Bread of Life: Transforming Crowd into a Eucharistic Community- Reflections Based on the Issue of “Illegal Migrants of Assam”

Text- John 6: 1-15, 25-40.

Jesus feeding the Five Thousand is there in all the 4 Gospels. But the setting and intention in John is different in comparison to the Synoptic Gospels. There is a context of Passover that sets the framework of liberation to the entire text. The Geographical Location of the crowd is on the Other side of the Sea Of Galilee or the Sea Of Tiberias. This says something about the crowd as Tiberias was the major urban centre along the lake. The city was named after Emperor Tiberius and founded by Herod Antipas in about A.D. 19. It is said that the city was built on a graveyard and therefore Jews refused to settle in this city as contact with the dead made people unclean according to the Jewish Law. Therefore, to find residents for his new city, Herod freed slaves and offered free land and house to those who would settle there.  He also built a synagogue but the ‘City of Graveyard’ was the label that city of Tiberias had to carry. The Roman rulers used to placate their vassal states by providing free bread to the people. The people were dependent on this act of charity from rulers. As the crowd is the focus of our meditation, the brief background of the crowd will help us deal with the text keeping the focus on the crowd.

When Jesus saw the crowd coming towards him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat? (vs 5). What is interesting is Philip’s reaction to deal with the crowd. “Six Month’s wages would not buy enough bread for these people to eat” (vs 7). We see that His approach was to calculate the enormity of the crowd in monetary terms to dismiss the crowd and their needs. While Andrew searched for a possibility of gathering resources but could only get a boy with five barley loaves and two fish. Andrew tried to solve the problem with available resources but knew that the resources to feed the crowd were meager. But Jesus seeing these responses was not overwhelmed by the Crowd. He made them sit down. Vs 11 is the key of the passage which says “Then Jesus took the loaves and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted.” What is very interesting is that Apostle in his emphasis has highlighted the act of Jesus giving thanks taking the loaves and fish. In Vs 23 it says “ Then some boats from Tiberias came where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks.” The description does not say “The place where the Lord fed the five thousand” but “The place where they had eaten bread after the Lord had given thanks.” So I assume the Apostle was emphasizing on the formation of a crowd that was transformed into a sharing community through the sacramental act of Eucharist or Thanksgiving. The author assumes the miracle of feeding the five thousand with Five Loaves of barley and two fish but he does not stress on the miracle aspect unlike what we find in the Synoptic Gospels. Seeing the provision of bread in abundance provoked the people to make Jesus the King as for them, those who provide bread for free are the rulers. Jesus resisted this attempt. John 6: 25-40 Jesus makes a binary with the earthly bread that perishes with the Body of Jesus which was presented as a “Bread from heaven.” In vs 33 Jesus says “For the Bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” The emphasis is giving life which Jesus intended to do. When the Greeks came to seek him it is in this connection that Jesus said those famous words “I tell you the truth, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” John 12:24. So the understanding of Jesus of giving life is not giving bread alone but the need of incarnation into a situation that compels us to forego our ‘Self’ that refuses to die. Jesus challenged us to die to our own selfish needs and compulsions. It challenges us to be Life givers to vast section of people who live on bread without hope and community. Jesus became the Heavenly bread by espousing the biggest sacrifice that the Cross symbolizes. The resurrection gives us hope of bread that never spoils. So we see that the miracle was not Jesus feeding the Five thousand with Five loaves of Bread  and two fish but that Jesus intended to tranform the crowd into a Ecclessial Community by offering himself as a bread to be broken for the World. Jesus presents himself as the bread that was ready to be broken for the Crowd to become a community. This Sacramental Discourse of Jesus at the same time is a mission mandate where he opens himself to be broken for the Jews and the Greeks alike.

In the North East of India there are gamut of issues and crisis. One of the most evident presence one sees is the presence of the so called “illegal immigrants”. The largest labour force is formed by these illegal immigrants. They have been accommodated in places like Dhubri , Kokhrajhar, Gossaingaon areas of Assam. Government settled them in areas  notified as the land of Bodo Territorial Council. The recent ethnic violence in Assam was due to the contention of land and meager resources. These people have a very slave like existence and are deprived of all the human rights and sense of dignity. In most of the cities in the North East, they form a work force that is used as cheap labour. They live under sub-standard conditions and are paid way below the standard minimum wages. Successive governments and movements have treated them as non- entities or as the reason for dispute and disharmony. Their existences as humans are debunked. They too use their labour to win the bread. Bread is the centre of their existence. Successive governments too have only facilitated in providing them bread. Now major of the labour force in Kerala is from this section. The train from Guwahati to Trivandrum is full of these labourers. The Sleeper compartment will have 500 passengers instead of 72. One cannot imagine the conditions which they travel. When I was travelling by A.C. compartment, I ventured into one Sleeper compartment. I was shocked at the human conditions of people desperate for work and bread. When I came back to the A.C. compartment, I ordered for a specific menu. The man of the pantry told me "Sir that food is not for people like you. It is not cooked that well. We give it to the labourers in the sleeper compartment. Why don’t you order something different?" I was shocked at the gross distinction that was being made of humans. Outside the precincts of Guwahati, these people are accomodated in Labour Camps which has the feel of a ghetto. It is also used as a social marker of these dispossessed people. These very people are working on a Church project at my parsonage in Guwahati. All the boys working are between 17-20. One thing that strikes is none of the boys give eye contact and are very uncomfortable in my presence. Their identity, self esteem and dignity have been crushed under the cruelties of life. Noor Ahmed, one of the laborers confided that “ I come from a family of Imams and my father is a Haji as he has gone to Haj. But the 1998 flood devastated us and our 15 acres of land was swallowed by the Brahmaputra River. I was studying in standard 10. After the flood I came to Guwahati from Dhubri and worked day in and day out and learnt to be a maistry as we had lost everything. But once the building is built or a house is built, we are scared to enter into these homes. We are unwanted.” Church here has a lesson to learn from the Example of Jesus. When the expectation of the crowd is to be fulfilled of the needs of the bread, We have to strive for a Eucharistic community where we offer ourselves as bread. Church has to think of new outreach strategies that that transform the crowd into a community. Church at times deals with the Crowd like Philip by seeing people and their needs only in monetary terms. Or at best we try to be like Andrew who searches for resources just to fix a problem. But Jesus was not just interested in satisfying the physical needs of the people. He sees the importance of Bread that satisfies physical hunger. But Jesus was interested in the identity formation of the crowd that formed them into a  community by displaying love on the Cross like a grain of wheat ready to die to give life to many.

Let me conclude with my observations of the Northeast India. Work among the natives, among the tribals has been espoused at length. But in the context of huge migrational displacements, the existence of the illegal migrants has not been engaged with. The issues of justice and peace can only be dealt when Church has a policy or a mission strategy that strives for the rights of the so called illegal migrants. Here we need to dare to go beyond the compulsions of geo-politics and religion. The educational status of these people is abysmal which keeps them in the vortex of poverty and exploitation. They are also easily manipulated on communal lines as the discontent and drudgery of living everyday is a fact. It is the truth of National framework that has termed them as “Illegal”. We need to overcome that blindfold to accept them as humans. Talking to the labourers working on daily wages reveals that the government schools are the only source for education. The bias of teachers against the migrants denies them of quality education which leads to huge rate of school drop outs. So from then on they have believed that they are only fit to be labourers to earn bread. Ali, a painter by profession said “I went to school only till standard 4. Teachers always said we are not fit for studies. So I realized that there is no use studying. I started working from the age of 9.”

  Today the xenophobia of the local communities has forced the migrants to have artificial communities in ghettoes based on striving for bread and the struggle for self preservation. When church produces a community that is committed to die for  these brethrens of theirs so that they may have life and a meaningful community, then and only then can we pray “God of Life, Lead us to Justice and Peace.” Or else the symbol of Cross is a scandal that will judge our hypocrisy and fashionable slogans. May God of life lead us to be breads that feed the hopeless life of many a crowd to justice and peace.

