Author: Stephen Knapp
Publication: Hinduism Today
Date: January/February/March, 2005
A pilgrimage through Northeast India
reveals a rich Vedic lifestyle threatened to the core by sometimes violent
Christian insurgents
In December of 2003 a few of us
from the Vedic Friends Association traveled through Assam, Arunachala
Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, and later Sikhim on a spiritual journey.
Unfortunately, the trip wasn't all love and light. The local tribesmen
in that part of India face a major threat from sometimes violent Christian
insurgents whose conversion efforts too often result in murder and
mayhem. This article is about the plight of these noble people and
the danger they face on a daily basis from religious zealots who
have no notion of the vast spiritual heritage they debase or the terrible
consequences they incur for doing so.
This is not the first time that
Hinduism Today has reported on the plight of the 30 million tribal
Hindus in Northeast India. In November/December, 2000, the magazine
published a five-page feature article by Renu S. Malhotra entitled Missionaries
Roil Northeast India in which the author detailed the disastrous
effects Christian conversion efforts were having there. In 2004,
Mrs. Malhotra took another trip through that same area and was disappointed
to report that the situation has not improved. Instead, she said, it has
gotten worse. (See page 65.)
During our trip, the tribal people
seemed less concerned with aggressive Christians than they were impressed
with us--white Americans who had been raised as Christians but had
now chosen to follow the Vedic and Hindu path of spirituality. Our
presence in their cultural rituals touched them deeply. They asserted
again and again that we were the only Westerners they had ever met
who weren't hell-bent on convincing them to give up their traditional
ways of living and convert to Christianity.
Many tribal cultures all over India
are immersed in Vedic traditions, or contain elements that are carried
over from the Vedic way of life. Today, however, the world is slowly
coming to understand that Christians are thoroughly infiltrating the Northeastern
region. Nagaland in particular--long famous for its ancient, ascetic, Naga
culture--is an area where conversion tactics are most successful.
According to census figures just released for 2001, Nagaland is 90
percent Christian.
Many tribal people of India's Northeast
are being hammered with the idea that if they want to progress into the
21st century, they must become modern like the Westerners. Since
most Westerners they meet are evangelical Christians, they presume that
Christianity is the essence of the Western value system and that they must
therefore become Christian to be progressive.
As these tribal people innocently
and enthusiastically strive by this reasoning to stay in touch with the
times, they adopt very little of the best the West has to offer and take
instead much of its worst. Abuse of alcohol and drugs is escalating and
so is sexual promiscuity, fueling the spread of AIDS and causing
more abortions to be performed. Abortion never used to be an issue
in this part of India, and AIDS was almost unheard of.
According to local tradition, if
a boy and girl were caught in a sexual act, they were forced to marry.
Illicit sex was not allowed. Now, many local people, wanting to sidestep
local punishment, become Christian just so they can handle a vast
array of sexual indiscretions under the protection of Western leniency.
In one area of Arunachal Pradesh
that we visited, new converts to Christianity were being told to not associate
with their "heathen " friends and neighbors. They were also being
discouraged from participating in their traditional festivals, dances
and music, or even joining in community harvests and group house raisings.
They were being motivated to wear only Western clothes, listen only
to Western music and celebrate only Western holidays. This was creating
divisions in families and communities, and creating social unrest.
Further complicating conversion
matters today, even as I am writing this article, different Christian sects
are quarreling with each other over converts. This is having an interesting
effect on the tribal people. While it is confusing them, it is also
sending them an important message that perhaps they were better off before
these Christians came into their lives. Many are beginning to think
now that perhaps their old culture was fine just the way that it
was. In the old days, tribal wars were only fought for land and resources.
Quarrels and crimes over religious differences were almost unheard
of.
The most significant conflicts arise
from the sometimes violent aggression of Christian insurgents (See
page 64). In the last two decades 10,000 people have been killed
for religious reasons in the state of Tripura alone.
During our travels, we tried to
stress that from our Western perspective the indigenous cultures
could easily survive in the modern world if some sense of flexibility
could be brought to bear with regard to incorporating technological developments
and advanced education. We tried to present the idea, for instance,
that much good could come from the amalgamation of the old with the
new, such as improvements in communication, medicine, farming, construction,
transportation and more.
At the close of this most educational
journey, it became apparent to me that, more often then not, it is old
values--not new ones--that provide solutions to modern day problems. This
can be an important lesson learned too late. One of our more sobering
observations during the trip was that when a culture is lost, it is almost
impossible to bring back, or even to fully understand in retrospect.
The indigenous cultures of India
are treasures worth saving. They offer an important connection to
the best India's past has to offer. It seems to me that the social
and environmental problems of the country are not due to some inherent
problem in the traditional culture itself, but rather in the c hoice
many make to abandon this culture. Remaining fixed in the true principles
of this ancient lifestyle and passing these principles on to the
next generation certainly can't hurt India in its attempts to carve a
future which is at least as powerful as its past.
Stephen Knapp has written many books
and articles on Vedic philosophy and is the president of the Vedic
Friends Association, an organization dedicated to protecting and
sharing Vedic culture. For more information see: http://www.stephen-knapp.com
and http://www.vedicfriends.org
