Friday, August 8, 2008

Remembering Sanjoy Ghose

[ Mishing Renaissance dedicates this section to Sanjoy Ghose, who worked selflessly for Majuli & its people but was ultimately eliminated by useless bunch of "contractors" who made money out of the annual floods & people's misery.

The "freedom fighters" of ULFA too wanted Sanjoy's exit to pursue their hawkish goals of sabotaging the common people in the name of their hollow "freedom". Sanjoy's exit has left a big void in the lives of Majuli & its people.

This vacuum is now gradually being filled by Bible thumping Christian evangelists from Nagaland ( and Kerala ) and land grabbing illegal Bangladeshi immigrants who are now making inroads gradually to areas of Upper Assam marginalizing the indigenous people, with rigorous political backing. The elimination of Sanjoy Ghose is not mere "removal" of a person but a larger conspiracy to eliminate all those who want to uplift the masses and question those in power. ]

Sanjoy Ghose is a person who has lived and worked for the poor all his life, especially for the rural poor. Well known in the development and voluntary sector across the country, Sanjoy Ghose made a mark with his pioneering work in the villages of Western Rajasthan (India). With a background in rural management (IRMA, Gujarat) and agricultural economics (Oxford), he set up a voluntary agency called URMUL TRUST and began work in six villages of rural Bikaner.Later, Sanjoy moved to North East India.

He strongly believed that the only cure to the ills of the Northeast are the people themselves. If young people could be helped to see an alternative path, a path of constructive work and development, much of the problems would be finished.

In order to demonstrate his idea and vision, Sanjoy Ghose, heading a small team of professionals, and under the banner of AVARD NE, moved to Majuli, the largest riverine island in the world, in April, 1996. Much neglected, on the brink of survival, and faced with a serious erosion problem, Majuli epitomised much of the situation in the Northeast.

A major problem that the people of Majuli face every year is the flooding of their island by the Bramhaputra. Sanjoy and his team dealt with this problem by involving the people in evolving low-cost, community -managed solutions that dealt with both flood control and soil erosion. Over 20,000 people took part in these community initiatives.

In the process, Sanjoy and his team made enemies of the contractors who till then were the people who benefited the most from the annual ritual of flood controls works. And he also became a threat to ULFA: Sanjoy's effectiveness with the people offered an unpalatable comparison to ULFA's achievements.

For ULFA, it was simpler to abduct Sanjoy, then to introspect on their relationship with the people. In doing so, the ULFA stressed their impotence in the face of people-led initiatives. They also paid him their best compliment: they have helped Sanjoy Ghose highlight his belief that a path of constructive work and development is a better path for people to follow.

[ This section will be updated as & when required ]

For further reading:

Sanjoy's Assam; Diaries and Writings of Sanjoy Ghose
http://www.amazon.com/Sanjoys-Assam-Diaries-Writings-Sanjoy/dp/0140278559

Activist Sanjoy Ghose dead,confirms ULFA
http://in.rediff.com/news/aug/07ghose.htm

Death in a time of freedom
http://in.rediff.com/news/aug/12dilip.htm

The Man who saw Tomorrow
http://tehelka.com/story_main10.asp?filename=Cr012905the_man_who.asp

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Christian conversions & North East India




[ This section deals with the issue of Christian conversions in North East India and gradual destruction of indegenious culture of the region. Readers are requested to post their comments specifying the Article number they want to give their feedback on ]

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Article 1: Conversions will distort the Mishing tribe
Sir,

It is sad to note that taking the advantage of the poverty of the Mishing community in Majuli, Dhemaji and Jonai, numerous Mishing families are beenconverted to Christianity by opportunistic Christian missionaries. I am an ordinary citizen and can do nothing. As such I thought of writing this letterto your newspaper so that I might create an awareness among the Mishing tribe of Assam.

I would request my community members to learn from the mistake of ourneighbouring states of Meghalaya, Nagaland and Mizoram where inspite of havingseperate states, the tribes have lost their identity.

Our own traditions are no way inferior to the rich Vatican City or Pope. Thepoverty in Mishing councils is because of the corrupt politicians among us like Bharat Narah, Bhuban Pegu etc., not our customs, beliefs and rituals.

Missionaries can give us money and English education, but cannot return ouridentity when it will be lost by following Christian rituals and alientraditions in our day-to-day lives.

If religion is lost, heritage is lost. When heritage is lost, identity is lost.It is time influential socio-cultural organizations of the Mishings, ourstudents' union and Mahila samitis launch rigorous awareness drive among thegullible Mishings or the Mishings will go 'missing' from the cultural map ofAssam.

