. The book interrogates the presence of British administrators and anthropologists in the Naga Hills as part of a popular discourse on (post) colonialism. It weaves a coherent chronological sequence of events and the prevailing attitudes of administrators-cum-anthropologists to understand the whole process of colonial intervention in the Naga Hills. It examines the conventional notions of ’tribes’ and ’identity’ within the context of the Naga Hills. It explores the transformation of Naga Hills through the lens of colonialism, providing a critical perspective on identity and the intricate web of historical narratives. It is a must-read for scholars, anthropologists, historians, and all those intrigued by the multifaceted legacy of colonialism in the Naga Hills.

Alok Kumar Kanungo is an associate research professor at IIT Gandhinagar and an adjunct associate professor at Flinders University. He was born in Odisha and grew up in close contact with many indigenous communities of eastern and north-eastern India. His early childhood experiences led him to eventually focus on archaeological and ethnographic studies of indigenous and ancient technology. For the last two and half decades, Dr. Kanungo has travelled and documented the rich heritage of the Nagas of northeast India, and the Bondos and Juangs of Odisha both in the field and in museums across Europe and the UK. He has worked in many areas where it is difficult to say where anthropology or history stops and archaeology begins. He has studied and published extensively on the subject of glass and glass-bead production and written or edited fifteen books and eighty research articles and book chapters.

Prashant Kumar Singh is a post-doctoral fellow in the discipline of Humanities and Social Sciences, at IIT Gandhinagar. Dr. Singh has a Ph.D. in Anthropology (popular culture) from the University of Hyderabad. His research interests include anthropology of science (science studies), post-humanism, business anthropology and the larger question of ’self and civilizations’ and their sustainability. He has published more than half a dozen research papers on the anthropology of self in peer-reviewed international and national journals.