Religious Nationalism, Christianisation and Institutionalisation of Indigenous Faiths in Contemporary Arunachal Pradesh, India

Abstract

The paper examines the interface of indigenous faiths with the twin forces of Hindu religious nationalism and Christianity, and the eventual institutionalisation of the former in Arunachal Pradesh, a federal state on India’s north-eastern frontier. To substantiate, the paper focuses on nyedar namlos, the newly introduced community prayer halls for Donyi-Polo, the indigenous faith of the Nyishi tribe. The paper argues that nyedar namlos need to be contextualised against the changing socio-political history of the state and its transformation from a socio-political periphery and colonial frontier to an active site of state-making and nation-building, as well as a military frontier, all of which shape the discourse on religion.

Keywords:

• Arunachal Pradesh
• Christianisation
• Donyi Polo
• indigenous faith
• nyedar namlo
• Nyishi tribe
• religious nationalism

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank our doctoral supervisor, Prof. Chandan Kumar Sharma, for his constant support, encouragement and guidance; the editors; the two anonymous reviewers for their critical comments and feedback, which have enriched our paper; Dr. Varun Sharma for simplifying the process of incorporating reviewers’ comments; Ranju Dodum, whose detailed journalistic coverage on the topic has inspired us; and all the resource persons from the field, including P.G. Dodum (Mekory Dodum’s father), who has helped us immensely in accessing both field contacts and information.

Disclosure statement

Mekory Dodum is the daughter of a prominent indigenous leader who is also an RSS associate. However, she has no such personal affiliation to any religious or political organisation. The paper has not received any financial or non-financial help from any religious institution and does not endorse/promote any particular religious ideology, and is purely an academic exercise. The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Notes

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3. Hindutva is an ideology advocating—or movement seeking to establish—the hegemony of Hindus and Hinduism in India and is the predominant form of Hindu nationalism.

4. John Harriss, ‘Hindu Nationalism in Action: The Bharatiya Janata Party and Indian Politics’, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 38, no. 4 (2015): 712–18.

5. Angana P. Chatterji, Thomas Blom Hansen and Christophe Jaffrelot, ed., Majoritarian State: How Hindu Nationalism Is Changing India (London: C. Hurst & Co., 2019).

6. Ibid.

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8. Harriss, Hindu Nationalism, 712–18.

9. Tribes are usually communities recognised as Scheduled Tribes (ST) to whom the Indian Constitution provides certain protective rights and constitutional benefits as affirmative action. Even though the term ‘tribe’ is problematic for its colonial connotations in most parts of the world, its use as a politico-administrative category is commonplace in India. In this paper, the term is used interchangeably with ‘ST’ and ‘indigenous’: see Virginius Xaxa, ‘Tribes as Indigenous People of India’, Economic & Political Weekly 34, no. 51 (1999): 3589–95, accessed May 10, 2022, https://www.epw.in/journal/1999/51/special-articles/tribes-indigenous-people-india.html.

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15. B.G. Karlsson, Unruly Hills: A Political Ecology of India’s Northeast (New York: Berghahn Books, 2011); Dolly Kikon, Living with Oil and Coal: Resource Politics and Militarization in North-East India (Washington, DC: University of Washington Press, 2019).

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18. Sanjib Baruah, In the Name of the Nation: India and Its Northeast (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2020).

19. Dolly Kikon and Duncan McDuie-Ra, Ceasefire City: Militarism Capitalism and Urbanism in Dimapur (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2021); Duncan McDuie-Ra, Borderland City in New India: Frontier to Gateway (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2016).

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23. Zilpha Modi, ‘Arunachal Pradesh: From Non-State Space to Contested State Space’, in Routledge Handbook of Highland Asia, ed. Jelle J.P. Wouters and Michael T. Heneise (Oxford: Routledge, 2022): 234–46.

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25. Toni Huber and Stuart Blackburn, ed., Origins and Migrations in the Extended Eastern Himalayas (Leiden: Brill, 2012); Guyot-Réchard, Shadow States.

26. Modi, ‘Arunachal Pradesh’, 234; for more, see Huber and Blackburn, Origins and Migrations; Jean Michaud, Historical Dictionary of the Peoples of the Southeast Asian Massif (London: Scarecrow Press, 2006).

27. Meenaxi Barkataki-Ruscheweyh, Dancing to the State: The Ethnic Compulsions of the Tangsa in Assam (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2017).

28. ‘Christianity among the Scheduled Tribes of the Northeast’.

