Hrangkhuma, F. Christianity in India. Delhi: ISPCK, 1998. 248-264.

Dr.F. Hrangkhuma is the professor of History of Missions, at Serampore College, Serampore:

1994-1998. General Secretary, Baptist Church of Mizoram: 1998-2001. Author of Christ and
Cultures, Christianity in India, Hruaitu tanpuitu, Introduction to Church History, The Church
in India.

The people of Ngaland are referred to as ‘Nagas’. Nagas believe that life is one long festival
and thus cherish, rejoice each festival with rituals, sweets, music and dance. A state that
shares its boundaries with Assam in the West, Myanmar on the East, Arunachal Pradesh on
its North and Manipur in the South. Nagaland is home to 16 major tribes and other sub tribes.
Just imagine the diversity in its culture, food and cuisines, festivitites and living.

Nagaland is a beautiful country situated in the North Eastern part of India. Nagaland is
inhabited by sixteen major tribes, with a population of 1,209,546. Nagas are also found in
northern Manipur, North Cachar Hills, Karbi Anglong, Jorhat and Sibsagar districts of Assam,
Tirap district of Arunachal Pradesh, and in Somrat tracts of Myanmar. The Nagas are
distributed in about 20,000 sq. kms. and would be about 2 million. There are minor
differences in physical features, characteristics, dresses, and various other cultural traits, but
they have cultural affinity pointing to a common ancestry that binds them together under the
name Naga. Racially, they are all of Mongoloid stock. Different Naga tribes have their own
myths about their origin. It is, however, certain that the different Naga tribes came to their
present habitat from the East through Burma. Scholars are of the opinion that the Naga tribes
migrated to the present place between 11th and 13th century AD.

The American Baptist missionaries were the first to work among the Nagas. They reached
Assam in 1836. Nathan Brown and O.T. Cutter, and their wives, came from Burma field,
hoping to find a way to China through the Shans in the Northern most part of Assam and
Burma. The group sailed up the Brahmaputra river, and reached Sadiya in March 23,1836,
and there discovered the barriers of dense jungles and the high mountains. The first thrust of
Christianity among the Nagas came from a small village called Namsang (now in Arunachal
Pradesh). The second attempt to preach the Gospel to the Nagas was taken by Rev. S.W.
Whiting. The third attempt was made by Godhula Brown, an Assamese convert, and Rev.
E.W. Clark.

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Rev. Charles De Witt King was the first missionary who came to Kohima to serve among the
Angami Nagas. It is said that Lhousietsu was the first convert baptized by C.D. King on 21st
June, 1885.1 The first church among the Angamis was founded at Kohima on 23 March 1883
and none of its members were Nagas. The third mission centre established by the American
Baptist Mission was at Wokha in Lotha area. Rev. W.E. Witter and his family moved to that
place in 1885.2 Initially, the mission work became more effective through the establishment
of schools.

The advent of Christianity affected not only the people's perception of the world, but also
brought changes in all aspects of life. Christianity brought a new world view, western culture,
politics, science, technology, medicines, schools, and literature to the Nagas. We may say
that literature and education were the instruments to bring about change in Nagaland.

The most important mode of the modernization of the Naga society was through the
development of literature. Missionaries reduced different Naga dialects to writing by
introducing the Roman Script. This was followed by the composition of some hymns,
translation of the Lord's prayer, production of Primers, books on Catechism, translation of
portions of Scripture, including Bible stories to be read in schools, etc.

The most important achievement is the translation of the Bible. Even today, for many tribes,
the Bible is the most important reference work. Missionaries thought that the Bible is the only
medium through which humans can enter into communion with God. The Bible alone is the
primary source of the revelation of God; others are secondary sources. They are important to
know God, but cannot lead to salvation.

Through the introduction of literature, a new Naga identity emerged. Traditionally, each
Naga village was a state. People were confined to clan and village welfare, without having
general consciousness of the whole tribe. The missionaries, by reducing a dialect to script,
which was eventually learned by the whole tribe, provided a common linguistic medium and
unity to a particular tribal community.

The introduction of modem education by the missionaries ushered in a modem Worldview

among the Naga society. It is interesting to know that wherever a church was founded, a
school was simultaneously established by the early missionaries. These schools were known
as Mission Schools.The Baptist missionaries continued this policy as late as the forties, but
after India's independence, the educational programme was either taken over by the

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Government or combined with the Government-run schools. Consequently, this led to the
Mission Schools being phased out or discontinued. However, the mission schools became the
nurseries for change: they sowed the Gospel, established churches and provided a new
worldview. It is in these schools that people assimilated not only a new faith, but also science,
politics, technology, and so on.

According to Downs, mission schools served two basic functions: first, it broke down the
barriers of "superstition" that prevented people from hearing and responding to the Gospel.
Second, it provided a means of Christian instruction and access to the Christian scriptures and
other forms of Christian literature.

