The redefined Naga: from colonial entrancement to digital disruption

This article examines how digital platforms are reshaping Naga identity by transforming Indigenous self-representation, cultural transmission, and social authority. Colonial administration and Christian missionary intervention disrupted village institutions, imposed homogenising ethnic categories, and produced legacies that continue to shape contemporary inequalities. The study draws on ethnographic fieldwork, in-depth interviews, and digital ethnography to conceptualise digital platforms as ‘digital Morungs’: vernacular spaces for cultural transmission, entrepreneurship, political engagement, and identity-making. The findings show that digital Morungs enable Nagas to reclaim narratives, build affective publics, and connect with wider Indigenous networks while simultaneously reproducing infrastructural inequalities, linguistic hierarchies, and algorithmically mediated forms of visibility that privilege individual self-branding over communal values. The article argues that digital participation simultaneously decolonises representation and reconfigures historical inequalities through platform logics, contributing to debates on digital indigeneity, platformisation, and Indigenous digital futures.