Yours sincerely,

Rongmon Pegu
Dikhoumukh
Sivasagar
Assam
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Article 2: Role of the Church and Insurgency

Author: JP Rajkhowa
Publication: The Sentinel
Date: May 12, 2008


Pseudo-secularists would not swallow any revelation that the Church in the Northeast represented by its different factions - Baptist, Presbyterian and Catholic - has been promoting, aiding and abetting insurgency in the region in a clandestine manner, though in the garb of various welfare measures for the uplift of the tribal population.

Nagaland can very well claim the position of 'pride' as the mother of insurgency in the Northeast, with late AZ Phizo spearheading the Naga Rebellion by launching a fully armed organization called the Naga National Council (NNC). Its goal was to form a sovereign Nagaland by seceding from the Union of India. Interestingly, the same Phizo, who hailed from Khonoma village, assisted the Indian National Army (INA) led by Netaji in the battle at Kohima during the Second World War in order to defeat the British imperialists. Rani Gaidinliu, then a girl aged 16, led the movement called Zeliangrong Heraka Movement to protect the sovereignty of the country and defend indigenous Hindu faith.

Even after this resistance, the British could establish their rule over Naga Hills area and pushed American and British Christian missionaries into Nagaland. The forced conversion to Christianity and expansion of British rule continued together. After the grand success in dividing the country by creating East and West Pakistan, the British picked up Phizo (since converted to Christianity) and NNC cohorts to create a Christian state in Northeast India.

Missionaries acted as informers against army (Indian) movements and against those who did not support NNC uprising and Christian inquisition jointly operated by NNC and the Church. British missionary Rev Michael Scott became the friend, philosopher and guide of Phizo and NNC rebellion. The British reverend supplied lethal weapons packed in Red Cross boxes to NNC militants. This politically motivated Reverend was later expelled from the country because of his anti-India activities by then Prime Minister Pandit Nehru.

The Church formed several NGOs which acted as host to NNC guerillas and Christian crusade. Naga Club and Naga Hoho were two such NGOs which were master campaigners and expert educators of NNC and Church agenda amongst the Naga public. When the Government of India wanted to arrest Phizo for his anti-national activities, he silently escaped to London where he spent a royal life till his death in 1990 hosted by a British Church organization under the supervision of Rev Michael Scott and Billy Graham.

As of now, the NNC stands divided into four camps - NSCN (IM), NSCN ( Unification), NNC (Adino) and NNC (Yanthan), which has led to fratricidal killings in their race for supremacy even after conciliatory role played by so many NGOs, including the Nagaland Baptist Council of Churches. Several masked NGOs are reportedly registered under the country's law with the declared objective of serving the society in the field of economic uplift, hygiene, medical care, education, AIDS etc, and are receiving unaccountable money from their foreign masters. In return, they are reportedly funding rebel outfits for acquiring lethal weapons.

These NGOs reportedly maintain a close strategic link with the Church as well, whose aggressive religious expansionism agenda get field support through them. The local and international Church organization and local and international non-governmental organizations are now very thick with NSCN (IM) and they are helping it in all respects.

With a view to internationalizing the domestic problem pertaining to Naga society, one American Goodwill Mission toured Nagaland during May 16-27, 2007 and tried their level best to establish Christian solidarity with US Christians. Nagaland Church has also reportedly come forward in establishing this solidarity by declaring the State as 'Nagaland for Christ', where only Christianity is a recognized religion (in spite of our secular Constitution!).

Nagalim is the proposed Naga Country advanced by NSCN(IM), which is almost nine times bigger than existing Nagaland including almost three-fourth of Manipur and large portions of Arunachal Pradesh and Asom. With the help of international Church organizations and foreign NGOs, NSCN (IM) has several support centres in the Netherlands, Thailand, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, South Korea, Australia, England, Philippines, Sweden, Belgium and US. The source of the above information is The Morung Express (December 10, 2006).

Security analysts strongly believe that America has a reason to help NSCN (IM). There is no Christian country in the Third World. Right from Israel up to Japan including countries like Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, India and other smaller countries, there is no Christian country and nearly 375 crore people live here. This is the main nexus of USA, UK and the Vatican. They want to create a Christian country and Greater Nagaland which NSCN (IM) now refers to as Nagalim which, if carved out, will be the proposed Christian country in the subcontinent. This strategy of America is an echo of the Pope's declaration: '' Europe was won over in the first millennium, Africa and America in the second millennium. Now in the third millennium, Asia must be won over.''

In Asia, Communist and Islamic countries have banned the preaching of Christianity. And that is why India is at the top of the hit list of targets, thanks to Hindu tolerance. And the means are forced conversion; destruction of youth power by preaching the 'principle' of hedonistic consumerism, liquor addiction and carnal pleasure; and bullet (the way NSCN-IM is operating in Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Nagaland for forced conversion).

