By Barnes Mawrie
The argument that a tribal person loses his/her tribalness because he or she becomes a Christian is totally unacceptable. Let me cite an example here. If tomorrow the government decides to pass a law that elephants should be called horses and no longer elephants, will that not be the most absurd and stupid law ever made? Precisely because we know full well the biological constitution of each of these animals.
Recently there was a statement from the Chief Minister of Assam of introducing a law to derecognize tribal Christians as STs. In other words, it means that if a tribal becomes a Christian he or she ceases to be a tribal and loses all the privileges that others enjoy. This law has already been enacted in some other states of India as a crafty strategy to discourage tribal persons from choosing the religion they desire. This is first of all a violation of the fundamental right to religion. It is as well an insult to the tribal people who are the real natives of this sub-continent. According to the renowned anthropologist, Dr. Verrier Elwin the tribals are “the real swadeshi products of India, in whose presence all others are foreign. These are the ancient people with moral rights and claims thousands of years old. They were here first and should come first in our regard.” When it comes to Northeast India, the whole region originally belonged to the tribal people. So how can someone make a law to reduce a tribal person to being a “foreigner” just because he or she becomes a Christian? This is a ridiculous law which is most illogical, inhuman and unconstitutional.
The argument that a tribal person loses his/her tribalness because he or she becomes a Christian is totally unacceptable. Let me cite an example here. If tomorrow the government decides to pass a law that elephants should be called horses and no longer elephants, will that not be the most absurd and stupid law ever made? Precisely because we know full well the biological constitution of each of these animals. Now similarly you pass a law saying that tribals who have become Christians will be tribal no more, is that not a stupid law? Here comes the question as to how a person becomes a tribal or non-tribal? The answer is as simple as anyone could understand. We are tribals because of our biological ancestry and nothing else. I am a Khasi because my parents, grandparents and ancestors are Khasis. I possess the Khasi DNA. Therefore, if I live in America, Europe or Africa, I still remain a Khasi. Place of habitation or religion does not change my DNA or my biological structure. Only a moron or a mentally deranged person would state that I am no longer a Khasi because I happen to be a Christian.
A tribal person as a member of his or her clan is intrinsically bound to every member of the clan. Clan or kinship ties among tribals is so sacred that it is maintained at all cost. Thus, among clan members, there is no such distinction whether one belongs to this religion or that. Every member feels closely bound to each other because of a common ancestry. As a member of a tribe, every tribal person feels closely connected to each other and feels proud about his or her community identity. The community sense is stronger among tribals than in any non-tribal community. This is best expressed in the manner they manifest their solidarity with every family in the village. Even in a large village, each family knows the other intimately. In many farming villages, there is community pooling of labour during the sowing and the harvesting seasons. When there is a deceased member in any family, there is material as well as emotional solidarity with the bereaved family. This sense of solidarity goes beyond religious affiliations. This is the reason why when it comes to matters of life and death, members of the clan or village come together in solidarity and no one cares about being a Christian or a non-Christian.
It is a sad irony that our Indian leaders, including our Prime Minister, when they go abroad, boast of the achievements of Indian-born individuals be it Rishi Sunak the UK Prime Minister or Kamala Harris the US Vice President and still dare to claim their Indianness in spite of the fact that these individuals are actually no longer Indian nationals. But when it comes to our own country, these same leaders want to ostracize their own citizens and discriminate them from the rest just because they happen to be Christians. It is not difficult to see that if the Hindutva agenda goes on unchecked, a day will come when Muslim Indians will also be declared foreigners and they would be deprived of their rights and privileges.
The ethnic violence that is going on in Manipur has thrown more light on the sinister plan to exterminate the tribal and to grab their ancestral land. It is clear to everyone that the new law to deprive a tribal Christian of his or her civic rights and privileges or to de-tribalize him or her, is a step towards an all-out attack on tribal communities in India. By doing this and by inciting the traditional religionist tribals they are sowing the seed of division within the community putting them at loggerheads with each other. In other parts of India like in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha, the believers of the Sarna religion (traditional religion) are being alienated from their fellow tribals who are Christians and a wedge is being driven within the community. For example, the good relationship that used to exist between the Church and the Seng Khasi in the past, has suddenly turned sour since the last one decade. In fact, Fr. Abel, a Salvatorian missionary who had the first printing press in Northeast India, was a close friend of the Seng Khasi and their newspaper U Nongphira edited by Sib Charan Roy and it was being printed by him since its inception in 1903.
There is an undercurrent anti-tribal and anti-Christian force that is operating in Northeast India and in the country as a whole, whose intention is to decimate the tribal population and take control of their mineral-endowed land and to exterminate Christianity from the country. Therefore, the greatest enemy of the tribal people is evidently from within our own country and not from outside. As I have said in my previous article, the tribal communities of Northeast India need to stand up together today (the leaders as well as the public) and defeat these evil forces that are trying to destroy the integrity and identity of our communities. “Together we can.”