The birth of christian enthusiasm among the Angami of Nagaland

South Asia: Journal of South Asia Studies

Volumn 30, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 541-557

  Joshi, Vibha ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Angami; Christianity; Conversion; Fission

Indexed keywords

CHRISTIANITY; CULTURAL CHANGE; INDIGENOUS POPULATION; RELIGION;

ASIA; EURASIA; INDIA; NAGALAND; SOUTH ASIA;

EID: 36549044502     PISSN: 00856401     EISSN: 14790270     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00856400701714120     Document Type: Article

References (68)

1. This article is largely derived from my unpublished DPhil thesis, 'Christian and Non-Christian Angami Naga with Special Reference to Traditional Healing Practices', University of Oxford, 2001. The fieldwork was conducted during several fieldtrips from 1991 to the present. I am indebted to my Naga friends and informants for being so welcoming and patient. I would especially like to thank Chipeni Merry, Ati Sekhose, Medozhase and Dominic Yazokie. The research was funded by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission, London, Freer Scholarship, Oxford and Emslie Horniman Fund, Royal Anthropological Institute, London.
2. Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (New York: Collier, [1915] 1961).
3. Max Weber, The Sociology of Religion (London: Macmillan, 1965).
4. Nagaland state has an area of 16,527 square kilometres with a population at the last census (2001) of 1,988,636 which includes the officially-recognised sixteen Naga ethnic groups and Kuki and non-Naga immigrants. The state is divided into eleven districts or administrative units, namely Dimapur, Kiphrie, Kohima, Longleng, Mokokchung, Mon, Peren, Phek, Tuensang, Wokha and Zunheboto. These districts were carved out in accordance with the predominance of particular Naga ethnic groups and were named after the most prominent village and the administrative township that grew up around it.
5. There are sixteen Naga tribes or groups that are officially recognised by the Nagaland state government. These are the Angami, Ao, Chakhasang, Chang, Khiamneungan, Konyak, Liangmai, Lotha, Phom, Pouchuri, Rengma, Rongmei, Sangtam, Sumi, Yimchungrü, and Zemi. 'Tribe' is a consitutional category in India by virtue of Articles 330-342 of the Indian Constitution, which also provide for positive discrimination in the form of reservation of a certain number of seats in educational institutes and government jobs. The Naga groups have thus continued to call themselves 'tribes' to gain these advantages.
6. In 1962, the Thirteenth Amendment Act of the Constitution of India was passed in an effort to give more autonomy to the Nagas. Under the act Nagaland has special safeguards, which cannot be withdrawn unless the Legislative Assembly of Nagaland decides to pass a resolution against them. These are with respect to: I. religious or social practices of the Nagas; ii. Naga customary law and procedure; iii. the administration of civil and criminal justice involving decisions according to Naga customary law; iv. the ownership and transfer of land and its natural resources. See also Prakash Singh, Nagaland (Delhi: National Book Trust, [1972] 1995), p.101. With the constitutional safeguards Nagas are in a privileged position, as they have private ownership of the land, forest and water resources, unlike in the rest of India where water and forest resources are owned by the government. These safeguards are still current; Indians from other states are not allowed to buy land or own businesses in Nagaland. Customary law is practised at the village level, though homicide matters are now largely dealt with under the Indian Penal Code.
7. Separate population figures for different ethnic communities are available only up to the 1971 census.
8. These are Angami, Chakhasang, Rengma, Zeme, Liangmei, Rongmei and Mao.
9. These groupings were initiated by the British colonial administrators. These English labels are now commonly used by the Angami.
10. Khel is an Assamese term which was used by the British to refer to the spatial divisions of the Naga villages. It is nowadays commonly used by the Nagas to refer to wards occupied by a single clan that are, otherwise, known by the term for 'clan' in their respective languages.