The source of the above information is again The Morung Express (December 10, 2006). Should the proposed Nagalim become a reality, it would only be a matter of time for the US to make its military presence established in the Northeast with the help of Church solidarity, which would act as a bulwark against China and a source of constant pressure against India.

I have dealt in considerable length with the Naga insurgency for the simple reason that there are a number of terror groups operating both in Asom and outside, some on ceasefire agreement too, which are primarily Christian-dominated and are known to be terrorizing non-Christian organizations.

In this context, we may make a reference to some shocking detailsof nexus between the Church and terrorism, published in the North East Quarterly, Vol 1, No 2, January 2008 - a publication of the North Eastern Forum, New Delhi. For instance, imposition of the Roman script to reduce the language of a tribe has been one of the modus operandi of the Church so that the tribes could read the Bible. ''From 1970 onwards, the Church openly championed the use of the Roman script for the language of the tribals of Tripura and Boros of Asom.

This even prompted two Marxist ministers in the Tripura government, Dasrath Deb and Ranjit Deb Burman, to characterize the demand of Roman script for the Kokborok region of Tripura as communal politics. The imposition of the Roman script has on occasion been at gunpoint. On August 21, 2000, terrorists of the Church-backed NDFB gunned down Bineswar Brahma, president of the Bodo Sahitya Sabha. His only crime was that he favoured the use of Devanagari script for the Bodo language.''

Extortion is another method used by the NSCN factions which are headed by Christians and ''get financial support from the World Council of Churches, a missionary organization. The NSCN has its offices in New York, Geneva and Hague which display boards with... People's Republic of Nagaland. It has twice raised its demand for an independent nation in the United Nations. The NSCN has its own government which collects money from local people: one third of the salaries of government servants is taken away as Nagaland tax before disbursement. Most of the banks in Nagaland have closed down because of the huge sums extracted by this outfit. The letterheads and stamps of this unofficial government read 'Nagaland for Christ'. Most of the terrorist organizations in the region follow this pattern...''

In this context, it is observed that the Church and some key functionaries of the Government of Nagaland have joined hands to foment communal trouble in Asom by their recent, senseless venture in the historic Majuli island - the seat of Vaishnavite culture in Asom - where a parliamentary secretary of Nagaland, accompanied by church functionaries, inaugurated a church for converting some poor and illiterate Mishing tribals to Christianity. Do the pseudo-secularists expect us to look the other way?

(The writer was Chief Secretary, Assam)
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Saturday, August 2, 2008

Mishing Renaissance : An Introduction

A wave of renaissance is touching the hearts & minds of Mishing ( Miri ) Tani tribe inhabiting the states of Assam & Arunachal Pradesh. Since time immemorial Mishings have been striving towards better survival & replenishing for greater acquaintances with the other cultures of the world.

The Mishings are in truest conviction, the descent of Donyi Polo which is also their religious faith & identity which can be traced from Abotani, which in turn confirms affinity with the other Tani people. The Tani people are variedly known as Mishing ( Miri ),Adi,Galo,Nyishi,Mishmi,Apatani & Tagin.

The tales & traits of origin, language,culture,tradition & other social aspects of all Tani people have similar root. The Mishings too like other Tani people had their abode in the upper course of Yangtze - Kiang & the Hwang - Ho river valleys of China. The Tani people have since time immemorial contributed to evolution of a vibrant culture now flourishing in the regions they inhabit.

The Mishing as well the Tani language as a whole falls into the Tibeto – Burmese branch of SinoTibetan ethnologue family. The Mishings inhabit the riparian tracts along the river banks of Subansiri, Siang, Dihing, Dibang, Dhansiri, Jia Bharali & fertile plains of Brahmaputra valley of Upper Assam.

At present the Mishings are under surge of reawakening not necessarily mere ethnic-centrist but its in tune with the global perspective where cultural separatism, ethnicity & identity consciousness are expressed with pride!

The pathway to Mishing neo-renaissance is nothing but its a comprehensive & collective effort by a few Mishing Tani's keeping in mind the context of global crossroads where hundreds of minor ethnic groups identity,language,culture & other significant traits are in recurrent threat of extinction & imminent danger of being lost forever.

This Blog ( Mishing Renaissance ) is an attempt keeping in view of this global transitional upsurge the Mishing tribe which is one of the prime constituent of Greater Tani identity wish to express themselves at the global level.

http://mishingrenaissance.blogspot.com/ fulfills the long standing desire/demand of Mishing Tanis for expression in this global village. Mishing Renaissance in its broadest sense covers the identity, language,culture and other socio-cultural development trends and challenges faced by the Mishing people.