Rev Merin Mathew

Mar Thoma Church

Guwahati

(Readers I am aware of my naivity in regards to a complex topic. It is out of my personal struggles with my encounters with these labourers that I have written this. I am also aware that my tone is one that is patronizing)

North East Diaries- Khasi Tribe of Meghalaya

It has been a matter of great privilege and honor to have been posted to the North East as a Priest of 5 small parishes of the Mar Thoma Church. When I received the news of my First assignment I have to be honest that my first reaction was “Why the North East?” Like an average Indian I had stereotypes that simplified the entire N-E. It makes life more convenient. Images fed by the media, general perceptions about North East are that of insurgency, instability, militancy and general tumult. Some friends opined that since morality is very low among the people of the N-E, I must take special care and be cautious. When I was in college I believed with great conviction that sex and drugs is the only preoccupation in the N-E. Packing people into neat compartments of label gives power over them and gives the one who labels a sense of superiority. At the other extreme end of the spectrum is the  advertisement of N-E being an exotic travelers’ paradise, a place to be. There are people who have asked me “How is the snow out there. God, I love the North East and it’s my dream to be there. It’s so beautiful”.   But as one of my friend rightly warned, “For God’s sake do not be a tourist but a pilgrim out there”. That line has been my watchword in the 3 months and more that I have been here. With my naïve interest in history and culture I have constantly tried to learn the land and the traditions of the people in the limited ways that I know. To begin with I would like to delve on some things that I explored around Shillong as this was where I first celebrated Holy Communion at the Shillong Mar Thoma Parish that rents All Saints Cathedral of the C.N.I. for Sunday worship.

General Introduction

Let me not give you mundane facts like Shillong is the capital of Meghalaya, a state that came to existence on 21st Jan 1972. 3 hills are integral to Meghalaya and they are Khasi hills, Jaintia Hills and the Garo Hills. Shillong is situated on the Khasi hills and the language spoken out here is Khasi which is a dialect and uses English alphabets but instead of 26 alphabets , Khasi has 22.  Dr. Kakati argues that Khasis are the first inhabitants of the North East. This is contested but it is said that Khasis first settled near a Hill called Ka Mei- Kha which Scholars attribute is the present day Kamakhya Hill found in Guwahati.

Matrilineal Social System of the Khasis

 Kakati contends that the Khasi Matrilineal system of revering mothers was the reason for goddess worship to be introduced and that is how Kamakhya temple was dedicated to Kamakhya Devi. Talking about matrilineal system, one thing that strikes when one enters Shillong is the evident ethos of the Khasi women who are out in the market and shops as enterprising entrepreneurs. To understand this one needs to understand that a man marries a Khasi woman and enters into her family. Woman possesses authority over all property. The lineage is traced through the woman. The house of the woman is called ‘ka iing seng’ which is inherited by her youngest daughter. Youngest daughter is called ‘Ka nongri iing’. The youngest daughter along with her rights is responsible to protect her aging parents and the dependent members of her family. The birth of a girl child calls for huge festivities. This may look like the ideal for a feminist imagination, where a social structure has challenged the moorings of patriarchy. But one notices that with the homogenization process so rampant in today’s globalized world one cannot miss the emergence of patriarchy in different shades in the life and ethos of Shillong and especially the Khasi tribe.

Myth of the Khasis

When I was travelling through Shillong, I asked one of my church members if the Khasi Tribe had a myth to explain their life and culture. None had an answer. Understanding the myth of a tribe or a set of people helps us to know the character of a place and the self understanding of the people. I tried hard but did not succeed. Finally it dawned to me that The Don Bosco Centre for Indegenious Cultures, which is a Museum that brings the entire history, geography, culture, tradition, rituals and habitats of the entire North East under one roof. The classification and research out here is impeccable. And finally in Gallery No. 2 of the Museum, I got the answer for the question that I was searching for. Indeed the Khasis had a myth to explain the creation, origin and purpose of the world and their tribe. The Khasis traditionally believed in one sovereign God , the Creator whom they called as U-Blei Nongthaw. U-Blei created a beautiful world. He initially created 16 families of human beings that lived with God in Heaven. These 16 families used to visit the World from time to time by means of a Golden ladder ‘jingkieng ksiar’ that was situated on  top of Lumsohpetbneng (Lum= Hill, Sohpet= navel, Bneng= heaven), the hill that connected heaven and the earth like an unborn child is joined to the mother through an umbilical cord. This hill is at a 25 kms north of Shillong.  After every visit to the World, the 16 families returned back to heaven, for that was their home. From here on there are conflicting accounts.  It is said that the 16 families would descend on earth, every morning to labour all day, cultivate and reap profit of the land and then in the evening would return in the evening by the ladder. This routine continued. One day, one of the men did not like the idea of staying in the abode; along with God and wanted to reap the profits of living on the earth. So he started to plot a plan and started to chop off the ladder little by little. On one particular day, 9 families remained in heaven while seven families descended on earth for work. On this day when the 7 families were working, this ambitious man brought fruition to his plan by ultimately felling the ladder to the ground. Therefore the 7 families became the first inhabitants of the world. They are the khasis. They occupied the Centre point of the Earth- Ri Shnong Pdeng Pyrthei- as crowned rulers over all other creations, the animal world, the plant kingdom and they were given nine seeds by U-Blei to sow, toil, sweat and reap.  The number 7 in Khasi is hynniew   and so the official name of Khasis is Hynniew- trep or Hynniew skum which means seven huts or seven families respectively.

Religious Concepts

Finally let us understand the Khasi understanding of God and their religiosity. The Khasis believe in God who is Omnipotent, Omnipresent and Omniscient. They are monotheistic in belief and therefore consider it a sacrilege to symbolize him in any shape or form. God’s Three commandments are as follows.

1) Kamai ia ka Hok- which literally means “earn righteousness”. This was the commandment of God given to the Seven families who inhabited the earth. This compels a strong sense of ethics. 

2) Iip Briew- Tip Blei- this literally means “know man- know God”. The import of this command is the Man can only Know God when he understands his fellow men. So a strong sense of emphasis is given to human relations rather than a mystical understanding of God devoid of relations.

3) Tip Khur Tip Kha- this means “know ones maternal relations and paternal relations”. The kur is the clan that traces its descent from the First Ancestress, “Ka Iawbei”. So mother is central to the structure of functioning as the children take her surname/ clan name. Kha which literally means “to give birth” is the paternal relations. Father and maternal uncles are important components of Khasi social structure. Honouring paternal relations are very integral to the Khasi ethos.

The Khasis according to the Don Bosco Museum and literature specify that they are originally animists and have ancestor worship. But this is not true. Neither do they have a formal place of Worship, as they believe the U- Blei, the Creator of all fills the Heaven and the Earth. They have a strong belief that every inch of ground is sacred, so there is no necessity of a Sacred Place as such. Sincerity and purity of heart is the most important aspect of prayer. Every day is a day of prayer so one special day is not ordained for worship.  The idea of afterlife in the khasis is linked to the myth of 16 original families. When one finally dies, the Khasis believe that the soul soars and flies to be one with the Khyndai Trep (the nine huts or families who lived in heaven) as the longing of the seven families on earth was always to join the 9 families and be one with them in heaven. They understand body as the rotten cage and therefore cremate their dead ones.

After my basic knowledge of the Khasi tribe I am humbled by the various shades and cultural heritages of this tribe. But it has challenged my arrogance and sense of worldview and more I understand different cultures and traditions I am devoid of the comforts of ‘certainty’ and the utter discomfort and insecurity of the knowledge that I know nothing.