11. Although Ukepenoupfü is a female spirit, she is conceptualised as incorporating both male and female aspects that are essential for procreation, and is regularly propitiated by Krüna Angami during the calendrical rituals. In the Angami Bible the term 'Ukepenoupfü' is used to denote the Christian High God. In his 1921 monograph on the Angami Nagas, J.H. Hutton mentions in a footnote that the conceptualisation of 'Ukepenuopfü' is 'undergoing a process of change from male to female'. See J.H. Hutton, The Angami Nagas (London: Macmillan, 1921), p.181
12. and Joshi, 'Christian and Non-Christian Angami Naga with Special Reference to Traditional Healing Practices', Chap.3.
13. One of the first missionaries to venture into a Naga village was Reverend Bronson, who had decided to work among the Nagas and thus went into the area on an exploratory mission in 1839 The correspondence in the 1840s between Bronson and Captain Jenkins, the British political officer posted in Assam, is notable for the suggestions made by them for recruiting Naga villagers for tea cultivation in Assam. See H.K. Barpujari, The American Missionaries and Northeast India (1836-1900 AD): A Documentary Study (Delhi: Spectrum Publications, 1986), pp.231, 252-65.
14. C.D. King, unpublished letter to the American Baptist Home Board (27 Dec. 1879) (Valley Forge, Penn.: American Baptist Mission Archives), pp.7-8.
15. See for more detail Joshi, 'Christian and Non-Christian Angami Naga with Special Reference to Traditional Healing Practices', Chap.6.
16. E.W. Clark, unpublished letter to the American Baptist Home Board (16 Oct. 1895) (Valley Forge, Penn.: American Baptist Mission Archives).
17. See also J. Puthenpurakal, Baptists Mission in Nagaland: Historical and Ecumenical Perspective (Shillong: Vendrame Missiological Institute, 1984), p.81.
18. Missionaries have often combined evangelism with medical care (seen by them as work of compassion). Many examples exist from around the world; see T.O. Beidelman, Colonial Evangelism: A Socio-Historical Study of an East AfricanMission at the Grassroots (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982)
19. S. Frankel and G. Lewis (eds), A Continuing Trial of Treatment:MEdical Pluralismin Papua NewGuinea (Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1989)
20. M.T. Huber, The Bishops Progress: A Historical Ethnography of Catholic Missionary Experience on the Sepik Frontier (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1988)
21. and Terence Ranger, 'Godly Medicine: The Ambiguities of Medical Mission in South-Eastern Tanzania 1900-45', in Social Science and Medicine No.15 (1981), pp.261-77.
22. Narola Rivenburg (ed.), The Star of the Naga Hills: Letters from Rev. Sidney & H. Rivenburg, Pioneer Missionaries in Assam, 1883-1923 (Philadelphia: American Baptist Press, 1941).
23. See F.S. Downs, The Mighty Works of God: A Brief History of the Council of Baptist Church in Northeast India, the Mission Period 1836-1950 (Gauhati: The Christian Literature Centre, 1971)
24. B.B. Ghosh, History of Nagaland (New Delhi: S. Chand & Co, 1982)
25. and Hokishe Sema, Emergence of Nagaland: Socio-Economic and Political Transformation and the Future (New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1986).
26. For more information see Julian Jacobs, Alan Macfarlane, Sarah Harrison and Anita Herle, The Nagas: Hill Peoples of Northeast India, Society Culture and Colonial Encounter (London: Thames and Hudson, 1991), p.177
27. Samir Kumar Das, 'Ethnicity and the Rise of Religious Radicalism: The Security Scenario in Contemporary Northeastern India', in Satu P. Limaye, Mohan Malik and Robert G. Wirsing (eds), Religious Radicalism and Security in South Asia (Honolulu: Asia Pacific Centre for Security Studies, 2004), pp.254-5
28. and the web page of the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagalim [http://www.nscnonline.org/nscn/home.html].
29. According to Hokishe Sema, their numbers were a 1000 Sema, 400 Lotha, 200 Rengma and 200 Ao Nagas. See Sema, Emergence of Nagaland, p.80. Prakash Singh gives a similar tally in his book, but divides the number of Lotha recruits into 200 Lotha with the rest belonging to neighbouring Sangtam, Chang and Phom communities.