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30. James C. Scott, The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009).

31. Longkumer, Greater Indian Experiment.

32. Claire S. Schied, ‘Talom Rukbo and the Donyipolo Yelam Kebang: Restructuring Adi Religious Practices in Arunachal Pradesh’, Internationales Asienforum 46, nos. 1–2 (2017): 127–48; Barkataki-Ruscheweyh, Dancing to the State.

33. Mekory Dodum’s father is one of the pioneer indigenous faith revivalists and is closely associated with the RSS. However, due to her schooling in boarding school and higher education outside the state, she holds an independent world-view from that of her father and is not affiliated to any of the above. Currently posted as a state government officer in her hometown, Seppa, she is facing her roots after being far away from it all through her life. She is witnessing change and continuity and, in the process, is going through a personal quest on issues around tribal culture and faith and balancing traditions and modernity.

34. Chaudhuri, Institutionalization of Tribal Religion, 272.

35. Tana Showren, ‘Indigenous Religion and Practices of Nyishi Tribe’, in Cultural Heritage of Arunachal Pradesh, ed. N. Nagaraju and T. Byomkesh (New Delhi: Chaman Enterprise, 2006).

36. Former chairperson, District Central Nyedar Namlo, interviewed by Mekory Dodum, February 22, 2022.

37. Based on interactions with many Christian friends and the family of Mekory Dodum; also see Melvil Pereira et al., Contesting Voices, Changing Realities: The Nyishis of Arunachal Pradesh (Guwahati: North Eastern Social Research Centre, 2017): 209.

38. Former chairperson, District Central Nyedar Namlo, interviewed by Mekory Dodum, February 22, 2022.

39. Effa Nyibu, interviewed by Mekory Dodum, June 3, 2022.

40. Mr. Sonam, assistant professor, interviewed by Mekory Dodum, January 23, 2022.

41. Ms. Hiffo, interviewed by Mekory Dodum, January 9, 2022.

42. Former chairperson and cultural secretary, interviewed by Mekory Dodum, January 10, 2022.

43. Samudra Gupta Kashyap, ‘Arunachal Christians Sore over CM Pema Khandu’s BJP Govt “Promoting” Indigenous Faith’, The Indian Express, October 21, 2017, accessed June 3, 2023, https://indianexpress.com/article/india/arunachal-christians-sore-over-pema-khandus-bjp-govt-promoting-indigenous-faith-4899074/.

44. The Arunachal Pradesh Gazette, no. 370, Vol. XXIIV, Naharlagun, Government of Arunachal Pradesh, Department of General Administration (2017), Notification no. GA-122/2017.

45. Damien Lepcha, ‘Pema Khandu Inaugurates Arunachal Pradesh’s First School for Indigenous Language and Knowledge System’, Northeast Now, March 20, 2021, accessed June 3, 2023, https://nenow.in/north-east-news/arunachal-pradesh/arunachal-pradesh-cm-pema-khandu-inaugurates-first-of-its-kind-school-in-east-kameng.html.

46. Kashyap, ‘Arunachal Christians’.

47. Prasanta Mazumdar, ‘Arunachal Pradesh Bows to Christian Pressure: Protection for Indigenous Faith Will Have to Wait’, The New Indian Express, October 27, 2017, accessed January 20, 2022, https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2017/oct/27/arunachal-pradesh-bows-to-christian-pressure-protection-for-indigenous-faith-will-have-to-wait-1684171.html.

48. ‘IFCSAP Seeks Early Implementation of APFR Act, Renaming DIA to Notified Name’, The Arunachal Times, March 9, 2022, accessed March 20, 2022, https://arunachaltimes.in/index.php/2022/03/10/ifcsap-seeks-early-implementation-of-apfr-act-renaming-dia-to-notified-name/.

49. Modi, ‘Arunachal Pradesh’, 240.

50. Barkataki-Ruscheweyh, Dancing to the State.

51. Syed Saad Ahmed, ‘Indigenous Religions in Northeast Pushed into Flowering via Hindutva to Battle Christianity’, Outlook November 26, 2022, accessed June 3, 2023, https://www.outlookindia.com/national/indigenous-religions-in-northeast-pushed-into-flowering-via-hindutva-to-battle-christianity-news-240145.

52. Utpal Parashar, ‘Pastors Killed 160 Years Ago May Become First Catholic Saints from Northeast’, Hindustan Times, July 1, 2017, accessed March 13, 2022, https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/pastors-killed-160-yrs-ago-may-become-first-catholic-saints-from-northeast/story.

