On March 26, over 50,000 tribal people of Assam gathered at Guwahati, wearing their traditional attires, chanting age-old tribal mantras and performing traditional tribal folk dances, to create awareness among the people of the region about the dangerous outcome of the continuous religious conversion taking place in the entire North East for decades.
Due to aggressive religious conversions by the Christian missionaries, the tribals of the region are continuously losing their identity and traditions, creating a cultural vacuum amongst the tribes of North East. Moreover, the small tribes of the region are facing dangerous external threats to save their identity, and a few are on the verge of extinction.
Preserving Cultural Heritage
The ‘Vishal Janjati Gana Samavesh’ (Chalo Dispur Rally) was organised at Khanapara Veterinary Field in Guwahati to draw attention of the Government to take necessary steps to safeguard identity of the tribals of the region. The demand was to delist converted tribals, who completely gave up their original tribal culture, customs, rituals, way of life and traditions after conversion to other faiths.
The continuous unethical conversion has not only changed the demography of the region, but also eliminated the age-old customs, rituals and culture of numerous tribes living for thousands of years in the hills and river banks of North East Bharat.
One of the major demand of the Janajati Dharma-Sanskriti Suraksha Manch (JDSSM), which organised the massive rally in Guwahati on March 26, was to stop unethical conversions and bring amendment to Article 342 of Indian Constitution for Scheduled Tribe and equalise it with Article 341 for Scheduled Caste (SC). If any SC person is converted to any other religion, automatically that person gets delisted from SC reservation list.
The mega tribal rally also submitted separate memorandums to President Droupadi Murmu and the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi via the Governor of Assam for early consideration of their demands.
Dual Benefits
Baloram Phangso, president of JDSSM, said the dual benefits availed by the converted tribals are hugely hampering the ethnic communities of the region. “Once a person is converted to Christianity, he leaves the rituals, traditions and faiths of the community. However, he stills avails the benefits of being in the ST list and additionally gets minority benefits as Christian or Muslim. So the people who still follow the ethnic rituals, customs and culture are deprived of jobs, education and other reservations,” said Baloram Phangso.
Phangso pointed out that in States like Mizoram where 90 per cent Christians are still avaiingl minority status and ST benefits, the 10 per cent ethnic population is always deprived. “We believe that this (the benefits of job reservation as an ST and as a minority) is unconstitutional and hence needs to be revoked.” Phangso added.
As per 2011 census data, Christians form 12.8 per cent of the current ST population of Assam. Their share has risen to this level from 7.6 per cent in 1991 and 8.8 per cent in 2001. Seeing the rate of conversion in the last decade, it is expected to reach beyond 16 per cent by the time the result of the coming census is out.
As per 2011 census data, Christians form 12.8 per cent of the current ST population of Assam. Their share has risen to this level from 7.6 per cent in 1991 and 8.8 per cent in 2001
The tribal population is divided into two groups in the State. One for the autonomous hill districts which includes the two hill districts of Assam namely Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao and the other for the rest of the State. The proportion of Christians among the hill STs is higher at 27.4 per cent; among the plains STs , the share of Christians is lower at 9.7 per cent. Of the 6.7 lakh STs of the hill districts, 4.3 lakh are Karbi and 1 lakh are Dimasa-Kachari. For the last several decades, the Missionaries have been targeting the Karbi tribe population for conversion.
Due to poor connectivity, health and education facilities and less economic development during the long rule of Congress governments in Assam as well as at the Centre, the Missionaries practised unethical conversions amongst the Karbi tribe and to some extent amongst the Dimasa Kachari tribe. The proximity of these two districts to Nagaland and Meghalaya made the inroute of the Missionaries easy to the remotest places.
Destroying Vaishnavite Culture
Among 32 lakh STs of the plains in Assam, there are 13.6 lakh Boros. Even though the conversion practice by missionaries started late amongst the plain tribes in Assam, more than 12 per cent of the Bodo tribes were converted to Christian in less than 3 decades of time. Balen Baishya, Secretary of World Hindu Federation, said that Missionaries are equally targeting the plain tribes of the State. Starting from the early 1990’s, Missionaries have converted nearly 35 per cent of the population of the island district Majuli. The largest river island of the world, Majuli was the hub of Vaishnavite culture and Satra Culture started by Mahapurush Shankardev. But during the regime of Congress, starting from the early 1990’s, the missing tribal and Assamese population of the river island was targeted by the Missionaries. As a result, now the island has 68 Churches in comparison to 36 Satras. The aggressive conversion has not only destroyed the Vaishnavite culture, but also eliminated the tradition, rituals and culture of the ethnic communities of the island, Baishya added.
Tiwa tribes of middle Assam were also targeted missionaries in the last few decades. “The Gova Deoraja Raj Parishad ” has been working constantly in last several years to stop the unethical conversation in Morigaon and Nagaon district. The general secretary of Raj Parishad, Jur Singh Bordoloi said, “There are around 1100 families who had converted to Christianity due various external reasons. Many of them now have decided to return to Sanatan Dharma to continue the age-old Tiwa customs and traditions.” Tiwa people are originally Hindus by birth, however, few of their forefathers and fathers adopted Christianity due to their economic conditions and lack of education. The Missionaries take advantage of the poor economic conditions of the tribal people. But now the scenario has changed and tribal people are getting the benefits of the Government schemes.
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