30. See Singh, Nagaland, p.23. There were supposedly no Angami among the Naga Labour Corps.
31. J.R. Bailey to Huttington at the American Baptist Home Board, unpublished letter (27 Nov. 1917) (Valley Forge, Penn.: American Baptist Archives).
32. Richard Eaton, applying Horton's theory of African conversions, writes that conversion among the Nagas likewise followed the replacement of the 'High God' with the Christian concept of God. He explains that Naga groups converted at differing paces due to the differences in their social organisation, and the way in which indigenous terms were used to translate Biblicial concepts. Eaton bases his analysis on seven correlates of conversion, an approach which may well provide insights. One concern, however, is that Eaton takes too unquestioningly the missionaries' view that the Nagas had a notion of a High God, as distinct from a creative force, before missionary contact. Also, contrary to his view that the Angami did not migrate (a major factor in his correlative analysis), they did expand, like the Ao and Sema, through migration and the settlement of new villages as well as practising shifting swidden cultivation with wet terrace farming, and were very much engaged in trading relationships with other Nagas and the Assamese. Moreover, in placing emphasis on the primary influence of pre-exisitng Naga cosmology in determining the nature and direction of conversion to Christianity, he gives less attention to the availability in churches of educational, healing and other material resources and their influence in shaping peoples' varying choices in conversion and (changing) sect affiliation in the wider changing political environment. The mission records themselves emphasise the importance of educational and medical work in conversion which can still be seen in Nagaland. In part explanation of our differences, it might be noted that while Eaton relies upon secondary sources, my data combine secondary sources with primary data derived from extensive fieldwork over a period from 1990 until the present time, and which has included lengthy life histories. See Richard M. Eaton, 'Comparative History as World History: Religious Conversion in Modern India', in Journal of World History, Vol.8, no.2 (Fall 1997), pp.243-71
33. Richard M. Eaton, 'Conversion to Christianity among the Nagas, 1876-1971', in Indian Economic and Social History Review, Vol.11, no.1 (1984), pp.1-43
34. E. Horton, 'African Conversion', in Africa, Vol.XLI (1971), pp.85-108
35. Joshi, 'Christian and Non-Christian Angami Nagas with Special Reference to Traditional Healing Practices'
36. and Vibha Joshi, 'Pluralistic Beliefs: Christianity and Healing among the Angami Naga', in Michael Oppitz (ed.), Material Culture, Oral Traditions and Identity among the Naga (Zurich: The Ethnographic Museum, University of Zurich, 2008 forthcoming).
37. See Vibha Joshi Patel, 'A Pledge for Peace', in The India Magazine (April 1994), pp.32-41
38. Arthur Swinson, Kohima (London: Cassell, 1966)
39. and Aditya Arya and Vibha Joshi, The Land of the Nagas (Ahmedabad and Ocean Township, NJ: Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd. & Grantha Corporation, 2004).
40. The Second World War helped the Nagas form a united political front. After 1945, Charles Pawsey, the then deputy commissioner for Naga Hills, formed the Naga Hills District Tribal Council (NHDTC) to bring the Nagas together for the post-war reconstruction programme. See John Henry Hutton, 'Problems of Reconstruction in the Assam Hills', in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol.65 (1945), pp.1-7. Within a year the NHDTC acquired political overtones and changed its name to the Naga National Council or NNC.
41. See Singh, Nagaland, p.89. Its leader was A.Z. Phizo from Khonoma, an Angami village. This was also a more consolidated form of the Naga Club, which had been formed way back in 1919 by a group of Nagas who had returned after serving in the Labour Corps in France together with Nagas who were employed as government officers and government interpreters to confront the Simon Commission of 1935 in its negotiations for self-governance which were taking place between the British colonial government and the Indian nationalists.