 P.S. My research is thanks to Don Bosco Centre for Indegenious Cultures, books on the North East and my conversations with my co-travellers in many of my journeys. it is inadequate and has many flaws. The only motivating factor is to cater curiosity.

North East Diaries: Nagaland

As a priest of the Mar Thoma Church I am in charge of two churches, one in Dimapur and another in Kohima. The Christian presence in Nagaland is very visible and at times overwhelming. As a sport one can count the number of Baptist Churches and Seminaries in a short stretch of 4 K. m. in the premises of Dimapur. You find Ao Baptist Church, Phom Baptist Church, Sumi Baptist Church, etc. the point that as an observer one notices is every tribe has a Baptist Church of their own. So what I construe is that there is no intermingling of tribes at one level but this could be a naïve assumption. Nagaland has been known for its tense atmosphere and struggle for freedom. But such anxieties or tensions seem to be at least for the time being a matter of the past. So when one tries to understand a place there are many things that determine the character and ethos of it. In my small survey I believe the imprints of colonization by the British Government, Militarization by the Indian Government, Christianity and Western Education have shaped the place that we call Nagaland. Let us ask some questions to arrive at a better understanding of the place and the people.

Who are the Nagas?

The word ‘Naga’ is more of a label than a name. The people of the Assam plain called this particular people as Naga which is derived from the Sanskrit word Nanga which means naked. These people lived in isolation and created terror by attacking the people of the plains time and again. The Nagas belong to Tibeto- Burman group of Indo- Mongloid. Nagas  are not a homogenous group. There are 18 tribes along with 30 dialects found among the Nagas. According to the oral traditions, Nagas migrated from Mongolia, and then through southwestern China and Myanmar into their present territory of habitation. Except for some groups that live in Assam, the Nagas inhabit a contiguous territory, but at present the people and their land are divided between India and Myanmar (west of the Chindwin river bordering the Kachin state and Sagiang state). Within India, the Nagas and their territory are further carved out into the states of Nagaland, Manipur (the four hill districts of Ukhrul, Senapati, Tamenglong and Chandel), northeast Arunachal Pradesh, and Assam (North Cachar Hills, Mikir Hills, Golaghat, Lakhimpur, and Sibsagar districts). The Nagas inhabited an area of about 120,000 square kilometers, within which the state of Nagaland covers an area of 16,527 square kilometers. So the basic understanding that Nagas are found only in Nagaland has been put to rest.

What are their Traditional Religious beliefs?

Before Christianity entered their lives in 1851, Nagas believed the doctrine that attributes spirits to surrounding inanimate objects and to natural phenomenon. Sociologists describe Naga religion as animistic. The Sumi tribe of the Nagas had an innate belief in an unseen higher power that regulated human destiny and, as such, was entitled to obedience, reverence and worship. They believed in three separate categories of spirits. The foremost of them was the Creator holding dominion over the process of creation. The second category related to the spirits of the sky such as angels and the third consisted of the group that inhabited the earth among human beings. While the Creator was beneficent and benevolent, the spirits of the second and third categories were malevolent and had to be propitiated with sacrifices and rituals. One must observe that no day in the week is specifically set aside for religious observances. On must take into consideration that the nature of the religion takes into its ambit the entire social system or village and the individual is on the periphery. Only when we take this into account can we comprehend the cohesiveness, unity and discipline of each Naga village. The religious practices are highly nuanced and detailed and are beyond the scope of this article.

What was the reason for head-hunting?

Nagas were very condescendingly called by the British as the ‘head hunters’. Joseph S. Thong argues that head-hunting was developed in the context of war. Every Naga village was a sovereign state and was at war with each other. The enemy was killed by throwing spear or shooting the arrow in a raid after which the victim was beheaded and his head was carried to the village accompanied by singing and dancing. About the origin of Head-hunting there is a folklore that says “One day a warrior, while on his way to fight his enemies. He saw two red ants fighting each other in the forest. He observed that one of the red ant killed the other and severed its head which was later carried to the ant hole. The warrior loved what he saw and beheaded the enemy after he had killed them and this practice caught on.”  But one needs to understand that head- hunting was closely related to their religion and cosmology. The head being the receptacle of the soul was, therefore, regarded as an object of immense vitality and creative energy. Head hunting was propelled by the desire to acquire a head for retention in one’s house or village which would, as a result, be blessed with human and animal fertility. The head of a woman with long hair was especially precious, as it would stimulate an abundance of food crops. The taker of a head gained fame for prowess in the art of war and was, therefore, sought after by young girls.

What Was the Colonial Encounter of the Nagas like?

The Nagas experienced western military violence beginning in 1832 when British troops entered Nagaland. Between 1832 and 1851 the British undertook 10 military ‘expedi­tions’ into Naga territories, inflicting considerable damage and suffering on the people. The British occupation of the Naga Hills marked the presence of an imperial power hitherto unforeseen and unimagined in the life of the Nagas. John Butler, who led some of the earliest attacks, agreed that the Nagas ‘had hitherto never encountered a foe equal to contend with them, and in utter ignorance of the effect of fire-arms, they vainly imagined that no party could penetrate through their territory’. In pre-colonial times, conflict did occur among Naga villages, but suzerainty over another village remained minimal and political control amounted to little more than the occasional receipt of tributes or a day’s labor. Although depicted as ‘warlike’ and ‘wild tribes’, warfare was supplanted often by piercing the effigy of an enemy with spears, thus eliminating the need for going to war. As such, unlike the Euro-American history, the Naga history does not revolve around battles won or lost, bloody revolutions or deathly civil wars, let alone being determined and shaped by warfare at a global level, such as World War I or II. The invasion of the British completely changed this traditional scenario. The British invaded and subsequently occupied the Naga Hills for more than a century, causing a profoundly traumatic impact on the Nagas.  

. When Kohima, the headquarters of the British administration in the Naga Hills and the present-day capital of Nagaland, was overrun by the British on 11 February 1851, ‘over three hundred Nagas were killed and [the British] prestige thoroughly established’. Even then with the difficulties involved in the administration the people of the Naga Hills were administered as Excluded Area which makes the Nagas contend that they were never part of India.

What is the Background of the Struggle with India?

This is a rather long and complicated one so the intricate details will be left out. But there are some build ups that laid the foundation of the struggle.

a)      In the year 1918 Naga Club was formed and this is believed to be the genesis of Naga Nationalism according to Abraham Lotha. When Simon Commission in 1929 proposed the Reform Scheme of India, the Naga Club presented a memorandum, requesting to be excluded from the Reform Scheme. With further negotiations as per the Government of India Act, 1935 Naga Hills was declared an Excluded Area brought directly under the Governor.

b)      During the World War II, many Nagas were enlisted by the British. The war reached the Naga Hills where the Japanese were defeated by the Allied forces in the famous battle of Kohima. This war had its toll on the villages of Naga Hills and therefore to reconstruct it the British Government formed the Naga Hills District Tribal Council (NHTDC) in the year 1945 to unite the Nagas. This further helped in laying the foundations of Naga nationalism where in February 1946, in a meeting of the NHTDC at a place called Wokha, the members changed the name of the council to Naga National Council (NNC) with greater political ambition whose purpose now became to achieve the unification and solidarity of all Nagas under one government as their legitimate national aspirations and interests.

c)      The NNC was at the forefront of the negotiations with the British Government for a separate nation and an interim government and as per their internal decisions the NNC declared Naga Independence on 14th August 1947. A cable was sent to the United Nations General Secretary: “Nagas will be independent. Kindly put on record that Nagas will be independent. Discussions with India are being carried on to that effect. Nagas do not wish to accept Indian constitution. The right of the people must prevail regardless of size”. This obviously was rejected by the Indian Government who thought that the Naga Hills was integral part of Assam.

d)     There was a long series of negotiations between the Government of India and the NNC. A. N. Phizo was the leader of NNC who was zealous about the Naga Nation. Frustrated with the failures of negotiations, Phizo, the President of NNC wrote to the President of India of their decision for a voluntary plebiscite on the issue of Naga Independence. Therefore in accordance on 16th May 1951 a plebiscite was conducted by the NNC where the thumb impression of both the sexes was taken. NNC had requested the Government to send observers for the same. The NNC claimed that 99.9 percent people were in favour of Naga Independence. This, for obvious reasons were rejected by the Government.

