Christianity in Northeast India

A Cultural History of Nagaland from 1947

Chongpongmeren Jamir

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000057386
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christianity

This book examines the distinctive formation of Christianity in Nagaland, Northeast India, since 1947. It argues that an understanding of the history of Christianity in the region can be found in its cultural milieu and the changing political, social and religious environment.

In Nagaland, almost 90 per cent of the population are Christians. This book shows that segmentation as a cultural characteristic of Naga society inspired both unity and divisiveness in the Naga churches, which subsequently shaped the beliefs and practices of the churches in the region. Using the methodology of cultural history, the author examines ecclesiastical events and suggests that the history of Christianity should be examined in the light of its interaction with its cultural context rather than as an isolated phenomenon. The book demonstrates that the ethnic status which the Christian faith assumed, the extent of its identification with the local culture, and the scope of the mission of the Naga churches as key stakeholders in society, offers a new angle on the history of Christianity in India.

This book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of South Asian history, particularly those concerned with Northeast India and Christian history, historiography, cultural history, history of Christianity in India and faith–culture interface, religious studies, history and South Asian Studies.

1 The Nagas

A segmentary society

The term ‘Naga’ is used to refer to the people group, numbering about two million,¹ presently residing in the four Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Nagaland, and Sagaing and Kachin states of Myanmar. It consists of a conglomeration of about forty tribes, each speaking different languages, but bound together by similar culture and geographical location.² Each of these tribes maintains a strong sense of autonomy and distinctiveness from the other Naga tribes, though when taken in relation to other people groups, they all subscribe to the collective Naga identity. Collective identity³ refers to a shared sense of ‘oneness’ or ‘we-ness’ shared by a group, usually in contrast to a set of ‘others’.⁴ This sense of ‘we-ness’ enables ‘the possibility of collective action in pursuit of common interests’.⁵ However, in societies where sub-groups exist, there is the possibility that conflicts could arise between the sub-groups, leading to fragmentation and the creation of ‘we’ and ‘they’ within.⁶ A sense of ‘we-ness’ characterises the relationship between the various Naga sub-tribes (sub-groups) as they ordinarily relate with each other in the wider society. However, fragmentation and conflicts exist underneath this surface level sense of ‘we-ness’ across the various Naga sub-tribes. Thus, Naga society consists of a number ofsegments within the larger whole, united at one level, yet divided at another level. This description aptly characterizes a ‘segmentary society’.

1 As per details from Census of India 2011, Nagaland has population of 19.79 Lakhs (i.e., 1.979 million). ‘Census of India 2011’.

2 Nagaland Board of School Education, Nagaland, third edn (Kohima: NBSE, 1994, 2007), 1.

3 The term ‘Identity’ can be examined at three levels: personal, social and collective. First, personal identity relates ‘to one’s individual perception of oneself’. Second, social identity relates to ‘one’s individual identity based on group membership’. Jenny McGill, Religious Identity and Cultural Negotiation: Toward a Theology of Christian Identity in Migration (Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick Publications, 2016), 17. Third, collective identity relates to a group’s identification of oneness or we-ness. In this study, unless indicated otherwise, the term ‘identity’ is used in the third sense, that is, collective identity.

4 D Snow, ‘Collective Identity and Expressive Forms’ (2001) UC Irvine: Center for the Study of Democracyhttps://escholarship.org/uc/item/2zn1t7b (Accessed on 18 April 2019).

5 Snow, ‘Collective Identity and Expressive Forms’.

6 Patrick G Coy and Lynne M Woehrle (eds), Social Conflicts and Collective Identity (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2000), 5.

The term ‘segmentary society’ was coined by French sociologist, Emile Durkheim in his seminal workThe Division of Labour in Society, in which he discussed the evolution of society from a state of ‘mechanical solidarity’ to ‘organic solidarity’. While the former refers to traditional societies where there is homogeneity of individuals; the latter developed or evolved as society became more complex and became characterized by the divisions of labour and interdependence. A segmentary society represents the social type marked by the mechanical solidarity, and consists of segments of ‘small society’ within the larger one, each with ‘its own special regulatory organs’.⁷ Durkheim’s understanding is from a strictly evolutionary viewpoint, and predicted ‘the progressive disappearance of the segmentary organization’.⁸ Thus, looking through his evolutionary lenses, Durkheim saw segmentary society as a primitive type, which in future would be replaced by a more progressive one.

