Wild Races exemplifies the rich, layered research called for—or better said—demanded by the Signifying (on) Scriptures project. It transgresses the disciplinary boundaries and canonical data sets that undergird the conventions that make regimes like racial empire possible. Lalruatkima presses us to re-examine the postures, practices, and politics of reading so that make we might more honestly account for the violence and creativity of scripturalization.

Richard Newton, University of Alabama

Tracing how British imperial reports, maps, photos, dictionaries, and churches worked their magic to conjure up the “reality” of ethnic identity, history, cartography, and even the modern Indian state of Mizoram, Lalruatkima shows how colonial politics are shot through normalized objects of postcolonial inquiry. Exploring the persistent eruptions of agency by what are known in India as scheduled tribes, this critique contributes to global Indigenous studies by untying the binaries of difference that attempt (and fail) to found the nation-state and to enforce power inequalities.

Joe Parker, Pitzer College

Wild Races: Scripturalizing Empire in British India by Lalruatkima presents a refreshing post-colonial reading of the history of the Mizos in the Northeastern part of India. For a non-literate tribe like the Mizos, the colonial scripturalizing enterprise formed the very foundation of colonial hegemony that left a strong legacy even after colonial departure. Framed as ‘wild races’, the Mizos were locked in a mental cell that circumscribed their thought process and behaviors. Navigating through the historical development in the Mizo Hills, this book illuminates those dark cells and offers new light to the life and history of the Mizos.

Rohmingmawii, Pachhunga University College