Beyond cultural identity: a theoretical approach to multiculturalism with a discourse on North-East India

Abstract

Multiculturalism has become one of the most exciting, rapidly expanding, and challenging areas of research, extending across multiple academic disciplines. It is hybridized and intermingled in life and literature, arts and language, theory and practice, and is characterized by multifaceted, cross-cultural, and open-ended narratives that celebrate heterogeneity, while also acknowledging conflicts, contradictions, divergences, and differences. In the postmodern age, multiculturalism presents both a theoretical concern and a practical challenge, particularly in societies marked by cultural plurality. One of the central theoretical questions is how liberal, democratic, egalitarian, and critical or resistant approaches to multiculturalism contribute to the recognition and protection of the collective cultural rights of minority communities while preserving their identities and traditions. This paper examines these major theoretical approaches to multiculturalism, demonstrating that it encompasses multiple perspectives rather than a single unified framework. It further situates these theories within the socio-cultural context of North-East India, particularly Nagaland, to explore how multiculturalism functions as a dynamic process of identity, recognition, and coexistence in culturally diverse societies.