Earthquakes often cause significant human loss and infrastructural damage. Infrastructural losses can be minimized through adopting efficient earthquake-resistant design considering dynamic soil–structure interaction (DSSI) effects. The DSSI can be dealt only upon realizing the response of soils to dynamic loads. Nonlinear ground response analysis (GRA) complemented with liquefaction phenomenon helps in understanding the soil response to varying dynamic loads. This article discusses the critical findings of soil response subjected to different seismic ground motions for typical soil profiles of Assam, one of the most active seismic regions of India. The one-dimensional (1D) nonlinear effective stress-based GRA was conducted using the experimentally derived site-specific dynamic soil properties and artificially generated seismic ground motions. Results obtained from the study are used to assess the critical aspects of nonlinear soil behavior in terms of acceleration amplifications, pore pressure buildup and large deformation-related stress–strain response. It is concluded from this study that the loose or soft soil deposits from this region are expected to amplify the incoming seismic waves. In contrary, high-intensity seismic motions are leading to attenuation of seismic waves and inducing higher soil displacements and liquefaction traces. With the frequent occurrence of mild to moderate seismic events and with a possibility of intense seismic event in the near future for the region, results from this study will be helpful for design engineers targeting earthquake resistant design of new infrastructure or requalification studies of existing major infrastructure.