(wl-1343)-Remembering Freedom Movement from the Margins: Excerpts from Field Notes

This paper engages with the distinctive participation of the Rabha community in India’s freedom struggle. It presents some first-hand experiences and memories of a marginalised indigenous community from India’s northeast. Based on extensive field work, it narrates the experiences of two freedom fighters of the community: Khagen Barchung and Lupta Rabha. From these narratives the paper builds a historical account of the community’s colonial encounters and struggles. These experiences have largely remained outside formal documentation. This paper is an attempt to understand the indigenous perspective of the freedom movement and their place in it.