By Barnes Mawrie
In the wake of the news of the conversion of 300 Muslims to Hinduism in Agra, a lot of discussion has been triggered not only in parliament but in the national media as well. There are some Hindu fundamentalists who are trying to sow the seed of division by alleging that the tribal communities of North-east India have been lured or forced by foreign missionaries to accept Christianity as their religion. This is a deliberate defamation of the Church’s missionary work a misrepresentation of facts about Christianity in North-east India. Those who spread such lies should realize that Christianity as a policy or as a doctrine does not permit forced conversion or proselytization. Perhaps it was true that during the era of European colonization there had been cases of forced conversion of the indigenous peoples especially in many countries of Latin America and elsewhere. But these were stray cases and were not based on a Church policy, nay they were outright violation of the Church’s teaching.
It is well known to historians that before the advent of Christianity to North-east India, Hinduism had first arrived here. Hindu missionaries were fully active in trying to convert the tribal communities especially tribes like the Khasis, Pnars, Tripuris, Meiteis, Ahoms etc. Among these tribes perhaps the Ahoms, a section of the Tripuris and the Meiteis have accepted Hinduism. But the other tribal communities like the Khasis, the Pnars, the Garos and others have rejected Hinduism because they realized that this religion would impose on them the caste division which would become a permanent stigma for them. Caste system is jarring to the tribal ear because tribal people are an egalitarian society who upholds equality and solidarity at all cost. There were attempts from Hindu high castes to incorporate the tribal people into the lower caste of the Varna system. Some have gone so far as to reinterpret their scriptures in order to situate the tribal persons within them. Thank God, our forefathers were wise enough to realize this trap or else we would have become Sudras or Avarnas and would have remained bound to the fate of being eternally poor, miserable and discriminated.
When Christianity came in the 19th century, the tribal communities immediately realized the genuine intention of the Christian missionaries of not merely conquering souls but to work for the upliftment of the poor tribal people. The Christian missionaries did not start with proselytization but they initiated developmental activities like education, health care, community building, empowerment motivated by purely humanitarian sentiments. In many cases the missionaries acted like mediators and liberators for the poor tribal communities and saved them from the exploits of the colonists. Their contribution to education and health care for the tribal people can never be underestimated. If the tribal people of our region can stand on par with others in the rest of India in the area of education and professional qualifications, the credit goes entirely to the Christian church. When the rest of India has had a history of over two millennia of enlightenment our tribal communities have seen the light of education just over two centuries ago. But to think that today our tribal people are in the mainstream of Indian politics and administration and have become global contributors in many fields, is like talking of a miracle.
Today tribal states of North-east India can boast of holding some of the highest records of literacy in the whole country. Our tribal communities are not blind to the fact that Christianity has done more than they could ask for. Empowerment of tribal people has come in a big way through education, professional training, skill imparting etc, in which the Christian institutions are the biggest players. Today in India Christian educational institutions are still in the forefront, Boscotech is the biggest private institution providing technical education to youth. Christianity has come among the tribal communities of our region not by forced conversion but as a result of self reflection and evaluation. Christianity answers not merely the intellectual needs of the tribal people but also their socio-cultural and religious aspirations. It is therefore an offence to every tribal Christian to say that he/she is a forced convert. This allegation is synonymous to saying that “tribal people are stupid, slavish and easily duped into accepting something against their will”. Every right minded tribal person would oppose such derogatory perception of our community. So let no one in India say that tribal people have been forced to accept Christianity for we have done so knowingly and willingly and no one should dictate our choice of creed. Those who say so are in fact violating the constitutional provision of Art 25 which provides for “freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion” and are guilty of endangering the secular character of our Constitutions.