42. For a detailed discussion see Joshi, 'Christian and Non-Christian Angami Nagas with Special Reference to Traditional Healing Practices'.
43. Puthenpurakal, Baptists Mission in Nagaland: Historical and Ecumenical Perspective
44. D.R. Syiemlieh, A Brief History of the Catholic Church in Nagaland (Shillong: Vendrame Missiological Institute, 1990)
45. and O.M. Rao, Focus on Northeast Indian Christianity (Delhi: ISPCK, 1994).
46. Rao, Focus on Northeast Indian Christianity
47. M.C. George (ed.), Centenary of the Catholic Church in Northeast India 1890-1990 (Shillong: Archbishop's House, 1990).
48. George (ed.), Centenary of the Catholic Church in Northeast India 1890-1990.
49. Such opposition has continued to date against competing sects. I have come across reports in the Naga local newspapers as recently as November 2006.
50. George (ed.), Centenary of the Catholic Church in Northeast India 1890-1990
51. Puthenpurakal, Baptists Mission in Nagaland: Historical and Ecumenical Perspective, p.127
52. and Syiemlieh, A Brief History of the Catholic Church in Nagaland, p.44.
53. In addition to the convents and boarding schools such as the Don Bosco at Kohima, a Loyola school and college run by Jesuit missionaries was founded near Jakhama.
54. Some of the villages were Jotsoma, Keruma, Merema, Nerhema, Khonoma, Jakhama, Zubza, Kigwema and Kidima in Kohima district.
55. The cathedral, built with the money donated by the Japanese, British, Nagas and others, is dedicated to the memory of those who died during the Battle of Kohima in 1944. Its opening ceremony included the ceremonial laying of Naga spears at the altar by visiting Allied and Japanese war veterans, which symbolised peace and friendship between the two. The round building is supposed to reflect the traditional architectural style of a Naga youth dormitory. See Patel, 'A Pledge for Peace', pp.32-41.
56. One of my young Baptist Christian informants (who was also the principal of a village primary school) commented that the lack of funds for education in Baptist churches was responsible for the poor standards of their schools as they cannot afford to hire good teachers. He resented that, in comparison, the Catholics were doing far better in the field of education as they have access to outside funds which they can use for paying better salaries, and hence are able to employ better teachers. He was critical of the Catholics for not being self-reliant, saying that they depended on non-Naga leadership as the majority of the Catholic clergy in Nagaland is from other parts of India, especially Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.
57. In 2007 the number of theological colleges given by the Higher Education Department in Nagaland was 19 [http://nagaland.nic.in/functionaries/ department/human/higheredu/main.htm].
58. F.S. Downs, History of Christianity in India: Northeast India in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (Bangalore: Church History Association of India, 1992), p.100.
59. Ibid., p.99.
60. Ibid., p.100.
61. Acts 2: 1-4: 'When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them'. (From the King's Bible).
62. See also Downs, History of Christianity in India, p.226
63. and Rao, Focus on Northeast Indian Christianity, pp.36-8.
64. Interestingly, the photograph of the ordination published in the Catholic Church Souvenir shows the Angami priest in a white ordination robe which had been made from the traditional white ceremonial Loramoshü cloth of the Angami Nagas. See George (ed.), Centenary of the Catholic Church in Northeast India 1890-1990. I was told that the Angami priests have the option of wearing the upper cloth made of either Loramoshü or plain white cloth.
65. The language of the sermon is chosen according to the language proficiency of the speaker. Non-Naga Catholic priests prefer to use English.
66. The pastor was from the neighbouring Chakhasang Naga community.
67. Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life.
68. Rodney Needham, 'Percussion and Transition' in Man, Vol.2 (1967), pp.606-14.