Hinduism Today Features VFA Travels

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January/February/March, 2005

TRADITION

 

Fighting to Preserve a Tribal Heritage

http://www.hinduism-today.com/archives/2005/1-3/62-65_tradition.shtml

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A pilgrimage through Northeast India reveals a rich Vedic lifestyle

threatened to the core by sometimes violent Christian insurgents

By Stephen Knapp, Detroit, Michigan

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 choice 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.

 

 

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Violence in Northeast India

 

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Suffering the effects of poverty, neglect, exploitation and religious

conversion

Turn on the television any day of the week, anywhere in the world,

and you are sure to catch current news detailing terrorist atrocities

occurring in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although similar violence is being

committed by insurgents in Northeast India, these latter crimes are

receiving surprisingly little news coverage.

 

On a single day in early October, 2004, militants set off bombs and

opened gunfire all across India's Northeast, killing at least 46

people and wounding nearly 100. Two bombs exploded in a marketplace

in Dimapur, the commercial center in the state of Nagaland. At the

same time, a third bomb ripped through a nearby railway station.

Twenty-six people died in the Nagaland attacks. Later on the same

day, heavily armed Bodo tribal guerrillas in the neighboring state of

Assam drove into a town square and gunned down eleven people who were

shopping in a local market. Almost simultaneously, guerrillas of the

United Liberation Front of Assam, the biggest of the insurgent groups

in the Northeast, set off grenades at four places in Assam killing

nine people.

 

India's mountainous Northeast is home to nearly 200 underground

militant organizations, some of which have thousands of fighters.

(See

http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/terroristoutfits/index.h

tml) It is generally reported that a portion of these groups are

seeking greater autonomy or statehood, while others are demanding

secession and the formation of Christian states. In truth, however,

what these groups really want depends on who you ask.

 

Dr. Arun Kumar Sarma, Ph.D., a Member of Parliament representing

Assam Gan Parishad [AGP] in the Lok Sabha, told our Hinduism Today

correspondent, Rajiv Malik, that he was not aware of any violent

conversion efforts. "I am myself a Hindu, " Dr. Sarma said. "And I

can tell you that the local Hindus of the Northeast are mainly

concerned with immigrants, whether they are from India or from

Bangladesh. These immigrants infiltrate the Northeast region of India

to settle there and exploit business and employment opportunities

that would ordinarily go to the native populace. What I want to

emphasize here is that the insurgency exists for economic rather than

religious reasons. Actually, a large portion of the Northeast is

already Christian. Who is there left to convert? The government of

India is primarily responsible for the lack of financial stability in

the Northeast. They have no clear-cut policy for the economic

development of the region. Most development funds go into the pockets

of either corrupt politicians or insurgents who kidnap government

servants for ransom. Among the Hindus, the high caste exploits the

low caste, including the tribal people. In addition to all of this,

Central Government is not doing anything for the preservation of

Hindu temples and ashrams, although they conscientiously maintain

Buddhist monasteries."

 

Offering a different perspective in an article written for

Mainstream, commentator Kunal Ghosh states: "Baptist Christian

terrorists are active in India's Northeast. They derive their

financial support from the southern parts of the USA where the

Baptist Church has a strong following. Funds are collected in the

form of donations in various church establishments. Some of this

money is spent in true philanthropic work such as spreading education

and health care.

 

"However, it has been suspected for a long time that a part of these

funds get diverted to the purchase of arms for Baptist terrorists of

the Northeast. Ex-Chief Election Commissioner, T.N. Seshan, gave

voice to this suspicion in a television panel discussion on

Doordarshan back in 1993 when he said, 'Our Army is baffled by the

seemingly unending supply of sophisticated and expensive arms and

equipment flooding into the Northeast. Money generated by the local

extortion of businessmen and citizens accounts for only a small

fraction of funds collected. The greater part must be coming from

abroad. It is suspected that the funds come from Christian sources

such as the Baptist Church in southern USA and the Presbyterian

Church of the UK.'

