New Karbi Religious Movement: Lokhimon, an intercultural dialogue space

Karbi people have an oral tradition and are one of the prime indigenous groups residing in Northeast India, mainly in Assam. The Karbi traditional indigenous religion revolves around the veneration and propitiation of protective spirits/ancestors/territorial deities/nonhuman beings. The history of the Karbi identity has been that of misrepresentation, contestation and negligence, as consequences of problematic colonial constructs and majoritarian cultural biases. In this paper, I focus on Lokhimon, a new religious movement (NRM) among the Karbi, an intersection, a dialogue space. Foundation of Lokhimon is based on Hindu myths, and dominant myths are hierarchical. Majoritarian narratives have come to dictate, dislocate, and dislodge in the apects of Karbi lifeworld. My research aims to examine how the Mythopolitics of Hinduism has influenced the Karbi people by creating a cohesive mythic sense of belonging. Intercultural competence and the concept of homogeneity can be better understood through an analysis of cultural exchange between old Karbi traditional practises and the mainstream Hindu religious tradition. To analyse and reflect upon empirical findings, I employ participant observation, interviews, and secondary sources. Lokhimon shows how Hinduism is permeating indigenous communities like Karbi through media, politics, education, and language. Recent data reveal Lokhimon has gained political leverage and state-backed local media coverage to integrate Karbi people. According to my hypothesis, minoritarians under the influence of majoritarians emulates themselves with its unique cultural logic. Simultaneously engaging in oral and modern religious movement traditions of the understudied Karbi group to explore identity forms. Radical Hinduism continues to pressure several ethnolinguistic communities in the region.