Today's Mishing youth stand for qualitative ( and quantitative ) uplift of our people and in turn also wish the closer integration with our Tani brothers of Arunachal Pradesh.
Mishing Renaissance holds plausible the spirit of Tani nationality and wish it exerts itself in a more bold manner in the coming years.

[ Mishing Renaissance is thankful to Mr.Bhaskar Pegu for contribution of the introductory page of this Blog ]

Friday, August 1, 2008

The Mishings (Miris) of Assam: Development of A New Lifestyle

About the book:

The main focus of this study is to analyze the process and impact of contact between a tribe with features of primitive organizations (Micro Level), regional Assamese culture with distinct language, policy and productive system (middle range or regional) and the great tradition and high culture (the macro level), the Indian traditional and culture represented through Hinduism mythology, beliefs, rituals and social organization.


For the analysis of the influence of Hinduism among the Mishings, various aspects such as religious practices and social institutions have been considered. Moreover, the influence of the regional Assamese culture on their housing pattern, food habit, dress, language and in tools and implements are also considered for the discussion of acculturation among the Mishings in Assam.
The aim of including all these aspects is to see the total process of culture change among the Mishings. As they came in contact with the Hinduism through regional culture, the other dominant group tried to apply the notions of purity and pollution (the caste system).

They picked up the beliefs and myths and social organization of the great tradition of Hinduism. While keeping in mind the above, it is tried in this study to highlight the interrelationship between the three variable-acculturation, communication and development-in the contexts of the Mishings, a tribe in Assam.

It is an attempt to see how two independent variables acculturation and communication have influenced the dependent variable development. Both the independent variables acculturation and communication are correlated with each other, without communication, acculturation is impossible and the continuity of the process of acculturation means the presence of communication in between two societies with different cultures.

The development cannot be a reality in a society without the former variables.

The author through the present study wants to fill up the gap of inadequacy by probing into the process of acculturation, communication and development among the Mishings,a major tribe of Assam.

About the author:

Dr. Jatin Mipun, who belongs to the Mishing tribe, did his M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from Dibrugarh University. Dr. Mipun has joined the Indian Police Service in 1983 and presently serving in Assam-Meghalaya Cadre. Earlier Dr. Mipun had served as a Lecturer District Research Officer under Government of Assam and as Extra Assistant Commissioner in Assam Civil Service. He writes poems and short stories in Assamese languages, besides research papers for learned journals.

Read the book online:

The Mishings : An Introduction














The Mishings are an ethnic group inhabiting the districts of Dhemaji, North Lakhimpur, Sonitpur, Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Sibsagar, Jorhat and Golaghat of Assam. A few live in and around Pasighat of East Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh.

They were earlier called Miris, to which they take offence now. However the Constitution of India still refers them as Miris. The Mishings are closely associated with the Adi people of Arunachal Pradesh.

The Mishings belong to the Tibeto-Burman clan of the Mongoloid race. It's not known exactly where they migrated from, but it is believed that they were dwellers of the hills of present day Arunachal Pradesh. This explains the cultural and linguistic similarities they have with the people of the Adi (erstwhile Abor) tribe, and to some extent of the Hill Miri and Nyishi tribes of Arunachal Pradesh.

Somewhere around the 13th century, they started migrating towards the plains of Assam, most probably in search of fertile land. This exodus continued for at least 2-3 centuries. As fate would have it, they found one of the most fertile river-beds (that of the mighty Brahmaputra) and settled on both banks along the length of the river, starting right from Sadiya in the east, to Jorhat in the west. They continued their practice of living in thatched houses raised on bamboo stilts, known as 'Chang-ghar'.

It was a protection against flood waters during the rainy season, although the original logic behind raised houses was protection from wild beasts.Agriculture being their main occupation, floods affect them in more ways than one. Moreover, due to their affinity towards living close to river banks brings about Malaria and water-borne diseases. But 90% of them still continue to live along the banks of Brahmaputra and its tributaries, unfazed by the disasters striking them.

Their chief festival is Ali-Aye-Ligang, in the month of February, which celebrates the agricultural harvest. Most Mishings follow both the Donyi-Polo and Hindu religions, and there are a few Christians ( mainly in Majuli ) who follow the Catholic or Baptist faith.

The language of the Mishing people is also known as Mishing language.Mishing surnames reflects the clan (o:pc)they belong to. They can be divided into three main clans: Pegu, Doley and Morang. This is a social setup. Marriage take place outside the group i.e between Pegu-Doley, Pegu-Morang, Morang-Doley. This depends on where the society is located i.e. Dagdoong (North) or Daktok (South).

[ The above description has been borrowed from Wikipedia, is temporary and will be edited soon. Intrested readers are welcome to shre their ideas in making this section better ]