By Fr. Thomas Manjaly –
To speak about Northeast India meaningfully, we need to look at the history and geography of the region. The region was not part of any overall Indian political establishment till the coming of the British East India Company. Eventually, the British government took control of it in 1826 from Burma.
The end of World War II, independence and partition of the country in 1947, which cut off NE India from the rest of India, changed many things. The hill tribes in particular felt a sense of isolation and that they were forcibly being made part of a different culture and were being separated from their fellow tribals (the Nagas in Burma/Myanmar, the Garos in Bangladesh, etc.). Numerous tribes were now confined to a small geographical area. Growing ethno cultural consciousness among the varied population gave rise to tensions. The problem of illegal immigration and lack of economic development, resulting in a feeling of neglect among the people of the Northeast strengthened their resolve to demand more autonomy.
In 1947, present Northeast India comprised of Assam, the kingdoms of Manipur and Tripura and the Northeast Frontier Hill Tracts. From these emerged gradually the present seven states – popularly known as the ‘seven sisters’ of NE India – Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. The total area of Northeast India (excluding Sikkim) is circa 2,55,000 Sq. kms., with a population of about 46.92 million. Here we find more than 200 tribal communities, speaking as many languages and dialects. There has been an awakening to a new sense of identity, political consciousness, and ethnic consolidation, seeking to differentiate themselves from others. Assamese, Bengalis, Nepalis and numerous tribes constitute the bulk of the population. NE India is also home to a considerable number of Adivasis mostly from Chotanagpur. Two of the matrilineal groups (Khasis-Jaintias and Garos) live in Meghalaya. In comparison with the rest of India, NE India has a very markedly tribal face. English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Manipuri, Nepali and a large number of tribal languages /dialects (e.g. Khasi, Garo, Bodo, Karbi, Santali, Mizo, Nishi, etc…) are used for communication.
The Socio-Economic Situation
The literacy rate varies from 67 % (Arunachal Pradesh) to 92 % (Mizoram). For higher studies and professional courses, the people depend largely on the facilities available in the metros and other cities outside the region. Health facilities are also limited. Being a mountainous area (with landslides) with many streams and rivers with constant floods, transport and communication too are difficult (the largest river island in the world Majuli is in Assam and one of the wettest places in the world – Sohra-Mawsynram belt is in Meghalaya). The people largely depend on agriculture for their livelihood. It is only recently that some states have taken to cash crops, horticulture and floriculture. Assam of course was already known as a tea-growing area. Among the natural resources, oil and coal may be mentioned. Industries, particularly large industries, are limited to Assam and areas in other states bordering Assam.
In the last few years, the Central Government has tried to rectify the backwardness by establishing the Northeastern Council and the Department for Northeast Region which has undertaken several projects, particularly in the field of higher education, health care, trade and commerce, transport and communication, like the East-West High way.
The Religious Scenario
As for religion, due to the efforts of Hindu missionaries from Bengal, the people in the Brahmaputra, Barak and Imphal valleys and in the Tripura plains (and Jaintias of Meghalaya in a very limited way) were Hinduized. Islam too came to Assam. The hill tribes, with limited contact with the plains, showed no inclination to accept Hinduism or Islam. In the second half of the 19th century, they came into contact with Christian missionaries and a movement towards Christianity began in the Naga, Mizo, Khasi and Garo Hills, initiated by Welsh Presbyterians and American Baptists. By the time the Catholic Church was officially established in Northeast India in 1890, these Christian Churches were already strong in many parts of the region. For the people, Christianity became an agent of distinction and identity formation, and without doubt, an instrument of social transformation, mainly as a result of the missionary efforts to promote education.
Two Misconstrued Impressions: One thing that seems to disturb many Indians is the ‘so-called change in religious demography’ of Northeast India. Some even speak of a region ‘lost to Christianity.’ Seeing the churches and the large number of Christian institutions doting the landscape of the region, some think that the region is ‘wholly inhabited by Christians.’ But the facts tell us a different story. (In the most populated state of Northeast India, Assam, which has nearly 70 % of the population of the region, Christians constitute just 3.7%, and in Tripura, the next most populated state of Northeast India, Christians constitute only 3.2%. The so-called Christian majority states of India, Nagaland (90%), Mizoram (90%) and Meghalaya (75%) have a total population of only about 6.00 million. As a whole, the Christian population constitutes a little over 15% of the population, that is, circa 7 million out of 47 million). Another popular misunderstanding is that the separatist tendencies in the region are largely due to their Christian allegiance. It is true that some of the militants are Christians. But their cause can hardly be called religious or a division of India based on religion. But there are many militant movements (especially in Assam and Manipur) that are not led by Christians. If anything, Christianity in Northeast India has contributed significantly to integrate the people into the national mainstream rather than separate them.