What Happened after the failure of negotiations for a Naga nation?

The antagonism and confrontation between the Nagas and the Indian government remained non-violent until 1955. In 1956 Naga Central Government was formed by Phizo. Phizo then started an all out battle against the Government and formed many movements to spread the idea of Naga nation. The Indian government began to send its military contingents to quash the Nagas’ escalating steps for a Naga Nation. Since then Nagaland remains one of the most militarized regions in the world, and atrocities against the people have remained high

In the years following the Naga’s organized resistance, three crucial anti-Naga political man­dates were initiated, which subjected the Nagas to immense suffering. To end the Naga political uprising, the Assam Maintenance of Public Order Act, 1953 and the Assam Disturbed Area Act, 1955 were promulgated (Aosenba, 2001). Under these acts, much of the territories in which Nagas live were designated as a ‘disturbed area’ and remains so to this day. Then, in 1958, the Indian parliament promulgated the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act of 1958 (AFSPA), an extension of the Disturbed Area Act and considered by legal experts as one of the most draconian laws (Luithui and Haksar, 1984).

While the former two ordinances discussed above were state mandates, the latter was passed by the Indian parliament on 11 September 1958. Both the intent and terminology of AFSPA are drawn directly from the British colonial legislation called the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Ordinance. This British law was implemented in 1942 with the specific intent to suppress the Quit India Movement that Gandhi had begun to end the British colonial rule in India. Although AFSPA remains in effect in several parts of India today, it was originally imple­mented to bring the Naga Hills under control.  The struggle between Government and NNC continued and as a concession the Indian Government decided to carve a place in Assam as Nagaland which was strongly opposed by the people of the plains of Assam. Therefore Nagaland on 1st December 1963 came into existence as a state. This was to placate the demand for a separate nation. But with the militarization of Nagaland, the NNC became more of an Underground Movement. Archbishop Thomas Menaparampil says that the Naga struggle was also supported by Pakistan and China to get even with India. This could be possible and strategic.

What was the impact of militarization on the Naga people?

Tezenlo Thong in an article ‘Thy Kingdom Come: The Impact of Colonization and Prolesytization on Religion Among the Nagas’ gives a glimpse of what were the primary effects of militarization. To this day, for many Nagas their only interaction with mainstream Indians is through their contact with Indian military personnel and traders, both of whom are distrusted and despised. This limited contact and history of unpleasant experience has created a chasm between the Nagas and mainstream Indians. For example, among some Nagas, such as the Chakesang Nagas, to be called an ‘Indian’ is considered an inexcusable offense or insult. Among the Rengma Nagas, the word ‘Indian’ is used to scare a rebellious child into submission and nothing scares a child more than the mention of it. For example, when a child disobeys or misbehaves, a mother or father would say, ‘Ghasang chichi nthale’ (I’m going to call an Indian). Or if a child cries at night s/he is told, ‘If you don’t cease crying, Indians will come and snatch you away’. These cultural practices and percep­tions should not, however, be misconstrued as racism; for these images have come to emerge and be formed in the culture because of Nagas’ bitter experience of historical violence and the poor reputation of the Indian army in their suppression against the will of the Nagas.

What is the cause of Christianity being so high in the state of Nagaland?

This may seem a very abrupt question that defeats the logical progression of the article. But it is not so. Christianity had its advent during the British Colonialism. Thong says that Colonialism and Proselytization are intricately connected. Three years after his first invasion of the Nagas, on 10 March 1835, Jenkins sent a letter to the board of American Baptist Missions, requesting personnel for proselytizing the natives in north-east India.thong says that Christianity and civilizing missions went hand in hand in a European Colonial context. So, one of the popular missionary motives was the civilization of the ‘uncivilized’ natives. The first encounter between western Christian missionaries and the Nagas took place in January 1839, when an American Baptist missionary named Miles Bronson went to the Namsang Nagas in what is now known as Arunachal Pradesh. However, this mission did not succeed as it was termi­nated in two years. More than 30 years later, in 1871, an Assamese evangelist named Godhula was sent to the Ao Nagas by EW Clark, who was also an American Baptist missionary in Assam. In March of the following year, Clark moved from Sibsagar, Assam, and established a mission station among the Ao Nagas at Molung. In November 1872, he baptized nine Naga converts at Sibsagar, and this is considered the birth of Christianity among the Nagas. Subsequently, missions were started among other Naga tribes. The American missionizing enterprise was significantly truncated with India’s independence in 1947. In 1955 the Indian government summarily expelled all foreign­ers from Nagaland and imposed restrictions for all foreign citizens seeking to enter the region. This restriction remains in effect today.

The American Baptist missionaries were people of their time, who might have had good inten­tions but were deeply entrenched in the vortex of colonial euphoria and left behind trails of destruction on the native Naga culture. The thought that their action could be considered geno­cidal by the native people later never occurred to them. They prohibited the practice of native culture and introduced western values, education and Christianity. They forbade Naga converts from engaging in any cultural practices they thought were sinful or not compatible with Christian living, such as indigenous dances, songs, festivals and drinks, to mention but a few.One thematic connection between the agents of colonialism and proselytization is the assertion that the Nagas were uncivilized, barbaric and pagan in their entire way of thinking and living. In fact, American Baptist missionaries were notorious in depicting the Nagas as savage, primitive and wild. In their literature, they popularized and abused the term ‘headhunting’ and constantly used ‘headhunting’ or ‘headhunters’ in reference to Nagas. The Naga Hills were then referred to as ‘the wilds of barbarism’. Throughout their mission work among the Nagas, the missionaries fabricated colonial portraits or stereotypes and characterized the Nagas as ‘headhunters’, a term that became synonymous with Nagas. Colonial portraits such as this and others were essential for undermining the Nagas and to colonize their minds. The colonial transmutation of Naga culture essentially began with psycho­logical colonization. The construction of this colonial portrait both drove and informed the process of colonizing the mind, which in turn precipitated change and conversion among the Nagas. Colonizing of the mind, according to Fanon, is ‘the emptying of the native’s brain of all form and content’, and ‘by a kind of perverted logic, it turns to the past of the oppressed people, and distorts, disfigures, and destroys it’. In order to civilize, the colonized must first be ‘uncivilized’ or ‘primitivized’; otherwise, the project of the civilizing mission cannot be implemented. The civilizing process cannot take place as long as the colonized subjects remain proud of and attached to their cultural heritage and identity. In order to sever the subjects from their culture and to produce change and conversion, it is neces­sary to constantly inculcate in the mind of the colonized that their culture is evil, savage, irrational and deficient. So, the colonizing of the mind precedes the dismantling of culture and traditional community and their values. For Nagas, colonizing the mind has resulted in the disintegration of their traditional and moral virtues. But attributing Christianity to the missionaries alone would be rather naïve an assumption.

So can we assume that the great presence of Christianity is due to Proselytization?

