Christianity and politics in tribal India : Baptist missionaries and Naga nationalism /
G. Kanato Chophy.
- First SUNY Press edition.
- 1 online resource (xviii, 460 pages) : illustrations, maps
Includes bibliographies and index.
Introduction: One faith, many ethnicities -- 1. The empire and the pearly gates -- 2. The Baptist highland --3. Heirs of the new faith -- 4. Some converts are more equal than others -- 5. Exotic natives no more -- 6. Legends, mystics, and converts -- 7. The Baptist intellectuals -- 8. Pragmatists and idealists -- 9. Guns, the Bible, and the little red book -- Conclusion: Naga Batists 2.0.
Through an ethnohistorical study of the Nagas--a congeries of tribes inhabiting the Indo-Myanmar frontier--this book explores an unusually interesting region of India that is all too often seen as peripheral. G. Kanato Chophy provides a distinct vantage point for understanding the Nagas in relation to colonialism, missionary encounters, identity politics, and cultural change, all seamlessly woven around American Baptist mission history in this region. The book also analyses India's cacophonous postindependence democracy in order to delineate multifaith issues, multiculturalism, and ethnicity-based political movements.Within the West, episodic memories of the "Great Awakening," a significant landmark in the history of Protestantism, have faded into archival records. But among the Nagas of the Indo-Myanmar highlands, Baptist Christianity persists as the dominant religion, influencing the daily lives of nearly three million people. Focusing variously on evangelical faith, missionary zeal, ethnic identities, political struggle, and complex culture wars, Christianity and Politics in Tribal India is an original and major study of how Protestant missions changed the history and destiny of a tribal community in one of the unlikeliest regions of South Asia.
9781438485836
Naga (South Asian people)--Missions. Baptists--Missions--India, Northeastern. Naga (South Asian people)--History. Naga (South Asian people)--Religion. Tribes--Religion.--India, Northeastern Theology, Doctrinal--India, Northeastern.