Catholic Church in Northeast India
The existence of the Catholic community goes back to the 16th century (1577-85) with the settlement of a group of Portuguese soldiers in Udaipur, Tripura. Two Portuguese Jesuits Stephen Cacella and John Cabral visited Guwahati in 1626 on their way to Bhutan. There was a military outpost of the Mughal Emperor at Rangamati (now in Bangladesh) established in 1687 with a small Catholic population, consisting of soldiers. They were ministered to by Augustinian monks. Records refer also to Christian communities in Sylhet (Bangladesh), Bondashil (Assam), Mariamnagar (Tripura), etc.
The gradual annexation of Assam by the British brought in small numbers of Catholics. Their religious needs were met by the missionaries from the Vicariate of Bengal. In 1845 Assam came under the Vicariate of East Bengal. In 1850 Assam was brought under the Vicariate of Lhasa which was looked after by the members of Paris Foreign Mission Society, who left Assam in 1854, after the tragic killing of two of its missionaries, Nicholas Krick and Augustine Bourry in the present Arunachal Pradesh by the Mishmis. It was once again put under the care of the Vicariate of East Bengal which was administered by the Holy Cross missionaries. Later on Assam was entrusted to the Foreign Missionaries of Milan in 1870 under the Prefecture of Krishnagar. An outstanding missionary of the period was Fr. Jacopo Broy who arrived at Guwahati in 1872 and toiled in the Northeast for eighteen years.
In 1889 Rome created the Prefecture Apostolic of Assam, and it was entrusted to the newly founded Society of Catholic Education (Societas Divini Salvatoris). Their mission to Assam was headed by Fr. Otto Hopfenmueller. They reached Guwahati on 27 February 1890, and proceeded to Shillong, and thus began a new chapter in the history of the Catholic Church in Northeast India. With this new step, Northeast India became an official ecclesiastical unit in 1890. The Salvatorians started their work in earnest among the Khasis of Meghalaya. The first baptisms to the Catholic Church of two Khasi women took place on 8 December 1891. Meanwhile, three Salvatorian Sisters also joined the mission.
The Jesuits looked after the Assam mission during 1915-1921. When it became clear that the Salvatorians could not return to the Assam Mission, Propaganda Fide decided to entrust it to the Salesians of Don Bosco. They arrived in 1922 under the leadership of Fr. Louis Mathias, SDB. In 1934 the Prefecture of Assam became the diocese of Shillong and Rev. Fr. Louis Mathias was made its first bishop. The post-War period witnessed a rapid expansion of the Catholic Church. The reasons were, firstly, the arrival of several religious and diocesan priests from South India, secondly, the engagement of the large number of women religious who came from various parts of India, thirdly, steady increase in the number of priests and religious from among the indigenous people, and finally, the educational and developmental activities of the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church later spread to another community in Meghalaya, the Garos. In 1973 the Diocese of Tura was established. Fr. Ansgar Koenigsbauer, a Salvatorian missionary, visited Imphal in 1912 to minister to a group of Catholics. There are also reports about Catholic missionaries visiting the border areas of Manipur from Burma and some people accepting the Catholic faith. Though the Maharaja of Manipur was favourable to the opening of a Catholic mission, it was only after World War II that Catholic missionary work began there. Some of the Naga boys studying in Catholic schools in Guwahati and Shillong were impressed by Catholic practices. At the request of one of them, George Hongrei, permission was given for the Catholic missionaries to come in. In 1948 Fr. Orestes Marengo SDB (Most Rev. Orestes Marengo SDB was the first bishop of Dibrugarh and Tezpur and Apostolic Administrator of the newly created diocese of Tura) and Fr. Attilio Colussi SDB were allowed to work there. In 1951 Shillong was divided and the new diocese of Dibrugarh including Manipur and Nagaland was created.
Catholic missionary work in Nagaland began after the Second World War although the first contacts were made in 1908 when Fr. Marcellinus Molz reached Tamlu in today’s Longleng District. In 1948, at the request of Sir Akbar Hydari, the Governor of Assam, two Spanish sisters of the Missionaries of Christ Jesus, along with their chaplain Fr. E. Bars SDB, came to Kohima to serve in the newly opened hospital; but they were forbidden to do any missionary work. In 1950, the Salesian missionaries from Golaghat in Assam started work among the Lotha Nagas of Lakhuti.
In Assam, the main work of the Catholic Church was among the Adivasis who were working in the tea gardens. The Church offered them pastoral care and education to improve their economic situation. The result was the creation of another diocese: Tezpur in 1964. The Church also began to contact other tribes of Assam, like the Bodos, and the Karbis. New dioceses were created in Assam: Diphu (1983), Guwahati (1992) and Bongaigaon (2000).
