Author: Pullock Dutta
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: June 21, 2000
A spate of religious
conversions on the world's largest river island of Majuli has set the stage
for a major confrontation between the upholders of Vaishnavaite culture
and the Church.
Home to almost all the
major satras (Vaishnavaite monasteries) in Assam, Majuli has a large population
of Mising tribals who are being increasingly drawn towards Christian ideals.
In several villages on the island, Christianity is well on its way to becoming
the major faith.
"The failure of the satras
to keep the Misings in their fold has given Christian missionaries the
opportunity to convert them," the satradhikar (head abbot) of Na-Kamalabari
Satra told a newspaper recently.
The issue was raised
again yesterday at a function commemorating 130 years of the Asam Bilasini,
a newspaper published by the Auniati Satra.
Addressing the function
in Majuli, former Asam Sahitya Sabha president Nagen Saikia said the newspaper
was the brainchild of satradhikar Duttadev Goswami, who imported a printing
machine from Calcutta and established the Dharmaprakash Press in Majuli
on June 19, 1871.
"The satradhikar's primary
aim was to counter the threat from Christian missionaries, who had just
launched the first Assamese newspaper Arunodoi," Saikia said.
The Asam Bilasini is
no longer in publication, but a new computerised printing press was inaugurated
by current Asam Sahitya Sabha chief Chandra Prasad Saikia at the Auniati
Satra yesterday. Religious texts will be published in the new printing
unit. Also in the pipeline is a book on Majuli's history.
Majuli came into prominence
in the 16th century, when Srimanta Sankardev and his disciples set up satras
on the island to propagate Vaishnavaite philosophy. There are 22 satras
in Majuli at present.
With Christianity making
inroads into the island, all major satras have been shaken out of their
complacency.
A campaign is underway
to bring back Misings who have turned to Christianity back into the Vaishnavaite
fold.
A bhaona (traditional
play) was staged in the Mising-dominated Jengrai area recently to restore
the tribals' faith in Vaishnavaite culture.
CRPF men killed
Two Central Reserve Police
Force personnel were killed in an encounter with militants at Ghugulani
village under Naharkatia police station in Upper Assam's Dibrugarh district
last night.
A joint police and CRPF
team was on its way to the village for a combing operation when the militants
opened fire. Havildar Bhagebisukh and constable Narayan Pradhan were killed
on the spot, sources said.
In another incident,
security forces apprehended a United National Liberation Front militant
in Motinagar tea estate under Geleky police station on the Assam-Nagaland
border in Sivsagar district today.
An M-21 rifle and 12
rounds of ammunition were recovered from the militant, identified as Ratan
Sharma. Ratan told interrogators that he and four other militants were
on their way to Manipur from Hoyak on the Indo-Myanmar border.