If you were coming to Nagaland to see traditional tribe cultures
don’t bother to come as there is nothing left. With 98% of the community
Baptist the locals all were western clothes and there is nothing much really to
see culturally.
Both Nagaland and Arunachal are recognized as having diverse
biospheres which lead to a very high bird and butterfly count not to mention
the fauna. For us the question in
Nagaland was why had there been such a high conversion rate to Christianity? We
had not seen the missionary be so successful at conversion in the various
countries that we have been to where missionaries have been active.
A Doctoral thesis by Vihuli Sema entitled The American
Baptist Mission and the Nagas for which there is an abstract available on line
has these remarks on that same subject.
“Chapter four is an elaborate discussion of the missionary
contribution in the field of education, literature and health care. No doubt
these were some of the methods adopted to achieve their one object, the
conversion of the Nagas to Christianity, but the missionary contribution in
these fields cannot be underestimated. They were the pioneers in the field of
education and contributed immensely to its growth and development in the Naga
Hills. Spread of secular education as desired by the administration was not the
primary object of the American Baptists. They wanted a workable literacy among
the hill men and with this end in view the missionaries established primary
schools and a few training schools for teachers. Despite such limitations, the
mission schools remained the chief agencies for imparting education to the
Nagas. The missionaries also contributed immensely to the development of Naga
literature. In fact most of the written Naga dialects owe their origin and
development to the Christian agencies. Eager to get vernacular translations of
the New Testament into circulation as quickly as possible, the missionaries at
Impur and Kohima reduced the various Naga dialects to written forms and built
up a body of vernacular literature which represented the first literature the
Naga had ever possessed.
Another sphere of
missionary’s activity brought hope and new life to the Nagas hitherto steeped
in superstitions and ignorance, and that was medical service. This appeared to
be one of the important adjuncts to the evangelistic programs of the
missionaries from the beginning. It was seen as the necessary embodiment of the
spirit of Christianity, whose founder was Himself a great Healer. The
missionaries established hospitals, dispensaries, and other kinds
of health centuries . Through the dispensaries the mission
could serve the Nagas even in the remotest areas. The service of Rivenburg,
Loops, and Bailey as well as the nonprofessional contributions made by Clark
and others dispensed medicine for ordinary ailments did help to project the
figure of a compassionate missionary "who became more acceptable to the
people. It also contributed a great deal to the material progress of the Naga
Hills.
Chapter five deals with conversion and attempts to explain
it in the historical context. Clearly it can be seen that Christian conversion
among the Nagas cannot be explained in terms of the number of distribution of
foreign missionaries, as this line of reasoning is contradicted by the lack of
consistent correlation between the incidence of conversion and the presence of
foreign missionaries. Shifting the focus from the missionaries to the converts,
one might interpret the latter as motivated by political, social, or other
forms of self-interest. But this confuses the consequence of conversion for its
cause. Religious change in Nagaland in other words, cannot be explained in
strictly non-religious terms. The key of these changes is to be found in the
particular forms of interaction between the Naga religious cosmology and their
social relations, each of which influenced the other. The traditional Naga
cosmology may be characterized as a two-tiered scheme, consisting at the upper
tier of a supreme deity who underpinned the universe. This supreme deity though
benevolent was but vaguely understood and seldom approached because of his remoteness
from the everyday concerns of Naga communities. The lower tier consisted of a
host of minor spirits who were more sharply perceived because they underpinned
the immediate reality which Nagas experienced , and therefore needed constant
appeasement to keep them from bringing havoc upon individuals, or whole
villages . Within this framework on finds a good deal of room for variation and
elaboration from one Naga group to another. Secondly Naga religions were not
static but dynamic, as we find that particular deities of one Naga group were
occasionally incorporated into the cosmology of other groups. An awareness of
the variations among Naga religion and of their dynamic fluid quality helps to
suggest how Christian conversion took place in the Naga Hills. In using this
approach one finds that in fact Christianity was not presented uniformly among
Naga groups, that the Christian cosmology was fitted into the Ao religious
system very differently then it was into the Sema, Lotha or Angami system.
Secondly one finds that the various Naga communities experienced different
sorts of social changes before and during their exposure t o Christian influence,
and that this affected their different responses to that influence.
Despite all their denunciation against the social dimension
of Naga religion, prohibiting this, denying that, some missionaries were not at
all reluctant to rely very heavily on its cosmological dimension. Thus we see
them tinkering with Naga cosmologies, trying to fit their own system into the
Nagas, but doing so in a somewhat inconsistent way. In the long run it appears
that those missionaries who found the most success were those who allowed the
Nagas to identify the Christian conception of God within their own religious
system. However as long as the Nagas
experience of reality remained confined to their immediate locality, the upper
tier of their cosmology occupied by their supreme deity who underpinned the
entire universe, was accordingly given only slight attention . This was why the
early missionary efforts met with relatively little success. The missionaries
had been elaborating the upper tier of the Naga cosmology at a time when the
Nagas pre-occupied with a concern with more immediate spirits were paying
little attention to that tier. But world events like the integration of the
Naga Hills with British India and World War II confronted Nagas with a larger
reality than their lower tier of local spirits could be seen as controlling.