The answer is yes and no. Yes because that definitely laid the foundation but it is not a satisfactory explanation. According to the 1941 Census 17.9 per cent Nagas were Christians. But since 1950 the rate of conversion increased dramatically and in the 1981 census 80.2 per cent Nagas were Christians. How did 64.3 percent increase so dramatically in just a matter of 40 years. Thong beautifully argues that the period between 1950 – 1980 was very violent due to militarization and Underground movements. There were a lot of stress and anxiety caused by the Militarization which gave rise to many Christian Revival movements. As shown earlier, the consciousness of the Nagas was shaped as an ‘Other’ to an Indian. So accepting Christianity could be a way of a protest to be different from the Indian hindu. Traumatic social changes due to the struggle with the Indian Government, needed emotional resources. Since the colonial experience made them do away with the traditional cosmology, Christian Revival Movements and the ethos of the Baptist Church giving primacy to emotions and free nature of worship helped them to deal with the stressful violent times. Baptist Church has remained in the focus of this nationalist movement and therefore the mass conversion of Nagas to Christianity can be interpreted to be a protest movement very similar to the Conversion of Dalits to Neo- Buddhism.

Conclusion

The land of Nagaland is very complex and cannot be reduced to the observations above. One cannot absolutize the observations stated above but hold it as just a perspective. But it can be a starting point to engage with a land that has been shrouded with prejudice and stigmas. It does challenge our conclusions about Nagaland and the people and hope it inspires us to start all over again with freshness of mind and a curiosity to learn about cultures. I only hope and pray that our ignorance about a land will inspire us to dialogically engage with the Land, stories and the people who cannot be compartmentalized into neat labels and opinions.  As a saying goes “If one has to go to the first floor of a house, he/she has to leave the ground floor.” If one has to discover the mystery and beauty of a land, people and culture, one has to give up the certitude of stereotypes.

Rev Merin Mathew

Mar Thoma Syrian Church

Guwahati

North East Diaries: Myths of Adi Tribes of Arunachal Pradesh

One thing that one realizes about the North East is that it cannot be reduced into a monolithic tradition, given its cultural, religious, tribal and linguistic plurality. It is said that India has 635 tribal communities out of which 200 are found in the North East. This presence of a baffling mix of ethnic communities add to diverse cultural patterns which are reflected most strongly  in the myths, folktales and various types of oral traditions. Oral traditions express the textures and history of a community and their worldview. I was initiated into myths and legends of the North East, Thanks to my visit to Don Bosco Centre for Indegenious Culture, Shillong that has many publications in this regard. In this write up I will include two Myths from the Adi Tribe of Arunachal Pradesh. Before that I wish to set a framework to view myths in general as today widely myths are used in a very negative sense.

How Does One Understand Myth?

Karen Armstrong in her magisterial work “The Case For God” says that in most pre-modern cultures, there were two recognized ways of thinking, speaking and acquiring knowledge. The Greeks called them mythos and logos.Both were essential and neither was considered superior to the other; they were not in conflict but complementary. Each had its own sphere of competence and it was considered unwise to mix the two. Logos(reason) was the pragmatic mode of thought that enabled people to function effectively in the world. It had, therefore, to correspond accurately to external reality. People have always needed logos to make an efficient weapon, organise their societies or plan an expedition. Logos was essential for the survival of our species. But it had its limitations. It could not assuage human grief or find ultimate meaning in life’s struggles. For that people turned to mythos or myth. Today we live in a society of scientific logos and myth has fallen into disrepute. In popular parlance myth is something that is not true. But myth was not supposed to be self indulgent fantasy; rather it helped people to live creatively in a very confusing and chaotic world. Myth has been called a primitive form of psychology. When a myth described heroes threading their way through labyrinths, descending into the underworld or fighting monsters, these were not understood as primarily factual stories. They were designed to help people negotiate the obscure regions of the psyche, which are difficult to access but which profoundly influence our thought and behaviour. People had to enter the warren of their minds and fight their personal demons. When Freud and Jung began to chart their scientific search for the soul, they instinctively turned to ancient myths. But myth would not be effective if people simply believed in it. It was essentially a programme of action. It could put you in the correct spiritual or psychological posture but it was up to you to take the next step and make the truth of the myth a reality in your own life. Myth is accompanied by ritual that makes the abstractness of the myth a concrete rooting and story or a narrative that gives coherence to the fabric of the myth.

 As a practice, storytelling has been a means of handing down to generations certain cultural values, practices and beliefs among many tribal societies of North East India. The stories constitute an archive of teaching-learning material and are used for educational purposes in preliterate and oral societies, as Esther Syiem argues, “folktale is the repository of cultural values that inform the present and invests it with a living sense of tradition”.

In the study of myths one sees that the most common feature among all communities is the myth of origin and myth of death. This is the age old philosophical quest of “Who am I? Where did I Come From? Where am I going?” In this section we are going to explore the myths of Adi Tribe of Arunachal Pradesh. But before that we will have a very brief introduction of the Adi Tribe.

The Adi Tribes:

The Adi, is a major collective tribe living in the Himalayan hills of Arunachal Pradesh, and they are found in the temperate and sub-tropical regions within the districts of East Siang, Upper Siang, West Siang and Dibang Valley. The older term Abor is a deprecated exonym from Assamese meaning 'uncontrol'. Some of them are found in Southern Tibet (a little more north than South Tibet), around areas near the Indian border. The literal meaning of Adi is "hill" or "mountain top”. The Adis have two main divisions, (The Bogums and Bomis) and under each there are a number of sub-tribes. The Minyongs, Karkos, Shimongs, Bomdo, Janbos, Panggis, Palibos, Bogums, Padams, Milangs and so on from one group; while the Gallong and seven other groups constitute another group of Adis. The Adis by nature are democratic and have a unique sense of history. The traditional measure of a family's wealth is the possession of beads and ornament and land. Adi celebrate their prime festival, Solung, between in the first week of September every year for five days or more. It is a harvest festival performed after the sowing of seeds and transplantation, to seek for future bumper crops. Ponung songs and dances are performed during the festival. At the last day of Solung, throne and indigenous weaponry are displayed along the passage of the houses, a belief that they would protect people from evil spirits.

The majority of Adi traditionally followed the animist Donyi-Polo (Sun-Moon)  religion, which involves the worship of the sun, the moon, and the ancestral god, the shaman, called Miri, can be a female. Other deities traditionally worshipped by the Adi include Kine Nane, Doying Bote, Gumin Soyin and Pedong Nane. Each deity is associated with certain tasks and act as protector and guardian of various topics related to nature which revolves around their daily life. This included the food crops, home, rain, etc.

Now may be we are in a better position to appreciate the myths we are going to know about. So let’s get started.

Origin of Universe:

According to the Adi tribe of Arunachal Pradesh, have a myth called Keyum-Kero (Emptiness), through which they trace the origin of the universe and of all the living things. It is as follows.

"In the beginning emptiness pervaded the universe. there was no light no matter and no sound. This state of emptiness was known as Keyum-Kero. Eventually a spontaneous process of evolution unfolded itself from this emptiness. A tiny, imperceptible patch of darkness gradually developed from Keyum-Kero. It was calledYumkang.  After a long time, that imperceptible patch of darkness generated Kasi (Nothingness). Kasi was still as inappreciable as Yumkang. It had no form, no size and no existence. Then, Kasi brought forth Siang, which is yet another invisible tiny particle of mist. From Siang, developed wet dark particles resembling clouds, known asBomuk. Out of Bomuk, the next evolutionary process was the coming out of an inky, tiny layer of cloud hovering in the space known as Mukseng. Out of Mukseng, came Sedi and Melo which were the first physical manifestations emerging from the incomprehensible Keyum-Kero. Sedi, a female being turned into the earth, while Melo, the male became the sky. In order to continue the creative process, they married each other and began to produce various offspring in the world. At that time, Sedi was a dirt filled mass in a semi-liquid form. It was uninhabitable as there was  no light, no air and no habitable land. In due course of time, Sedi produced various objects. Her huge unending stream of mucous grew into rivers and lakes, her hair into grasses and trees, bodily fluid into huge masses of water and her breath became air which began to circulate on the earth's surface. Sedi and Melo came together from time to time begetting offsprings of various forms and natures. Their offsprings started ruling different spheres of life on the earth. Their  first progenies were Sepi Yokmo and Sepang Yokmo who were gods of smithery (like ironsmiths, silversmiths, goldsmiths). Dinom Yokmo was born next. He was the originator of wild birds and animals. Sengo Orne, the god of light was also born of Sedi and Melo. Also out of the union of Sedi and Melo came Yidum Bote, Doying Bote, Litung and Limang. Litung and Limang married and they gave birth Pedong Nane. Pedong Nane inturn married Yidum Bote, the God of wind. Together they gave birth to millions of offsprings who filled the earth. Their children were the spirits, human beings, snakes, frogs, monkeys and many other beings."

