{"product_id":"fragmented-memories-struggling-to-be-tai-ahom-in-india-paperback","title":"Fragmented Memories: Struggling to be Tai-Ahom in India - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eYasmin Saikia\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eFragmented Memories\u003c\/i\u003e is a beautifully rendered exploration of how, during the 1990s, socially and economically marginalized people in the northeastern Indian state of Assam sought to produce a past on which to base a distinctive contemporary identity recognized within late-twentieth-century India. Yasmin Saikia describes how groups of Assamese identified themselves as Tai-Ahom--a people with a glorious past stretching back to the invasion of what is now Assam by Ahom warriors in the thirteenth century. In her account of the 1990s Tai-Ahom identity movement, Saikia considers the problem of competing identities in India, the significance of place and culture, and the outcome of the memory-building project of the Tai-Ahom.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAssamese herself, Saikia lived in several different Tai-Ahom villages between 1994 and 1996. She spoke with political activists, intellectuals, militant leaders, shamans, and students and observed and participated in Tai-Ahom religious, social, and political events. She read Tai-Ahom sacred texts and did archival research--looking at colonial documents and government reports--in Calcutta, New Delhi, and London. In \u003ci\u003eFragmented Memories\u003c\/i\u003e, Saikia reveals the different narratives relating to the Tai-Ahom as told by the postcolonial Indian government, British colonists, and various texts reaching back to the thirteenth century. She shows how Tai-Ahom identity is practiced in Assam and also in Thailand. Revealing how the \"dead\" history of Tai-Ahom has been transformed into living memory to demand rights of citizenship, \u003ci\u003eFragmented Memories \u003c\/i\u003eis a landmark history told from the periphery of the Indian nation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eBack Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eYasmin Saikia opens a new door to margins of national power, memory, and history, where most people live today. Her fresh voice and engaging prose weave together high theory, political engagement, textual expertise, ethnographic detail, personal experience, and a sweeping command of history in South Asia from medieval times to the present, with critical wisdom and graceful poignancy. Her history is more than history. It is an erudite evocation of the multiple pasts of Tai-Ahom people struggling to invent themselves in contemporary Assam, modern India, and a world of national minorities.--David Ludden, author of \"The New Cambridge History of India: An Agrarian History of South Asia\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYasmin Saikia is Assistant Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is the author of \u003ci\u003eIn the Meadows of Gold: Telling Tales of the Swargadeos at the Crossroads of Assam.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 352\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.84 x 9.26 x 6.42 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIllustrated:\u003c\/strong\u003e Yes\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e November 09, 2004\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47450073858226,"sku":"9780822333739","price":64.73,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0770\/3891\/1666\/files\/d2b93daf0a8b0cc09aa168bee54d5e18.webp?v=1778779542","url":"https:\/\/box.dadyminds.org\/products\/fragmented-memories-struggling-to-be-tai-ahom-in-india-paperback","provider":"DADYMINDS BOX","version":"1.0","type":"link"}