Between Gods and Genders: Rethinking Deodhani as a Precolonial Site of Gender Plurality in Assam
The Criterion An International Journal in English February 28, 2026 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.66376/criterion.v17.n1.60 via OpenAlex
Summary
The Deodhani tradition in Assam, where performers embody a goddess through trance and dance, reveals precolonial understandings of gender beyond the man-woman binary. This paper argues that colonial ethnography, moral reform, and postcolonial nation-building marginalized and pathologized such indigenous gender-variant practices. Drawing on oral histories and comparisons with the Jogappas of Karnataka and Aravanis of Tamil Nadu, it reclaims Deodhani as a site of gender fluidity and divine embodiment, advocating for inclusive historiography that honors ritual and indigenous gender plurality.
Study at a glance
| Design | theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key finding | The Deodhani tradition embodies precolonial gender plurality and sacred nonnormative identities that were marginalized by colonial and postcolonial forces. |
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 nonnormative 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 examines the ways in which colonial ethnography, moral reform movements, and postcolonial nation-building processes contributed to the marginalisation and pathologisation of these 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.