Fr. Phileas Boulay, a Holy Cross priest from Dacca, came to Mizoram as early as 1925 at the invitation of few Mizos. However, it was only at the eve of India’s independence that the Roman Catholics formally obtained permission from the Governor of Assam to establish themselves in Mizoram. The Prefecture Apostolic of Haflong was established in 1952 to cater to the needs of the people of the Barak Valley of Assam, Mizoram and Tripura and entrusted to the Holy Cross Fathers. The Prefecture Apostolic of Haflong became the diocese of Silchar in 1969. In 1996 the Diocese of Agartala which comprises the entire State of Tripura was created, dividing the diocese of Silchar, which was then renamed as the diocese of Aizawl.
Arunachal Pradesh, formerly known as the NEFA (North East Frontier Agency) was not to be kept out of the influence of the Catholic Church in spite of the official policy of the Government of India keeping it as a ‘forbidden land’ for Christian missionaries. The first two Catholic missionaries to enter the present Arunachal Pradesh were the MEP priests Krick and Bourry. The work culminated in the creation of two dioceses in Arunachal Pradesh, Itanagar and Miao in 2005.
The Contribution of the Catholic Church to Northeast India
The Catholic Church in NE India is comparatively young. All the while the Church has paid sufficient attention to its social obligation to remove illiteracy, disease, poverty, etc.The improved situation with regard to infrastructure and personnel makes it possible to offer improved and more organized pastoral care to the communities.
Responding to the needs and expectations of the people, the Catholic Church has contributed much to the overall socio-economic development of the region through its services of education, health care and social commitment. It has promoted the holistic growth of people through integral evangelization. Some of the specific areas may be highlighted.
Education and Empowerment
The Catholic Church has invested considerable human and material resources in education. Some of the best educational institutions in the region are run by the Church. The Church always felt that it was an urgent need to remove illiteracy and equip the people with skills to find their place in society and in the Church.
Education has been the most powerful agent in the development of the people of the region. It gave them cultural identity through the development of language and literature, created political awareness, effected social change and helped develop indigenous leadership. The Catholic Church was and is in the forefront to offer quality education.
Foremost among the beneficiaries are women, and in this, the Catholic women religious were the pioneers. Today, many different Congregations of women run schools, colleges and hostels, championing the cause of the education of girls. These measures have contributed greatly to raise the dignity, empowerment and emancipation for women.
In the field of higher education among the tribals too, the Catholic Church has played a leading role. (St. Anthony’s College, St. Edmund’s College, and St. Mary’s College in Shillong established and run by Catholic missionaries were among the first centres of Higher Education for the tribal population in the region). These centres have contributed in great measure to the formation of the intelligentsia of the region. Two Universities (Assam Don Bosco University in Guwahati and St. Joseph’s University in Nagaland) and about two dozen Catholic Colleges are functioning in different parts of the region. They are also making education possible in the remotest regions through their distance education programmes
Professional, technical and vocational education is another area which the Catholic Church has not neglected. Training schools and colleges for the preparation of teachers and Technical schools have come up for the benefit of thousands of tribal youth who are given vocational training, as well as professional and job-oriented programmes. The hostels cater particularly to the poor from rural areas to have access to quality education, which has radically changed the peoples’ way of life.
The inclusive approach of the Catholic Church has given a certain amount of acceptability and credibility to the Church. A significant number of leaders in public life have been educated by our institutions, and to a certain extent, they uphold human and moral values. The Church works in collaboration with the Governmental agencies. Some of the priests, religious and Catholic laity have played key roles in formulating the educational policy of various states.
Health Care and Ministry to the Sick
The sick and the ailing have been at the center of the Church’s concern. Health for all at affordable rates is the motto. The Catholic Church has been always associated with healing ministry. The hospitals and nursing schools / colleges of the Church are considered the best. They not only care for the sick, but also contribute to the prevention of sickness and promoting life and health through outreach and community health programmes. Today, there is great consciousness of health care, prevention of sickness, dietary habits, etc.
Nursing as a service-oriented vocation and mission is something particular to Christianity. The Catholic lay and religious nurses have introduced a new perspective regarding the ministry of healing and health care. The nursing schools / colleges of the Church have been contributing to the training of nurses in a big way. They have also prepared laboratory technicians, rural health workers and auxiliary nurses from among the tribal population.