When this occurred, Nagas respond d by paying greater attention to the supreme
deity who underpinned the entire universe and who appeared more clearly in
charge of things. Amidst this breakdown and ultimately capitalizing on it ,
were the missionaries who claimed to be tapping a source of power the one God
’Tsungrem ' or ‘ Alhon' , far greater in magnitude and far more actively
involved with the entire macrocosm than any of the former spirits of Naga cosmology.
The acceptance of this Christian conception of God seem to have been
facilitated by (a) his ability to deliver men from fear of their malevolent
spirits (b) his identification with new solutions to old problems in the area
of physical afflictions, and ( c) His infinite power rendered both timeless and
challengeable by his being enshrined in a written text, the Christian
scriptures.
Chapter Six deals with the impact of Christianity on Naga
culture. Culture here implies the personality of a people or a society. It
includes the totality of people’s traditions (what they believe) attitudes
(what they desire) customs (what they do) and institutions (how they live). Christianity
has struck its roots deep in the Naga soil and brought far reaching changes in
every facet of Naga life and thought. For centuries the Nagas had been living
in isolation, institutionalized warfare between neighboring villages and tribes
had been a way of life, the mainspring of many of the political, social and
cultural institutions of the people. Now the Christian emphasis upon love for neighbour
and enemy alike provided an ideological basis for the new relationship among
villages and tribes that British administration and the prohibition of raiding
made necessary. The new attitudes were
seen in the extensive evangelistic activities undertaken by Christians of one
tribe among members of other tribes who had traditionally been their enemies. Another area of culture change stimulated by
missionary influence was tile breaking of old barriers within and between
linguistic groups. The Mission organized large associations to serve as forums
for discussion on social welfare activities as well as church policy. But these
Associations also served to integrate Nagas of the same language groups. With
their huge annual meetings drawing thousands from distant villages, these
Associations not only broke down inter village barriers but raised to a much
higher level the forum of discussion on issues formerly decided only at the
village level. For the Nagas Christianity came as a liberator from ”spiritual
and social demons' . But in the process of 1iberatinq the tribes it is not
always easy to tell the difference between the "demons" of oppression
and superstition that binds the bodies and mind of the people and valuable elements
in the traditional cultures that might best be preserved to enrich the Christian
community. Sometimes the missionaries seemed to oppose traditional activity simply
because they did not fit in with their own rather solemn notions of Christian
propriety. For instance, the missionaries forbade converts to participate in the
Feast of Merit, and boys were prohibited from attending their morungs or
dormitories since these were associated with their former life. The Feast of
Merit discouraged by the missionaries fulfilled an important obligation of the
well-to-do for the good of the community irrespective of their economic
positions. This said to be the Naga way of distributing Wealth which had a
greater social value. Again the morungs around which the social, political,
religious, legal and military life of the Nagas revolved sank into insignificance
due to missionary propaganda. Morungs were supposed to be the “most imposing
and well built” houses in the Naga villages. They were also the centers of art
and carving. Mills lamented that in the Christian villages Morungs were no
longer built and the old xylophones (long wooden drums) came into disuse. The
disappearance of the social and communal institution was followed in it’s train
by the emergence of a spirit of new individualism. This in turn led to the erosion
of the family and clannish ties which were once very important elements of Naga
life. Education, occupational mobility and social intercourse also led to inter
tribal marriages. Marriages with
non-Nagas also took place. Such inter-marriages have eroded family and community
life to a great extent. The convert being thus cut off from the community and
village life became a stranger in his village and began to despise his own tribe
and cultural inheritance. Many of the charges against the missionaries of
disrupting the Naga way of life are not without foundation. However the
latter-day missionaries appreciating some of the valuable elements in the Naga
culture switched on to a more realistic policy and tried t o preserve all t that
was good in the old tradition and culture of the Naqas.
In conclusion it may be said that the American Baptist
Mission came out of European and American cultural backgrounds. When they
entered the Naga Hills and began working among them, two cultures came face to
face. The when two cultural groups meet they effect each other. Usually the
dynamic one makes its headway inside the weaker. On principle a certain amount of tribal
disintegration was unavoidable when it came in direct touch with the agent of
western culture. It can be admitted frankly that the missionaries that came
from America were the bears of both the good and the bad qualities of their
nation. They could not strip themselves
of the cultural characteristics of their land and people and this influenced to
some extent their attitude toward the tribal culture. But the allegation that
Christianity was responsible for the disintegration of the Naga culture and
life are interconnected the more so in tribal life, where they tend to be
undifferentiated. The missionaries made
an attempt to change the core, the center of tribal religion, but they had
attempted to retain the outer framework as much as possible. But a change of
center meant a change of world view, philosophy of life and perspective of
spiritual and moral values. Thus some kind of change or alteration was
inevitable."
