{"product_id":"fragmented-memories-yasmin-saikia-9780822334255","title":"Fragmented Memories: Struggling to Be Tai-Ahom in India","description":"\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.\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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Yasmin Saikia\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0822334259\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780822334255\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Duke University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 11\/09\/2004\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 352\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.45lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.40h x 6.10w x 1.10d\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Yasmin Saikia","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48086969221375,"sku":"9780822334255","price":117.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_bbc186dd-3205-4b68-9760-cf45da02cd78.jpg?v=1769097546","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/fragmented-memories-yasmin-saikia-9780822334255","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}