Commendable work has been done by North-East Community Health Association (NECHA) to support and coordinate rural health programmes, alternative medicine and health education. Catholic doctors and nurses try to infuse a Christian perspective to healing mission. Mention may be made of centres which the care of HIV/AIDS infected persons, lepers, drug addicts and alcoholics, and the mentally and physically challenged. Collaboration with Governmental agencies has been quite positive.
Social Commitment and Human Development
The Catholic Church believes that evangelization is announcing that humanity is redeemed in Jesus Christ; but it also understands that salvation includes the construction of a humane society. Integral evangelization has been the goal of the mission of the Church. Based on the principles of Catholic social teachings, human dignity, justice, equality, fraternity, peace and freedom, they have made human development an integral part of evangelization. To realize this goal various dioceses and several Religious Congregations have established well organized social service societies focussing on the empowerment of the people, especially of women and the marginalized. They work in close collaboration with government and semi-government agencies. Imparting knowledge about the social teachings of the Church, conscientization of the people regarding certain social issues (e.g. human rights) and evils (e.g. corruption in public life), formation of self-help groups, human resource mobilization, advocacy and legal aid, women-empowerment, prison ministry, ministry to the street children, homes for the orphans and the aged, programmes for caring for the environment, disaster management, are some of the activities undertaken by the social service societies. Another innovative ministry is the education of the differently-abled. The North-East Diocesan Social Service Society (NEDSSS) Guwahati, the official agency of the Regional Bishops’ Council, inspires, animates and coordinates various programmes.
The mission of Reconciliation and Peace-making
In the context of Northeast India, the ministry of reconciliation and peace making has great relevance. By promoting justice and human rights the Church has been promoting the basic requirements of peace. The Church has adopted a two-pronged strategy: helping to resolve conflicts when they do occur and facilitating regular interaction among various ethnic groups. During the time of unrest and violence, the Church has been promoting justice peace and reconciliation by bringing relief to the victims without any group distinction, bringing together various groups, particularly the Christian leaders for reflection and prayer. The Catholic youth have organized peace rallies in the region to bring the message of peace to all. In this area, the Catholic Church, because it transcends ethnic barriers, has taken the lead as not only to bring together its own members but also to facilitate such meetings with members of other Churches. This ministry has in a way facilitated ecumenical collaboration. It is heartening to note that at times even other NGOs and Governmental agencies look up to the Catholic Church for such initiatives.
Promotion of Literature and Culture
Christian missionaries have been responsible for developing several indigenous languages, by introducing the alphabet (mostly Roman script). Because they were first on the scene, the Baptist and Presbyterian missionaries were the pioneers in this. The Catholics joined later, not only translating the Bible, prayers and hymns, and publishing church bulletins and newsletters, but also writing textbooks especially for primary education, grammar and dictionaries.
The missionaries not only worked hard for the spread of the Gospel but also laid the foundation for a truly local church. Two Congregations of women have their origin in the region; (The Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians (by Bishop Stephen Ferrando SDB) and the Visitation Sisters of Don Bosco (by Most Rev. Hubert D’Rosario SDB). The number of priests and religious from the indigenous tribes is on the increase.
Ever since the declaration of the Second Vatican Council that human cultures are the channels of God’s revelation, the Church has shown a new positive attitude and taken steps for the rooting of the Christian faith in different human cultures. This is particularly important in the region with its multiplicity of cultures and the ever-growing tendency of substitution of cultural values by the values of the modern age, of the western world.
The Catholic Church has made efforts to study the deeper dimensions of the traditional ways of life and cultural and religious values of the people, thus initiating a process of theologizing in the tribal context. The Theological Colleges in Shillong (Sacred Heart College and Oriens College) are making serious efforts to gather the resources (such as documents, oral traditions – folklore, myths artifacts, etc.), record traditional music and art forms and are making serious efforts regarding the place of culture in theological reflection.
The immense contributions of the Catholic Church in the above-mentioned and other areas, which have been duly recognized by the governments and civil society, are beyond its numerical strength. They are the results of long-term vision, the spirit of courage and hope, systematic planning, whole-hearted commitment, coordinated efforts of all stake-holders, as well as support from civil society and, not the least, the financial help from the generous donors.
Fr. Thomas Manjaly is a priest of the Archdiocese of Shillong. He has been teaching New Testament at Oriens Theological College, Shillong and in other theological institutes in India for over 35 years. He has presented papers and written extensively on various biblical themes, particularly on mission, evangelization and ministry. He served as the Executive Secretary of the CBCI Commission for Clergy and Religious (1994-98), CCBI Commission for Proclamation (1998-2000) and Deputy Secretary of NEIRBC (2009-15). He was a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission for two terms (2009-2019). He was also a special invitee as theological expert for the XIII Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on “New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith” (7-28 October 2012).