 

"The most prominent among the terrorist outfits of Tripura is the

NLFT (National Liberation Front of Tripura). It employs terror

tactics to effect mass conversion to Christianity and is a

predominantly Baptist organization. On August 6, 1999, four RSS

(Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) workers of Tripura, named Shyamal Kanti

Sen Gupta, Sudhamoy Dutta, Dinendranath Dey, Shubhankar Chakraborti,

were kidnapped by the NLFT and taken to a camp in the jungles of

Bangladesh. A ransom of one million dollars was demanded from their

parent organization. When the RSS refused to pay, they were put to

death. Their 'sin' was that they were preaching among the tribals to

preserve Hinduism. Although our constitution permits propagation of

religious faith by any legitimate means, this crime of murder did not

create a media sensation.

 

"This is not the first time that a Hindu preacher has been attacked

in Northeast India. In 1999, Swami Gokulananda, the present head of

the Ramakrishna Mission Ashram of New Delhi, says that during the

1980s when he was Secretary of the Khasi Hills Ashrama in

Meghalaya, 'The hostile forces were against our movement as it was

trying to bring back the lost tradition of faith among the people of

the Khasi hills. They wanted to remove me. One day, a time bomb was

planted in my room but they did not succeed in killing me.' "

 

On a map, the seven states of Northeast India look conspicuously

orphaned. Attached to the rest of India only by a thin sliver of land

that marks the juncture of Bihar and West Bengal, these "seven

sisters, " as they are sometimes called, are all but separated from

their mother Bharat by an imposing, wall-shaped Bangladesh.

 

The mountainous terrain of the area is rich with beauty and heritage,

but the wedge of separation left in the wake of India's Partition in

1948 has severed valuable lifelines to the region and catalyzed

violence through desperation. Ten thousand people have been killed

here over the past ten years.

 

 

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My Hopeful Visit With Kind People

 

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A lovely, precious land besieged by fanaticism

By Renu S. Malhotra, Grand Rapids, Michigan

The beauty of arunachal and Assam keeps us connected to Mother

Nature's power. It is only my second day here and I am in a most

interesting place. It's Maajuli in Assam, the largest river island in

the world. For ages, it has endured the force of the surrounding

water that flows so erratically it is sometimes affectionately

referred to as Paglaa Nadi, which means "Crazy River."

 

There are three satras in Maajuli. A satra is a very ancient

monastery-like school of sorts. In these satras young children are

taught ancient dance, drama and music to keep the rich heritage of

the area alive for posterity. As we visit each of the satras, the

students perform for us. Their discipline is impeccable.

 

People from the Vivekananda Kendra are hosting me all through my

travels, and I have many opportunities to carefully observe their

work and its effect, which is very extensive in this part of the

world. They have 41 schools in just two states alone--a big

achievement. The dedication of the jeevan vratis (life workers) of

the Kendras has earned them such a fine reputation that their schools

are favored over those managed by Christian missionaries.

 

One of the many reasons the Kendra schools are so popular is that

they include instruction in the native and ancestral arts. Arun

Jyaoti, a cultural arm of the Kendra, is helping the indigenous

population to adapt to modern times while retaining their traditional

values and lifestyle.

 

In India there is a saying, "Atithi Devo Bhava, " which means a guest

is like a God. Everywhere we go we are offered food and drink. In

Tafra Gaon, Arunachal Pradesh, it is so beautiful that I want to stay

back and be a student. In this serene environment, children learn

easily. Bright and early each morning these young ones can be heard

singing songs as they welcome the day before taking hatha yoga class.

 

My two days in Numaligharh are special. Numaligharh is a small town

near the Kaziranga Wild Life Sanctuary in Arunachal. Here, the

Vivekananda Kendra runs a small hospital which is extraordinarily

clean and well equipped. It is a sort of a one-stop treatment center

staffed by well-trained, courteous medical personnel. If ever I need

medical care while in India, I would like to receive it here.

 

The sometimes violent Christian missionary zeal to "harvest souls "

has become a long-standing obstacle to the peaceful coexistence of

the various jana jaathi, or tribal natives of this area. The

Ramakrishna Mission also lives under a perpetual threat posed by

newly converted Christians who are armed and especially zealous. All

through our travels I am cautioned to be careful, as there is always

a risk of death at the hands of these Christian fanatics!

 

Although violence and oppression hang like clouds over these

beautiful people, they are somehow able to maintain some semblance of

that benign innocence that every human being is born with. It is my

firm conviction that the Hindus of Northeast India could enjoy a

peaceful future, if they would stand strong against Christian

conversion now. I have confidence in this because I am fortified by a

faith in the people of India. As a friend of mine once told

me, "India lives because a lot of people work constantly for her out

of love and admiration."