Interpretation: The complex evolution theory is rather very interesting. According to Dr. B. S. Guha, to the Adis, all existence is endowed with life and the evolution of what we consider inanimate, must have also come through the normal physiological process of birth. I personally loved the complexity of layers that evolved from emptiness to become physical objects Sedi-Melo. Dr Elwin Verrier notes that “The Stories of the origin of creation of the universe, the sky and the earth, , and the heavenly bodies, have almost Miltonic grandeur. Sedi (earth) andMelo (sky) are lovers and when sky makes love to earth every kind of tree and grass and living creatures come to being. But the lovers must be separated, for so long as they are together there is no place for their children (all animate and inanimate creatures) to live. But M. L. Bose in ‘History of Arunachal Pradesh’ says that what is incredible about this myth of origin is the sense of oneness between humans and all other living creatures as the source is the same and this promoted a Bio- Centric worldview rather than an Athropocentric one.

Origin of Death: This is the myth told by the Minyongs tribe (A section of the Adi tribe of Arunachal Pradesh) about the first appearance of death in the land of the living. It goes this way.

"There was a man called Ninur Botte who made an earthen vessel. He invested a lot of time and energy in the process. In the end, he picked the product of his hand and with great appreciation started to examine it. But unfortunately, he dropped it and the earthen vessels crashed into pieces falling on the ground. With great desperation and anger he tried to put it together, but to no avail. He shouted in desperation, 'Why can't I mend it? I invested so much time and energy to make it.' Donyi-Polo (the Sun Moon God) looked at him and said, 'You did well to make it, you did ill to break it' Ninur Botte asked 'How was it that I did ill?' Donyi-Polo said, 'Because from today, humans will die.' This is how death came into the land of the living. Had it been possible to put together what was broken, humans would have lived forever."

Interpretation: The question arises how the two images are related. The myth expresses the perception in a series of imagery using symbols in the process. One is the acceptance of universality and inevitability of death. The other is the irreversibility of natural events. The two get connected in the imagery of broken pot. The story seems to indicate that one cannot go back to the original position once it has been passed. The original vessel cannot be remade again. The making of the vessel is the process of conception and birth. Vessel in itself is life and the breaking is death. So the vessel was, and is no more. The man was and is no more. Hence the connection.

Conclusion: Myths are very important in the journey of humanity. Today when technology, science and market concentrate on the centrality of humans, these myths remind us of the magnanimity, inter-relatedness and oneness of all living and non-living beings. Myths are the quest of humans to find meaning to life’s profoundest questions. I feel, like Karen Armstrong suggested, there should be a balance between the mythos and logos. The only obstacle to open the vast repository of knowledge veiled in myths is our prejudice towards them. We need to engage with them.

P.S.: I took around 13 days to write this because as a novice and no guide other than books, this was very tough and challenging. May be the way i wrote this maybe a bit tedious. But I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of this exploration and wanted the ones reading to be part of this wonderful journey into the unknown. 

North East Diaries: Book Review- Bitter Wormwood- Easterine Kire

Nagaland is a land that is shrouded with labels of terrorism, instability, unrest, kidnapping at one end and the exotic beauty of the hills with different cultures, lovely music, and hardworking people on the other end. The prevalent stereotype shows a paradox which is true but the stereotypes polarize and end engagement. So how does one escape simplistic prejudices about a community or people? The best option is to travel to distant lands and engage with various cultures. Since this is too much of an ask, so the next best option is to read literature about various peoples to know their history, identity, culture and community. But plain reading of facts is very tedious and hardly inviting. At such a juncture work of fiction laced with history, anecdotes, cultural moorings and pertinent issues, is the right mix to get started. Within such a premise let me introduce “Bitter Wormwood” by renowned Naga writer of the Angamese Tribe, Easterine Kire.

Now one may wonder what exactly Bitter Wormwood is. We will come to that at the end. Easterine Kire’s central character of the narrative is Moselie which means “One who never plots to harm other person”. He is commonly called as Mose. The book opens with a muder of a young man in the market of Kohima in the year 2007 with the protagonist being present at the scene. Then the author takes us on a journey from 1937 when Mose was born to his mother Vilau and father Luo-o. The village life of Naga Hills with its rituals and dynamics is brought well to the fore. Mose’s Grandmother Khreinuo and his friend Neituo add lot of layers and dimensions to the story. The introduction of the radio in the narrative helps to connect the fiction with the history of the Naga struggle. The buildup of paranoia in the villages to the full blown underground movement along with the roles of Gandhi, Nehru and Naga National Council (N.N.C) leader A.N. Phizo is brought out well. The General Election of 1952, the occupation of Naga Hills by the Indian Army, the murder of Mose’s Grandmother, the abrupt ending of schooling of Mose and Neituo, the beginning of underground movement, Mose and Neituo joining the underground movement is a brilliant confluence of narrative and history. The underground engagements, the jungle years, the subtle romance between Mose and Neilhounuo transports us to vicariously live the adventurous life. After the creation of the state of Nagaland in 1963, Mose and Neilhounuo come out their underground engagements to lead a normal life which turns out far from being normal. The struggle for existence, the haunting power of the army thanks to AFSPA is very sensitively depicted. With the introduction of Mose’s grandson Neibuo, the issues of Naga youths studying in places like Delhi is very beautifully brought out. Issues of being different, racism, rape against women are sensitively handled. In the context of the murder of Richard Loitam, a Manipuri boy in Bangalore, this angle of the book calls for serious introspection of the people of the so called “Mainland India” to review their attitudes towards students and people from the North East.

What is most fascinating about this Book? Most of our discourse regarding to North East India in general and Nagaland in particular revolves around the binary of State versus the people. But this book very sensitively brings forth the pain and the trails of the people of Nagaland, the atrocities of the state but most importantly it also highlights the pain of the common man who is caught between the crossfire of The State and the Underground Movement. The yearning for sanity in life is the restless breath of the novel. The pain of being pawn in the larger game of struggle between ideas of nationalism and distinct identity of people makes the reader very uneasy and restless. The struggle of being a Christian state coexisting with manifold evils is dealt with erudition and care. And to the nagging question of what is ‘Bitter Wormwood’, it is said that it is a herb that one places behind the ear to keep bad spirits away. In the struggle for freedom and a life free of fear ‘Bitter Wormwood’ is a talisman that symbolizes the yearning of man to live in peace and harmony in spite of a history laced in struggle, blood and oppression. At a personal level this novel helped me know about the many layers of Nagaland which I missed interpreting in the Academic articles and books. Let me end this book review by expressing huge respect to Easterine Kire for the wonderful blending of the art of storytelling with academic engagements of the history and livelihood of the people. Happy Reading.

( This book Review is wriiten for a Journal so had the limitation of keeping the language academic)

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Northeast Diaries: An Attempt to Understand the Bodo Tribe and Their Struggles

From 20th July 2012, the flames of ethnic violence has again engulfed Assam in a big way. The problem between two local communities have taken communal proportions that have resonance in the national politics. It has led to an internal migration of 5 lakh people which is unparalleled in the history of Post Partitioned India. I am aware that I am no scholar on the issue nor do i have the competence to handle an issue of such vast complexities. As a citizen of India and a part of civil society, I am curious to understand the problem and understand different people of varying historical background and ethos. So in our quest to know people, let us try to grapple with the Community of Bodos.

