Tribal Identity Concerns in Literature-A Critical Study of Gopinath Mohanty’s The Ancestor

Abstract

‘Tribe’ means a group of people living at a particular place from times immemorial. Tribe’s identities are differently by named at different places according to their geographical positioning, their social stratification in the society and so on which makes them distinctive from others. Tribes are rich in their culture, customs and folk tradition etc. There are few authors all over the world who writing tribal identities in literature and their social life is rich in their creative works. The foremost objective of this research paper is to analyse the tribes issue in literature as a discourse in societal, customs, traditional, rituals within the reference of the writings of Gopinath Mohanty’s The Ancestor (1944). Gopinath Mohanty (Indian novelist) is significant novelist who has made a bold attempt in raising of Canon in tribal literature. This research paper is based on tribal traditional identities and historically transformed images, rituals, customs, and social structures of their own common, but diversified culture. A thematic approach from tribal identity concerns perspective has been adopted for this research paper.
Key Words: Identities; The Ancestor; Gopinath Mohanty; traditional; rituals; culture and hegemony