53. Roderick Wijunamai, ‘The Early Story of Christianity in Northeast India’, Himal Southasian: Rethinking Bangladesh—A Special Issue, October 9, 2020, accessed March 13, 2022, https://www.himalmag.com/the-early-story-of-christianity-in-northeast-india-2020/.

54. Verrier Elwin, A Philosophy for NEFA (Shillong: North East Frontier Agency, 2nd ed., 1959): 84.

55. Sharma, ‘Contextualising Social Development’, 37–63; Baruah, In the Name of the Nation.

56. Government of Arunachal Pradesh website, accessed December 2, 2021, https://www.arunachalpradesh.gov.in/at-a-glance-2/.

57. Vivekananda Kendra Vidyalayas Arunachal Pradesh Trust Website, accessed December 2, 2021. https://www.vkvapt.org.

58. Ranju Dodum, ‘Between Tribal, Christian and Buddhist Beliefs, Communities in Arunachal Pradesh Try to Protect Their Origins and Practices’, The Hindu, June 13, 2021, accessed December 2, 2021, https://www.thehindu.com/society/between-tribal-christian-and-buddhist-beliefs-communities-in-arunachal-pradesh-try-to-protect-their-origins-and-practices/article34787176.ece.

59. ‘Christianity among the Scheduled Tribes of the Northeast’.

60. Ashan Riddi, ‘Emergence of Christianity as New Religious Identity and Its Impact on Tradition and Culture among the Tagins of Arunachal Pradesh’, in Christianity and Change in Northeast India, ed. T.B. Subba, J. Puthenpurakal and S.J. Puykunnel (New Delhi: Concept Publishing Co., 2009): 232–43; Nani Bath, ‘The AP Freedom of Religion Act, 1978: It’s Not against a Particular Religion’, The Arunachal Times, July 7, 2018, accessed May 18, 2022, https://arunachaltimes.in/index.php/2018/07/07/the-ap-freedom-of-religion-act-1978-its-not-against-a-particular-religion/.

61. Ibid.

62. Census of India website, accessed January 22, 2022, https://censusindia.gov.in.

63. The shift in the tertiary sector workforce from outsider (Hindu Bengali and Assamese) to local people of the state, especially after the complete reservation of Grade III and IV posts to the latter, may have had an influence on its Hindu population. Further, its increase and decrease might be reflective of the close association of Donyi-Polo followers with Hinduism in that they switch between ‘Hindu’ and ‘Other Religion’ categories as Donyi-Polo is not listed as a separate one.

64. Chaudhuri, ‘Institutionalization of Tribal Religion’, 260.

65. Talom Rukbo, ‘Donyi Polo Faith and Practices of the Adi’, in Indigenous Faith and Practices of the Tribes of Arunachal Pradesh, ed. M.C. Behera and S.K. Chaudhuri (Itanagar: Himalayan Publishers, 1998): 57–75.

66. ‘Donyi Poloism Taking Roots in Arunachal Pradesh’, Arunachal Observer: Beyond the Horizon, June 19, 2017, accessed January 2, 2022, https://arunachalobserver.org/2017/06/19/donyi-poloism-taking-roots-arunachal-pradesh/.

67. Chaudhuri, ‘Institutionalization of Tribal Religion’, 265–72.

68. Longkumer, Greater India Experiment.

69. Arkotong Longkumer, ‘The Power of Persuasion: Hindutva, Christianity and the Discourse of Religion and Culture in North East India’, Religion 47, no. 2 (2017): 203–27.

70. The Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra is an RSS initiative to build a temple and pilgrimage centre on the controversial site of Ayodhya where the Babri Masjid was demolished: see ‘Babri Masjid to Ram Temple: A Timeline of Events in Ayodhya’, The Indian Express, August 5, 2020, accessed February 5, 2022, https://indianexpress.com/article/india/from-babri-masjid-to-ram-temple-a-timeline-of-events-in-ayodhya-6540033/.

71. ‘Arunachal CM Donates for Ram Temple’, Northeast Today, January 1, 2021, accessed February 5, 2022, https://www.northeasttoday.in/2021/01/01/arunachal-cm-pema-khandu-donates-for-ram-temple/.

72. Rabi Banerjee, ‘The Dragon Gets Crossed’, The Week, February 22, 2020, accessed February 10, 2022, https://www.theweek.in/theweek/statescan/2020/02/22/the-dragon-gets-crossed.html.