However, Durkheim’s evolutionary view of segmentary society has been challenged by other scholars. Citing examples of segmentary societies in Africa and Asia, Christian Sigrist argues that these societies ‘continue to function according to their structural principles even if they are juristically and administratively integrated into a colonial or post-colonial state’.⁹ Naga society can be considered as one such society, which, in spite of its integration, first, into British India, and then into independent India, continues to function under principles of segmentary society.

In 1956, Aidan W Southall, in his monograph on the ‘Alur Society’, built on the foundation laid by Durkheim and further formulated the concept of segmentary society. Southall spoke of segmentary society as one in which the various segments in the society are ‘tied together at one level’ by their opposition to an ‘adjacent unrelated group’, but are in constant opposition with each other at another level.¹⁰ Three key features of segmentary society can be drawn from this definition: first, autonomy of the segments: segmentary societies are made up of family, clan or village segments. Each of these segments is largely autonomous. Second, unity of the whole: the segments within a segmentary society recognize their cultural and historic affinity with each other, and therefore exhibit solidarity and unity at a certain level. Third, collective opposition against the others: the segments within a segmentary society share a common opposition against other unrelated people groups. Taking these characteristics as the analytical framework, I discuss the nature of Naga society in this chapter. This chapter, however, refrains from detailed discussion on the post-1947 period, so as toreserve it for the appropriate chapters below. Nevertheless, whenever possible, a brief note is made of how the particular cultural practice is practised even today.

7 Emile Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society, trans. WD Halls (NY: Free Press, 2014), 174.

8 Durkheim, The Division of Labor in Society, 174.

9 Christian Sigrist, ‘Segmentary Societies: The Evolution and Actual Relevance of an Interdisciplinary Conception’ Difference and Integration, vol 4, no 1 (2004), 15.

10 Aidan William Southall, Alur Society: A Study in Processes and Types of Domination (Munster: LIT Verlag, 2004), 260.

Independent and autonomy

A distinctive feature of Naga society was its urge for freedom, a quest for which rang ostensibly throughout its history. The desire to be independent was to such an extent that every village maintained its own autonomy, a village state, independent and self-governing.

How did this system of independent village states originate? According to tradition, the Naga people had a common ancestry. Their ancestors lived in an ancient village, but as the population increased, they spread to various places establishing villages all over the Naga Hills. These early ancestors had an autochthonous origin. There are two prominent traditions on the autochthonous origin of the Naga people:Chungliyimti¹¹ andKezakenoma¹² traditions. While the former narrates that the Naga people emerged from the six stones at the village of Chungliyimti,¹³ the latter is of the view that the Naga ancestors emerged out of a hole in the earth near the miraculous stone at Kezakenoma.¹⁴ The autochthonous traditions probably point to the beginning of Naga civilization. It is symbolic of a society which at some point of time began to think about who they were and where they came from. Chungliyimti and Kezakenoma probably were either the place of this enlightenment, or the farthest to which their memory could take them when people began to entertain such thoughts.¹⁵ The name of the Ao Naga tribe bears testimony to the migration of the Naga people from their ancestral village to various places. Tradition has it that the Ao Naga tribe was called ‘Ao’, meaning ‘those who went away’ because they moved away from the other tribes, by crossing the Dikhu river.

Research by modern scholars points to several waves of migration resulting in various tribal settlements. As early as the 1920s, two schools of thought dominated the migratory origin of the Naga people. The first school argued for an origin from Northwest China. From there, they migrated to occupy Myanmar and Siam (Thailand). However, pressure from thos...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of tables
• Abbreviations
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1. The Nagas: A segmentary society
• 2. Amidst the whirlwind of transition, 1947–1963
• 3. In the midst of a society in crisis, 1964–1989
• 4. Within a deeply divided society, 1990 onwards
• Conclusion: Segmentation, unity and a church divided
• Glossary
• Appendix 1: Naga tribes
• Appendix 2: Key ecclesiastical events in Nagaland
• Bibliography
• Index