The Narendra Modi govern-ment’s ‘Look East’ policy for the eight north-eastern states, “ashtalakshmi” as he calls them, could finally make Northeast India count on the country’s map. Its makeover plan as the gateway to South East Asia includes an ambitious revving up of infrastructure and development, a budgetary hike of over 25 per cent in the last three years and connectivity targets with generous outlays.

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If PM Modi’s initiatives come through, they will transform the lives of locals who have faced sustained indifference from the Centre for decades. What they did get in large doses was conditional help from Christian missionaries along with its many pitfalls. The Northeast has been a favoured area of penetration for missionaries of all hues, thanks to a custom-made environment — a vast tribal population, inaccessible hilly tracts, and low population density. Add to that an unpardonable neglect by successive administrations.

The geographical and political isolation of the Northeast was inviting to Christian missionaries who set up bases in Mizoram and Nagaland in the 19th century. The real demographic impact of their work was felt in the 20th century.

From 35,000 in a 43-lakh population in 1901, Christians in the northeast numbered six lakh in 1951, ie, 6.4 per cent. Barring Assam, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh, the other hilly states have witnessed a sharp spike in Christian population. Nagaland rose from 46 per cent in 1951 to 87 per cent in 2011. In the same period, Meghalaya rose from 24 per cent to 74 per cent, Tripura from 0.8 per cent to 4.35 per cent, and Sikkim from 0.8 per cent in 1971 to 10 per cent. Mizoram is 87 per cent Christian today. According to the 2011 census, 74 lakh out of 2.7 crore Indian Christians are in the Northeast.

This would all have been very well had it happened naturally, without any element of coercion or duplicity. After all, in their evangelical zeal, the missionaries also contributed to a measure of development, which was more or less the only semblance of progress the region ever saw. The proselytization programme worked around the two pivots of health care and education.

In the process though, the region began losing its ethnic flavour. Northeast India has rich and varied cultures. However, the consummate sway of Christianity over this neglected region has systematically killed or diluted many a flourishing tribal lifestyle such as that of Naga Morung. Mass conversions have led to cultural homogenisation as tribal converts speak English, wear western clothes, and follow western rituals and traditions. In many places, the missionaries ran down the local ethos as inferior, driving a rift within families and within communities as converts refused to participate in tribal rituals or follow native customs. The traditional rice beer in Assam, for instance, has yielded to wine-making and caused alcoholism. The resultant social friction has frequently upset the communal equilibrium and societal fabric in these parts. Some accounts describe how natives were made to believe they are not Indians but Austro-Mongloids. Fringe Christian extremists have encouraged insurgency in places like Nagaland, as recorded by American Stephen Knapp.

It is important to make a crucial distinction between tribal cultures and Hinduism. While there is a greater or lesser degree of assimilation between Hinduism (which subsumes varied groups of beliefs) and tribal cultures, the latter are not distinctly identifiable as Hindu. Most tribal traditions blend local thinking and practices. So, while the erosion of a tribal way of life may not technically be a loss to Hinduism, it certainly is an erosion of the freedom and rights of tribals to practice a faith of their free choice — one that is not an imposition.

Secondly, some conversions were benevolent, but many of them were not. Tribal families would be offered free medical help and/or education and coaxed to convert as Thanksgiving. Sometimes, the children would be converted into schools after a year or so.

After the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny, the British openly backed the missionaries who were emboldened to carry out mass conversions. In forced or induced conversions, all means — sam, dam, bhed, and indirect dand — were used. Government facilities such as job quotas were abused. As the nationalist movement grew, these missionaries lay low, continued their humanitarian work, and, to their credit, wrote letters to the government in favour of the people.

Article 25 (1) of the Indian Constitution provides freedom to “freely profess, practice and propagate religion subject to public order, morality and health”. The Supreme Court has interpreted ‘propagation’ to include the right to preach, but not the right to convert. This looseness of definition leaves room for debate even today.

Insofar as the Northeast is concerned, the missionaries ventured where no government did. With just 25 MPs, the region does not quite pull its weight with the Centre. It remains to be seen how much the Modi government succeeds in overwhelming the sporadic development initiatives of the missionaries with planned and sustained government intervention.

The author is a senior journalist and a communications consultant