Crisis, provision and masculine becoming: a phenomenological study of rural men in upper Assam, India

Purpose This study examines how masculine authority is produced and transformed among rural men in upper Assam, India, amid economic insecurity, agrarian crisis and cultural marginalization, extending masculinity scholarship beyond its predominant focus on urban, middle-class men. Design/methodology/approach Using interpretative phenomenological analysis, the study draws on in-depth interviews with 15 men aged 29–53 years from diverse occupational backgrounds in rural upper Assam. Findings Across five themes – crisis and becoming, economic provision, shifting work identities, rooted mobility and ambivalent gender relations – the study shows how economic provision functions as the key currency of masculine worth, how technological and spatial changes generate new forms of insecurity and how men reconcile egalitarian convictions with persistent patriarchal practices. Originality/value This study extends hegemonic masculinity theory by identifying crisis and provision as adaptive mechanisms that consolidate masculine authority in precarious rural contexts of the Global South, offering a rare, in-depth empirical account of rural, Northeastern Indian masculinities.