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Dr S.C.Jamir,
Former CM Nagaland
Ex-Governor
Reminiscences of the birth of Christianity in this beautiful land of the Nagas
The message of love and salvation was preached in the Naga country since 1872 by a missionary couple from America. This gospel had brought a dramatic change in the Naga way of life. It had pointed to them the way, the truth and the Life embodied in the God man, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is true that in Christianity the heathen Nagas have discovered a new philosophy of a better and higher life . It brought happiness and joy and spiritual awakening to thousands of Naga believers. Peace and harmony, love and goodwill and a new meaning of life was ushered in the minds of the believers. People and villages, once victims of hatred, were now the Christian concern of transformed Nagas. The belief in a benevolent Christian God lifted the one-time head-hunters to the level of Good Samaritan in their social and mental outlook.
In this small Naga country, Christianity attracted the high and the low alike and it was the eternal message of Peace and human feelings, the desire of fellowship, which made a visible mark on the Nagas. A new path that could lead to forgiveness and to bury their hatchet. It meant to discard the old and primitive Passion to wreck vengeance and to replace it with an attitude sanctified with the milk of human kindness.
Christianity emphasised the importance of education and the Nagas responded and accepted this challenge with great zeal and gusto. If we see the record of 1894, the Impur Mission Training School, which started with 9 pupils and gradually increased to 60.
But Nagaland Literacy Rate 2024 is 79.5 per cent and male literacy stands at 82.75 percent and female literacy is at 76.11 percent. Christianity of course helped the Nagas to discover their talent to conform their lives with the teaching of Christ and to practice the teachings with courage, fortitude and sincerity, a difficult proposition of forgiveness and love. Christianity also introduced a new awakening, -- about the modern art, the new method of attaining their fulfilment of their rightful desires and aspirations.
It is Christianity which in fact knit them in one strong and powerful community worth a lasting existence and recognition.
Even in the forties, when the village feuds, tribal rivalries and local petty disputes sapped the energies of the people, raids and internecine wars were the hall mark of that time. Darkness prevailed all around. It was the darkness of ignorance, of misfortune, of hopelessness and desperation. Christianity, with all achievements in sciences and ethics, in human understanding and physical and spiritual conquest, infused a new life in Nagas and they not only embraced Christianity as a religion of hope and a message of peace, they became themselves to torch bearer of this faith of eternal love.
In the fifties, when the Naga movement was getting momentum both the Assam government as well as the Government of India tried to make the missionaries as the scape goats for the Naga movement. But it was made known to all concerned that Christianity had enlightened the Nagas a sense of realization of their worth. All are equal in the sight of God, and Christianity preaches equality, love and compassion. In this new religion the Nagas saw the real life.
Small community like the Nagas when inspired by powerful ideas and fired by ennobling aspirations, they are capable of opening a new chapter in the history of mankind. Not only in Christianity but in politics Nagas showed the way to the rest of the tribals that they also can have their separate polity to shape their destiny according to their traditions and ways of life. Nagas were the leading light for the emergence of tribal state in the country.
What then is the world of the Nagas today? Is Nagaland really for Christ? Had we not celebrated 150 years of Christianity in Nagaland on 2nd November 2022? What kind of harvest are we reaping today ?Are the Nagas rejoicing bringing in the sheaves? As Christians and also as Nagas first try to find out what we really have become of and the land in which we live i.e. Nagaland. We have declared Nagaland for Christ a few decades ago, but as years rolled by we have made Nagaland for demons. It is a land of factions and divisions fully engaged in internecine conflicts among the Christians themselves.
Love, affection, peace and harmony no longer find in the Naga dictionary. In Nagaland the rarest commodities are honesty and truthfulness. Mark Twain said Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest. Naga Christians are doing quite the opposite.
Honesty is still the best policy, but strange to say, in Nagaland a large majority of the people even including our Church leaders feel they cannot afford the best. Fear psychosis continues to hang over people’s heads and they are afraid to speak out the truth. People are groaning under the unbearable heavy weights of multiple authorities both Constitutional as well as extra-constitutional in the land. Corruption of the highest magnitude flourishes in the Christian land.
Materialism had blinded the Naga people as a whole, and today corruption or economic offence has become an accepted norm.
There is neither hesitation nor shame for taking bribes, even between the departments in the form of percentage, etc. The bubonic plague type corruption is destroying even the souls of the Naga Christians.
Because of the multiplicity of authorities, governance of the state is in quagmire. Where then lies the malaise? The sinews of Naga society had been severely maimed by our own weapons. Without total overhauling of the entire systems even including our characters, Nagaland shall remain dormant.
The present and future of this beautiful land of the Nagas are with the Naga Christians. All of us believe in one God, Jesus Christ our Lord. We belong to the family of Christ and our God is the only living God who was resurrected and now sitting on the right hand of God.
Before Him there is no tribalism nor factionalism. All believers are his. If this is so, why not we believers of Nagaland in true spirit of Christ exalt him to the same position which he occupied 150 years ago in the soils of Nagaland. In keeping with the contemporary world and in keeping with the spirit of Christ, why not we rise up and built the broken wall of Nagaland and let the Naga Christians once again reunite in the family of God.
Time has come to revive the true spirit of Christianity implanted in our soil by the pioneering servants of Christ.