Christianity And Politics In Tribal India

Through an ethnohistorical study of the Nagas—a congeries of tribes inhabiting the Indo-Myanmar frontier—this book explores an unusually interesting region of India that is all too often seen as peripheral. G. Kanato Chophy provides a distinct vantage point for understanding the Nagas in relation to colonialism, missionary encounters, identity politics, and cultural change, all seamlessly woven around American Baptist mission history in this region. The book also analyses India's cacophonous postindependence democracy in order to delineate multifaith issues, multiculturalism, and ethnicity-based political movements. Within the West, episodic memories of the "Great Awakening," a significant landmark in the history of Protestantism, have faded into archival records. But among the Nagas of the Indo-Myanmar highlands, Baptist Christianity persists as the dominant religion, influencing the daily lives of nearly three million people. Focusing variously on evangelical faith, missionary zeal, ethnic identities, political struggle, and complex culture wars, Christianity and Politics in Tribal India is an original and major study of how Protestant missions changed the history and destiny of a tribal community in one of the unlikeliest regions of South Asia.

This volume documents the ethnographies of regionally distinct Dalit and tribal Christian communities, raising new arguments pertaining to the autonomy and distinct identity of these communities in adverse social set-ups. Stressing upon the plurality of identities, the essays reject the idea of determining these exclusively on the basis of religion. They also chart the multiple levels of marginality experienced by both Dalit and tribal Christians and analyze how these groups negotiate their former religious faith and practices with Christianity. The book is a response to the urgent need for such studies in social science writings brought to the fore by contemporary political challenges/struggles facing these communities in various parts of India.

Conversion and the shifting discourse of violence -- Spreading like fire: the growth of Pentecostalism among tribals -- Taking refuge in Christ: four narratives on religious conversion -- Becoming believers: Adivasi women and the Pentecostal church -- Encountering the alien: Hindutva politics and anti-Christian violence -- Beyond the competing projects of conversion

Contributed seminar papers.

The introduction of Christianity by missionaries in North-East India, without ignoring the positive contribution, failed to provide a sound theological foundation for the people of this region in their quest for identity and liberation. In this publication, the author, a native of the region, investigates the struggle for identity among the tribal people of North-East India and more particularly the Kuki people of Manipur. Exploring the social, cultural, religious and political changes brought to the people of this region the book highlights their real struggle for justice and dignity. Outlining aspects of the Kuki tradition, as well as dialoguing with Dalit and tribal theology the author proposes possible contributions to a local theology that can help in shaping a new sense of identity for the tribal people of North-East India.