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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Tulika Chakravorty
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DOI:10.17265/2159-550X/2026.07.004
Bangabasi Morning College, Kolkata, India
Tribal oral traditions constitute vital cultural archives through which indigenous communities preserve their histories, values, and knowledge systems. However, the gendered dimensions of these narratives, particularly the voices and experiences of tribal women, remain largely underexplored in mainstream literary and feminist discourses. The present study examines how tribal women are represented and how their narrative agency is articulated in Bodo folktales and oral traditions of North-East India. This study aims to analyze the ways in which these narratives reflect women’s roles as custodians of cultural memory, negotiators of social norms, and participants in relational networks involving land, community, and ecological knowledge. Methodologically, the study adopts a qualitative approach based on thematic textual analysis of documented Bodo folktales, folklore archives, and existing scholarly literature on Bodo culture and oral traditions. Interpreting these narratives through the theoretical lens of Indigenous Feminism enables a critical understanding of how gender, community, and ecological relationships intersect within indigenous storytelling practices. The study reveals that Bodo oral narratives function as important epistemic spaces where women’s voices contribute to the preservation of cultural knowledge and moral values. Female figures in these narratives demonstrate resilience, moral authority, and subtle forms of agency while negotiating patriarchal structures. Furthermore, the narratives highlight the interconnected relationship between women, land, and ecological identity. The Bodo oral traditions challenge dominant literary frameworks and foreground tribal women’s narrative agency, contributing to Indigenous feminist scholarship and broader discussions in tribal and South Asian literary studies.
Bodo women, folktales, gendered marginality, Indigenous Feminism, North-East India, oral traditions
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