Brief History of Bodos

The Bodo people are believed to be migrants of ancient Chinese origin and their language belonging to the Tibeto-Burman language family. G.A. Grierson in his “The Linguistic Survey of India -“1903” has given a table of tribes that shows inclusion of a large number of tribes of this language group of which the Bodo and the Dimasa of Assam and the Boroks of Tripura are the major components. The date of migration from their original abode, namely, Northwestern China, to this part of present India is debated and needs further research. However scholars agree that the Bodo people settled in this region much before the Aryans.

The extension of Aryan culture and their settlement in this region began only in the last part of the first century of the Christian era. From mythological to historical period, hundreds of Bodo kings ruled under different dynasties. The Asura Dynasty, the Kirata Dynasty, the Mlecha Dynasty, the Varman Dynasty, the Sala Stambha Dynasty, the Pralambha Dynasty, the Pala Dynasty, the Khena Dynasty, the Koch Dynasty, the Kachari Dynasty and the Borok or Tripuri Dynasty ruled before the British came and annexed their territories deceitfully. Even under the British empire Koch Bihar and Tripura remained independent princely states. The princely states – the Koch Bihar and the Tripura were annexed forcibly by India on August 28 and October 15, 1949 respectively.

The Boro, also known as Bodo, at a time not only appear to have formed solid bloc of the Mongoloid people but also ruled throughout the Brahmaputra and Barak valleys, with extension in Cachar Hills of Assam with Dimapur as the capital and Tripura, Bihar, and in some parts of Nepal, West Bengal, Bihar and Bangladesh.

The Borok, Dimasa, Garo, Koch, Chutiya, Moran, Sonowal, Lalung, Tengial, Rabha, Mech, and Hajong are historically, ethnically and linguistically of same ancestor. Since the historically untraced ages, the Bodo had exercised their highly developed political, legal and socio- cultural entity. Though scattered, today the majority of Bodo lives on the foothills of the Himalayan Ranges in the north bank of the Brahmaputra river or river Dilao.

The Bodo people lived as a free nation with dignity and honor till the British invaded and annexed their dominions. The Eastern Bodo Kingdom fell victim to the conspiracy of British Imperialist just after the Treaty of Yandabu, 24th February, 1826 . King Erakdao, who was converted to Hinduism and rechristened as Gobinda Chandra was reinstated in his throne only as a puppet king. When he died without any descendants, either lineal or adopted, the country was annexed by a proclamation dated the 14th August, 1832. And also when Tula Ram Senapati or General Tula Ram died in 1854 his sovereign territory was annexed to Nowgaon District of British India.

Meanwhile, the Northern territory at the foot hills of Bhutan (Himalayan Ranges) remain independent under Jaolia Dewan till it was annexed by the British after the Treaty of Buxa, 1864, ratified in 1867. The Southern and Western Boro Kingdoms Tripura and Koch Bihar remained semi independent native states till they were forced to join the newly born independent state- India.

Cultural Moorings of the Bodo Tribe

Music, musical instruments, oral traditions, dances are the different textures of the Bodo culture.  One can find the surnames of Bodo Tribe as Bargayary, Bodosa, Boro, Owary, Wary, Ishwary, Goyary & Dwimary. Bodos have quite exquisite dresses which are exhilirating the beauty and glamours of women. Dokna is the dress worn by Bodo women which they themselves knit on their own hands. Shawls form the major fashion among Bodos and thus loom is the most important thing used in the courtyard of the Bodo House. The famous folk dances of Bodo Tribe such as Bardaichikhla and Bagurumba are extremely colorful. The Bodo Tribal community follows a common system of marriage in all villages. Elders in the village fix the bride. Bride money is paid and they do not marry from other communities. Sunday is the best day for a Bodo Wedding. There have a taboo against marrying within the same clan. The groom is asked to stay with his father-in-law's family. The customs of Bodos have a ritualistic naming ceremony, when a cock is offered to the Gods for the welfare of the baby.

Creation Concept of Bodos and Their Religious Beliefs

Religion plays an important role in the life of Bodos. The Bodo people have their own concept of creation. According to their concept, before the creation of the universe, there was simply a great void, in which, the Supreme Being ‘Aham Guru’, Anan Binan Gosai or Obonglaori, existed formlessly. The supreme God Aham Guru became tired of living a formless existence and desired to live in flesh and blood. He descended on this great void with all human characteristics. Thereafter, he created the universe. Aham Guru at his first appearance in this universe in the form of a man called himself ‘Sri Borai’, ‘Jiw Borai’ or ‘Siw Borai (Sanskritised as Shiva).’ He then created his consort ‘Sri Buroi’, and then created ‘Dari Muba’ and ‘Singri Coba’, a couple for the propagation of the human population on the earth. ‘Jiw Borai’ or ‘Siw Borai’ is also popularly known as the ‘Bathou Borai’ among the Boro people. ‘Bathou Borai’ is thus their supreme God, and the religion they follow is known as ‘Bathousim’, after the name of their God. Besides, there are a number of minor gods who function under the umbrella of ‘Bathou Borai.’ They are broadly divided into household gods and village gods. The household gods are worshipped in the homestead, while the latter by the whole village collectively outside in a selected place called ‘Thansali.’

Bathouism is based on five moral and spiritual principles, namely (i) Principle of holy realization, (ii) Principle of holy practice (iii) Principle of love (iv) Principle of truth and (v) Principle of avoidance/abstinence. The principle of holy realization includes  Bathou as the supreme God. The realization of one’s own soul is the part of Bathou and realization of the need of good in this world. The principle of holy practice emphasizes meditation, conversation on religious and spiritual matters and charitable donation to the poor. The principle of love includes love for God, love for fellow being, love for family and love for all living beings. The principle of truth emphasizes leading a truthful life and the principle of avoidance/abstinence urges one to abstain from committing antisocial activities or deeds like stealing, telling lies, adultery, murder and association with bad company.

Bathouism has thus a religious philosophy, which defines the basis of a religion, and it is therefore far from being animistic. The Boro society and religion has undergone assimilation and changes through several centuries, particularly with the advent of the Aryan culture in the 7th century A.D. to the present eastern India. The Boro conversion to Aryan culture started from the rule of the Varman dynasty. The Boro kings first converted themselves to Hinduism. Then followed the conversion of the masses which was followed by subsequent assimilation of the converts to Indo-Aryan fold through the ladder of caste hierarchy.

Genesis of the Bodoland Movement

Bijoy Daimary, Associate Professor in the Department of History in the Union Christian College, Meghalaya says that the awakening among the Bodos is a by-product of English Education. though microscopic in size, the spread of english education produced a few educated Bodos who began analyzing Bodo society and economy in the light of Western Science and rationalism. The early Bodo intellectuals introduced reforms for the removal of evil practices in the Bodo Society. They opened schools and boarding homes and made education compulsory for children. Thus began awakening among Bodos, which was meager, initially but grew in number and momentum in later years. The first step of the awakening was when during the British rule the Assam Kachari Juvok Sonmiloni and the Boro Juvok Sonmiloni submitted a memorandum to the then visiting Simon Commission (1928-29) demanding recognition as distinct tribal society and as separate from the Hindu society. They demanded that the people be identified as Boro in the census Report of British India and a separate Boro Regiment in military service of British India Government. In the Pre- Independence Era, the consciousness of the Bodo intellectuals culminated in the formation of the Tribal League, a political organization in 1933 which was able to win 5 Assembly seats in the 1937 election. From 1939 - 1946 the Tribal League played an important role in the state politics , forming two coalition Governments once with the Assam Congress Committee and other with the Assam The Bodo representatives to the Convention of the Assam Tribes and Races Federation, held from the 21st to 23rd March 1947, at the Khasi National Durbar Hall, Shillong , were unanimous that historically , Assam proper, with its hill was never a part or province of India and that the people, particularly the Tribes and Races inhabiting are historically and culturally different from the peoples of rest of the India and therefore opposed to Assam proper with its hill being included in any division of India –Pakistan or Hindustan and demanded that it should be constituted into a separate free state. The representatives also vehemently opposed the migration or civilian aggression in our land from the neighbouring areas of British India.

