John Thomas (2016) Evangelising the Nation (New Delhi: Routledge)

Routledge, 2015

Northeast India has witnessed several nationality movements during the 20th century. The oldest and one of the most formidable has been that of the Nagas — inhabiting the hill tracts between the Brahmaputra river in India and the Chindwin river in Burma (now Myanmar). Rallying behind the slogan, ‘Nagaland for Christ’, this movement has been the site of an ambiguous relation between a particular understanding of Christianity and nation-making. This book, based on meticulous archival research, traces the making of this relation and offers fresh perspectives on the workings of religion in the formation of political and cultural identities among the Nagas. It tracks the transmutations of Protestantism from the United States to the hill tracts of Northeast India, and its impact on the form and content of the nation that was imagined and longed for by the Nagas. The volume also examines the role of missionaries, local church leaders, and colonial and post-colonial states in facilitating this process. Lucidly written and rigorous in its analyses, this book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of South Asian history, religion, political science, sociology and social anthropology, and particularly those concerned with Northeast India.

book reiew

When the Charter of 1813 through its Clause XXXII allowed the propagation of Christianity and unrestricted entry of missionaries in India, no one would have perhaps imagined the impact it would have had in Indian subcontinent. The missionary entrepreneurs were aware of the heathens in the plains of India and had targeted the 'Hindoos' for conversion to Christianity and graduate them to civilization. But that they would fail in converting a reasonable number of Hindus or Muslim Indians plains and successfully transform the entire tribal population of north eastern India, had not definitely been foreseen even by themselves. Indeed by the time India achieved independence from British colonialism, most of its tribal population in the north eastern frontier had been successfully made dependent into a new faith -Christianity. Nowhere in the subcontinent such a vast number of people been converted from their indigenous faith to a new religion as in north east India. As a result "a whole world was lost, and entire social fabric was....It was a huge 'social revolution.' Yet the historians of India completely ignored the fact. There is not a single book of Indian history where this revolution was discussed. Even within north east India, which had evolved its own historical school after independence ignored this social revolution. The transformation of tribal societies and the religions of the tribal have not been found to be a subject worth researching. Few works that are available in on the missionary enterprise in north east India are all by ecclesiastical scholars or church historian who described the 'wonderful works of God in north east India' through the missionaries. These books were widely quoted and cited forgetting that even these are part of the propaganda works and are part of the missionary enterprise, funded by the church and published by mission houses. What is enormously regretful that the universities of north east India produce uncritical research works and doctoral dissertations which are no better than the church history. They acclaim the works of the missionaries and their works. There is a unwritten dictate that no critical estimation was allowed in the these works. There has to be only praise of God and his servants.

Contemporary South Asia, 2018

The aim of this paper is to examine the story of the American Baptists and how their mission activities in the Naga Hills District (1871-1955) have impacted upon present day politics in the Indian state of Nagaland. Baptists make up nearly 95% of the current Naga population in Nagaland. The paper will investigate the relationship between the Baptist mission's philosophy on education, Christian conversion and the subsequent rise of a sense of 'national community' amongst the Nagas. Although the primary motivation for the American missionaries was to convert, the British administrators also thought that introducing Christianity would prevent influence on these tribes from Hindu and Muslim groups. Thus began Christianity's part in a developing framework for resistance in this region, raising significant questions with regard to Christianity's persistence as a form of political articulation in contemporary Nagaland. This political articulation, I suggest, is related to a greater sense of agency brought about by Christianity, and Missionary activities in the fields of education and print. The American Baptist Foreign Mission Society (ABFMS) were at the forefront of these changes.

Religion, a strong belief in the existence of an omnipotent supernatural being that controls human destiny, has long been part of the Naga way of life. Even before they converted to Christianity, most Nagas believed in the existence of a Creator, and to whom different Naga tribes accorded different names. Most Naga tribes also had a clear belief system pertaining the afterlife. Part of this article argues that it is therefore a misnomer to define traditional Naga religion as ‘animistic’, as has been commonly done. However, ancient Naga religion did not generate a sense of Naga nationalism in the way, I will argue, Christian conversions did. By the late 19th and early 20th century, many Nagas had been converted to Christianity. At the same time, Nagas’ self-awareness as a political community that shared a common identity and destiny was also born. This article contends that Christian conversions was predominantly responsible for the rise of Naga nationalism.