The tribal worldview is unique and distinctive in many ways. In Naga worldview, there is no
clear distinction between the sacred and the secular, between religious and non-religious,
between the spiritual and the material areas of life. All cultural components are closely inter-
related. If one element is affected, the whole cultural structure is affected. For the Nagas,
religion would simply mean, living in the spontaneous awareness of, an encounter with,
acknowledgment of, and obedience to, the active reality of the presence of God. Religion
permeates all aspects of life. In the traditional Naga society, there were no irreligious people.
In fact, people did not know how to live without religion. The Naga religion does not have
written creeds to be recited. The creeds are, instead, written in the hearts of the people and
each person, family, clan, or village is a living creed.

The traditional Naga religion is basically a community religion. To be truly human is to

belong to the whole community including the ancestors and nature, and to do so involves the
active participation in beliefs, ceremonies, rituals, and isolation from one's community.A
person cannot live in isolation from one's community. Therefore, in the Naga religion, the
individual life and the community life are inseparable. Furthermore, one cannot understand
the core of Naga religion without understanding the religious journey of the individual from
the womb to physical earth and the hereafter: Again, for the Nagas, belief and action cannot
be separated as they belong to one single whole. Worship, and action go together. That means,
without belief and action, one cannot understand the religious meaning of the Nagas. The
other distinctive characteristic of the traditional Naga religion is that it does not have sacre d
scriptures like other religions. The Nagas' religious ethos is contained in the people's hearts,
minds, oral history and rituals.

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Further, unlike other religions of the world, the Naga religion does not have founders or
reformers. In other words, Naga religion is not centered in a great historical person or persons.
Rather, their religion is centered on creation itself.

The Nagas are community-oriented people. This social dimension helps in spreading the
Gospel very rapidly. Their social structure is built on the basis of the family, clan and village
system. We may briefly examine them as follows:

A family is the smallest unit in Naga society. It consists of the husband and his wife and their
children with the father being the head of the family. It is a patriarchal family and thus
descent is traced from the father's side. The father, being the head of the family, provides for,
looks after, and maintains the welfare of the family. He makes the final decision for the
family in welfare of all matters. He also acts as the family priest and performs religious duties
during festivals and other ceremonies. He represents his family in the clan's meeting and at
court.

The social organization of the Nagas is built upon clan structure. Each household in the
village belongs to a particular clan. There is no family that is not attached to a clan. The clan
is thus a larger family unit on the paternal side. In other words, the clan is a combination of
the families of male cousins from the father's side. They are related to one another through a
common ancestor. They have common property, traditions, status, and inheritance. The
members of the clan feel closely bound together, almost like members of a family. The clan is
a unit of village polity. It has its own organization with its own chosen leaders. The head of
the clan performs several functions.Each clan has its own court.

The churches in Nagaland are very enthusiastic for missionary work. At its annual session of
Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC) in 1960 at Mokokchung, a 'Home Board' was
established to carry on the unfinished task of God's mission. Later, it was renamed as
Nagaland Missionary Movement (NMM). Today NMM works all over India, from the
Andaman Islands, to Maharashtra, Orissa, Andhra Pradsh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar,
Sikkim, West Bengal, Assam, Bhutan, Nepal, Arunachal Pradesh, and Myanmar. The NMM
is an indigenous mission. It receives no fund from abroad, no membership fees nor any funds
from other organization for the operation of its mission in the field as well as at home office.
It looks to God in faith for its support.

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Missionaries, evangelists and other field staffs receive their salaries through faithful
contributions of the Nagaland churches, Associations, local churches, families, and
individuals. If any overseas contribution is received, they would be applied to capital
expenditure such as buildings, vehicles, or property. There is still much to do in sharing the
love of God, at home as well as with the people of other neighboring states and countries. I
hope that after celebrating 125 years of the coming of Christianity this year the churches in
Nagaland will participate more actively in God's ongoing mission, with a wider vision.

The Strongest point of this book is, the missionary who came to Nagas and did the great
things, it is really admire to me to become missionary. This book is also really help us to do
missionary in different places, this book show the effective way to evangelical people to
become the follower of Jesus Christ and to made them to evangelize to others.

The wicked point of this book is, not every apply in missionary, due to season, food, places,
and culture. This book show us a some kind of places, not every places and also these
missionary were adopted their culture as well as they forced to take them to adopt their
culture. As a missionary, we should not do the same things, w should understand their culture
and belief after we should start to share the gospel.

Nagaland is home to 16 major tribes and other sub tribes. Just imagine the diversity in its
culture, food and cuisines, festivitites and living. Nagaland has 11 administrative districts.
Each tribe has its own rituals, dress and language. The culture of the state reflects in the
songs, music and the dance. Each of 16 tribes and sub tribes have unique personality. the
gospel of Christ came to Naga Hills through the American Baptist Mission (ABM). The
American missionary by a name Rev. Miles Bronson worked among Nagas from about 1842-
1852 along with Assamese called Goghula.He taught them Christianity and the art of
cultivating tea, then Bronson opened a school at Namsang in the Konyak area in the border of
Assam. The foreign missionaries had sowed the word of God into the heart of Nagas though
the response of the people to the gospel was several manners but then the response was
positive. When Naga‟s understood a bit about the light of Christ and in a short time Church
was established throughout every tribal.The Holy Spirit began to work in a very dynamic way
among the Nagas. The spiritual awakening known as revival had totally changed the Nagas.