Echoes of the Ancestors: Postcolonial Refractions of Tradition and Modernity in Indigenous Hindi Literature of Arunachal Pradesh

This paper explores the dialectic between tradition and modernity in the indigenous Hindi literature of Arunachal Pradesh, offering a postcolonial interpretation of how cultural memory, resistance, and adaptation manifest in the region’s literary narratives. Situated at the interstice of orality and textuality, these works grapple with the encroachment of hegemonic structures—be it in the form of linguistic homogenisation, developmentalism, or post-independence nation-building—while also reclaiming rooted epistemologies through literary expression. Employing postcolonial frameworks such as Bhabha’s hybridity, Spivak’s subalternity, and Fanon’s psychological decolonisation, this study analyses selected literary voices that articulate the region’s complex negotiation with identity, temporality, and sovereignty. Rather than romanticising indigenous stasis or promoting cultural essentialism, the paper situates the literature as a site of resistance, where tradition is not a relic but a dynamic interlocutor in the discourse of modernity.