Between Gods and Genders: Rethinking Deodhani as a Precolonial Site of Gender Plurality in Assam

Peer-Reviewed
The Criterion

The Criterion: An International Journal in English ISSN: 0976-8165

Open Access

Cultural Studies

Between Gods and Genders: Rethinking Deodhani as a Precolonial Site of Gender Plurality in Assam

Dr Rimjim Boruah
Volume / Issue
Vol. 17, Issue 1 · February 2026

Pages
896-916

Article ID
2026V17N1049

Abstract

This paper critically examines the ritualistic performance of Deodhani in Assam as a rich cultural archive that embodies precolonial understandings of gender plurality and sacred non-normative identities. Often overlooked in dominant gender and historical discourses, the Deodhani tradition, where individuals, often assigned female at birth but not exclusively so, embody the goddess through trance and dance, offers a significant departure from rigid colonial binaries of gender. By positioning Deodhani within a larger South Asian matrix of ritual-based gender variance, this paper interrogates how indigenous epistemologies once accommodated diverse gendered and spiritual experiences beyond the man-woman binary. Drawing on oral histories, ethnographic accounts, and comparative cultural studies, particularly of the Jogappas of Karnataka and the Aravanis of Tamil Nadu, this paper maps the broader contours of transgenderism in India. Furthermore, it investigates how colonial ethnography, moral reform movements, and postcolonial nation-building contributed to the marginalization and pathologization of such traditions. In reclaiming Deodhani as a precolonial site of gender fluidity and divine embodiment, this paper not only recovers suppressed histories but also critiques the epistemic violence embedded in modern gender constructions. The paper also advocates for a more inclusive historiographical lens that honours ritual, spirituality, and indigenous gender plurality as legitimate modes of historical knowledge.

Keywords

Deodhanigender pluralityprecolonial Assamritual performanceJogappasAravanissacred embodimentcolonial erasure.

Article History

Received
19-01-2026
Accepted
11 February 2026
Published Online
3 February 2026

How to Cite

Dr Rimjim Boruah. “Between Gods and Genders: Rethinking Deodhani as a Precolonial Site of Gender Plurality in Assam.” The Criterion: An International Journal in English, vol. 17, no. 1, Feb. 2026, pp. 896-916. ISSN: 0976-8165. DOI: https://doi.org/10.66376/criterion.v17.n1.60

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