2017

Religion, a strong belief in the existence of an omnipotent supernatural being that controls human destiny, has long been part of the Naga way of life. Even before Nagas converted to Christianity, they believed in the existence of a Creator, and to whom different Naga tribes accorded different names. Most Naga tribes also had a clear belief system pertaining the afterlife. Part of this article argues that it is therefore a misnomer to define traditional Naga religion as ‘animistic’, as has been commonly done. However, ancient Naga religion did not generate a sense of Naga nationalism in the way, I will argue, Christian conversions did. By the late 19th and early 20th century, many Nagas had been converted to Christianity. At the same time, Nagas’ self-awareness as a political community that shared a common identity and destiny was also born. This article contends that Christian conversion was predominantly responsible for the rise of Naga nationalism.

The aim of this paper is to examine the story of Christianity in the then Naga hills, now the Indian state of Nagaland in the eastern Himalaya. It will investigate seriously and systematically the role American Baptists played, particularly with regard to the relationship between mission philosophy on education, Christian conversion and the subsequent rise of a 'national community' amongst the Nagas, and more generally in the Northeast of India. The British and the American missionary strategy was that Christianity would prevent influence on these tribes from the Hindu and Muslim dominance. Christianity, a British administrator in 1859 argued, would provide a 'counterpoise to the vast non-Christian population of the plains'. Thus Christianity became a large part of the framework for resistance, which would in effect help create a nationality. The specific concern of Christianity will highlight significant questions with regard to its persistence as a form of political articulation in contemporary Nagaland. This genesis, I suggest, is related to a greater sense of moral agency brought about by Christianity, and activities related to the field of education and print capitalism. The American Baptist Foreign Mission Society (ABFMS) in the Naga hills (1872-1955) were at the forefront of these activities.

2019

This is a study of the distinctive formation of the Christian churches in Nagaland during 1947-2017. It argues that the major clues to understanding Naga church history are to be found in the cultural milieu of Nagaland. Thus, using a cultural history methodology, the ecclesiastical events described in this research were examined in the cultural framework of the segmentary Naga society and the changing political, social and religious environment in the region, giving close attention to how they affected the contours of the ecclesiastical history. It posited that segmentation as a cultural characteristic of the Naga society effected both unity and divisiveness in the Naga churches, which subsequently shaped the beliefs and practices of the churches in the region. Archival data in the form of reports, records and minutes of meetings were collected from church and government offices. Qualitative data was collected through interviews with leaders and key eyewitnesses of various events d...

Journal of North East India Studies, 2021

The history of Christian mission among the Tangkhul Nagas in Northeast India (NEI) is mostly recorded from the viewpoint of the colonials, specifically American Baptist missionaries and British administrators and/or ethnographers. When researching Christian mission, historians, clergy, and theologians frequently turn to colonial sources, such as colonial findings, reports, letters, articles (journals), and monographs, if not exclusively. They disregard regional factors, including indigenous occurrences, which influenced not only Tangkhul Naga Christians but also other populations. Given this reality, I propose decolonisation, or decolonial thinking, of Christian mission among the Tangkhul Nagas, which would re-look and give locals’ roles and the effects of local events more importance than relying solely on colonial sources. To make the case for decolonisation is to reclaim the voices that have been marginalised (the micro voices) as a result of colonial hegemony during the colonial era and ongoing colonial captivity in the contemporary environment. This is meant to make the case for the necessity of recognising the tribal-indigenous historical details and occurrences that aided in the expansion and success of the Christian mission among the Tangkhul Nagas. This is also a proposal for a colonial difference: highlight the voices that were silenced because of colonial dominance and captivity i.e., offer an alternative history of Christian mission among the Tangkhul Nagas from the perspective of a vision that was given to the Tangkhuls (a vision akin to a dream) and the revival movement of 1923.

The paper will examine the intersection between Sangh Parivar activities, Christianity, and indigenous religions in relation to the state of Nagaland. I will argue that the discourse of 'religion and culture' is used strategically by Sangh Parivar activists to assimilate disparate tribal groups and to envision a Hindu nation. In particular, I will show how Sangh activists attempt to encapsulate Christianity within the larger territorial and civilisational space of Hindutva (Hinduness). In this process, the idea of Hindutva is visualised as a nationalist concept, not a theocratic or religious one (Cohen 2002: 26). I will argue that the boundaries between Hindutva as cultural nationalism and its religious underpinnings are usefully maintained in the context of Nagaland because they allow Sangh activists to reconstitute the limits of Christianity and incorporate it into Hindu civilisation on their own terms.