In the post-Independence set-up, the Assamese, by their relative advancement and larger population, got an upper hand in the power structure, resources, social benefits and opportunities, which on other hand , created a sense of deprivation among the ethnic groups. The struggle of the Hill Tribes, like the Nagas and Mizos highlight the sense of deprivation that the new administrative of assam had inculcated. The tribals of the Assam Plains, of which Bodos are a prominent constituent community, had equal reasons to be disgruntled. The utmost priority of the Bodos was  to seek constitutional safeguard of their society and economy from outside encroachers- a society which they considered as distinctive from others, and their agricultural economy which was heavily dependent on the availability of land. Such a move by Bodos was warranted as large scale encroachment of land was in existence from the rule of the British Raj. The Tribal league, in accordance with their concern, made a pre- election pact with the Assam Congress Committee in 1946. The Congress made an amendment in Chapter X of the Assam Land and Revenue  Regulation, 1886. 33 tribal belts and blocks comprising the the tribal compact areas was carved out. The regulation made buying or acquiring land by non- tribals, within the belts and blocks illegal. On paper this was enough to safeguard the interests of the communities. But successive Governments of assam perpetrated administrative loopholes in such an enormous way that the regulation proved itself deficient. As a result, there was large scale occupation of tribal lands by East Pakistan/ Bangladeshi immigrants, bonafide non- tribal Indians and the Assamese. In 1980 there was an amendment made to Chapter X, 1886 Bill of Assam Land and Revenue Regulation that recognized the scheduled caste groups and the Bengali immigrants settled in tribal blocks till 1971 as legal land owners.  This broke the tribal compactness of the area with the fear of being an ineffective minority. This became a major source of violent conflicts among the ethnic and religious groups of the Assam plains. The Bodos held the Assamese Government responsible for lacking the political will to enforce the land regulation. Such perception of injustice further strained the relations between Bodos and the Assamese.

Rise of Bodo Nationalism and the Politics of Language

 It is in such a context of injustice and perception of deprivation that the Bodo intellectuals began mobilizing the community for the separateness of their identity.  Bodo intellectuals chose language as the most viable symbol for mobilization of identity politics. With this objective they formed the Bodo Sahitya Sabha (B.S.S.), a literary organization. But the nascent Bodo language came face to face with Assamese language nationalism, which in 1960 launched a movement for the introduction of Assamese as the official language of the state. This was a volcano that led insecurity among many ethnic tribes to feel insecure. One needs to bear in mind that the state of Meghalaya was formed as a reaction to the imposition of the Assamese language. The Bodos took offence of this move and B.S.S. launched an agitation demanding introduction of Bodo as the medium of introduction in Bodo Majority areas. After a prolonged agitation, the Bodo medium was introduces in 1963, which was later on, was upgraded to secondary level schools.

In the meanwhile The Bodo script movement was one of the longest movements of the BSS. According to Bishnu Prasad Rabha the Bodos had a script of their own called  Deodhai script  (D.P.Barooa 1979). The Bodo movement took on a new form by 1974 when  udayachal  (Bodoland) demand was pushed in to the background and the Bodos wanted the introduction of Roman scripts. In the wake of wide spread violence, the state government passed the buck to the centre, which requested the PTCA and BSS to accept Devanagari instead, which it did in April 1975. Bodo organizations however continue to demand for Roman Script and it became a continuous problem till date.

Development of Bodoland Movement

 The above stated situation intensified the perception that Bodos needed a separate State. The compactness of the blocks and belts were only of paper value and the threat of immigrants exposed the threat to Bodo identity.  A drastic shift was found in the process of the Bodoland movement when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi announced on 13th January, 1967 that Assam would be reorganized on the basis of federal structure. As a response to this announcement, All Bodo Students Union was formed on 15th February of 1967 and it was followed by the formation of Plains Tribal Council of Assam on 27thFebruary of the same year. Both ABSU and PTCA warmly welcomed the decision of the centre to reorganize Assam on federal structure. ‘The PTCA, for the first time submitted memorandum to the then President of India Dr. Zakir Hussain on the 20th  May, 1967 at New Delhi for the creation of an ‘Autonomous Region’ for plains tribal people of Assam. The wave of demand of Autonomous Region gradually got momentum and thus Autonomous Region was upgraded to the demand of ‘Union Territory’ which was nomenclated as ‘UDAYACHAL’ on 7thJanuary, 1973.’ But misunderstanding developed between ABSU and PTCA when PTCA leaders announced on 4th April 1977 that PTCA has given up the demand UDAYACHAL with the status of Union Territory and wanted to experiment with only an Autonomous Region within Assam.

Another milestone in the evolution of the Bodoland movement came under the leadership of Upendranath Brahma, the then president of ABSU. Under his leadership movement for separate Bodoland was launched on 2nd March, 1987. They created a political wing of ABSU named Bodo Peoples Action Committee (BPAC) which supported the separate Bodoland movement. After several years of movement an agreement was signed on 20th February, 1993 which is also called as Bodo Accord and Bodoland Autonomous Council (BAC) was created. But it failed to fulfil the aspirations of the Bodo people. BAC was created under the state Act and thus it existed at the mercy of State government.  It was also mentioned in the agreement that the large forest areas of Indo-Bhutan International border on which the Bodo people are dependant for their daily livelihood would not be included within BAC. Thus, another phase of the movement was launched in 1996 by the Bodoland Liberation Tigers (B.L.T.) which finally culminated into another agreement that was signed on10th February, 2003 and Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) was formed carving out 4 Districts of Western Assam. They are Chirang, Baksa, Kokhrajhar and Udalgiri.  But it also left the Bodo people unsatisfied as Bodo leaders felt that the identity, freedom and all round prosperity of the Bodos, for which the movement was launched, was not realized under BTC also. The second Bodo peace talks was result of negotiation between the Bodo Liberation Tiger (BLT), the Central Government and the Assam Government. Following the peace accord, BLT was required to surrender all their arms and converted into Bodoland People's Front (BPF), a political party now ruling the Council. Whereas, the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) another armed outfit are in ceasefire talks with the Central Government. Meanwhile, the All Bodo Student's Union (ABSU) has intensified its democratic movement for a separate state. However, there seemed to lack of consensus on the part of political leaders to solve the Bodo debacle once and for all. As result of which today, the entire Bodoland region is on the volcano of unrest.

Conclusion

The present violence that started at Kokhrajhar  is a very complex issue. For that the other side of the story of Bangladeshi Immigrants needs to be analysed. This issue will be dealt in a separate article. But the effort of this article is not to justify one side or to advocate a position. The struggles of the Bodo Community and the fight for the identity is a long battle and a very sensitive one. The destruction of the traditional ethos and the loss of land is partly responsible for the spiralling riots and violence in Western Assam. I hope and pray that this article helps in appreciating the culture and concerns of the Bodo Tribe rather than just simplistically classifying them as violence frenzy tribe of the North East. To my opinion, the umbrella cover of Northeast itself is inherently violent that strives to homogenize a land that has more than 200 tribes and ethnicities.

Rev Merin Mathew

Priest of the Northeast Parishes of the Mar Thoma Church

Guwahati