Main Land India does not seem to be bothered about the North East India.
It comes to India’s attention only when elections are due.
The people of North East India have come as far South India in search of Jobs and some of them are settling down while most of them have bitter memories.
They are generally not accepted and assimilated here and the students are the worst hit.
Please read my post ‘North East Is Is A Part of India?’
There is a periodical hue and cry over the attempt by the attempts of the Christian Missionaries and the Christian NGOs to covert Hindus, especially of Tribals .
When Hindu Organizations like the RSS try to stem the rot by engaging in Social Service activity, The Parties, barring the BJP cry Hindu Terrorism and prevent such activities.
Promptly the Home Ministry comes with a Statement with doctored statistics that there is Conversions by the Christians!
Now people in the mainland are confused.
Just what is the status of Conversions in the North East?
Report by a Christian who is not Missionary.
Read on.
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This is about the latest mission of some of the members of The Vedic Friends Association and their friends working to keep the Vedic tradition in India’s Northeast region. This is where there has been ongoing trouble from militants trying to force Christianity on people of the area and then secede from India as a separate Christian country.
Our trip to India started with a seminar in Hyderabad, titled “Global Hinduism in the New Millennium”. Invocations were presented by Swami Dayananda Sarasvati, and speakers included authors Michael Cremo, David Frawley, Stephen Knapp, Jeffrey Armstrong, along with Isvara dasa, Basu Ghosh, Parama Karuna devi, S. D. Youngwolf, Vrindavana Parker, and K. S. Sudarshanji. The seminar went well, and many people were eager to meet us after and during our talks. We had good press coverage in the local newspapers for the seminar, with articles appearing in such papers as The Deccan. From those articles we had around 20 new applicants to join my organization, the Vedic Friends Association.
From Hyderabad Jeffrey Armstrong went on his own tour, in South India and Mumbai. But S.D.Youngwolf, Parama Karuna and I went to Khammam where we had lunch with Jeeara Swami, who is the head of the Ramanuja sect in the area. He is quite popular and is also working in many areas for the benefit of the people, including the local tribals. So we had a nice conversation with him, and then lunch. Later in the evening we also gave talks at a local organization. Thereafter we took an overnight train to Kolkatta, wherein we met up with Vrindavana Parker. Parama Karuna was returning to Puri, while the rest of us were going up into India’s northeast. After spending a night in Kolkatta, S.D., Vrin and I took a plane to Guahati, Assam. Vrin spent two weeks touring Arunachal Pradesh, while S.D. and I went first to Nagaland. We were supposed to fly to Dimapur, but the weather was bad and our plane was diverted to Guahati, after which we took a night train to Dimapur…
Why concern ourselves with the Northeast area of India? Because there are those who have been working for years to make it secede from India and make it into a separate Christian country. Yet it is a big part of the Vedic culture and tradition of India. For example, when we look back at the history of the region we find that Lord Krishna‘s friend Arjuna had married a Naga wife, Ulupi, in Nagaland. Arjuna’s brother Bhima also married a Bachari tribal girl from the area of Nagaland. The city of Dimapur has the ruins of the Bachari tribe known as Bhima’s palace. In fact, Dimapur is one of the oldest cities in the northeast, being 2,000 or 3,000 years old, if not older, and was once known as Hidimbipur after the name of Bhima’s wife, Hidimbi. She was a member of the Dimasa Bachari tribe. Their son was Ghatotkaca.
Furthermore, Krishna married Rukmini in Arunachal Pradesh. The area of Agninagar is where the story of Usha and Anirudha took place. Anirudha was the grandson of Krishna and the son of Pradyumna. It is where the huge battle happened between Anirudha and the army of Usha’s father. Landmarks in the area can be seen of this episode of Vedic history. This is described in the Srimad-Bhagavatam. So there is much of India’s ancient tradition that connects the area. So to help keep it as a part of India and preserve it’s tradition is important, rather than letting it become another chip taken away from the country, like the militants have tried to do with Kashmir on the other side of northern India. So this was our purpose for going into the area. To do this the Vedic Friends Association works with other organizations in the area that share the same concern..
This is a short description of my experience in Nagaland during December of 2003. I have written this due to my concern for the Naga people who have a lively and colorful culture. However, there is a danger that their culture is disappearing. Now some people may say that Naga culture is not under some kind of threat, but actually it is. For example, when we did a “Naga Identity” seminar in Dimapur, one of the young girls from a Naga tribe who attended admitted she knew none of the Naga songs and few legends. This ignorance of local traditions always increases with each generation if something is not done to help preserve it. So the culture will disappear at an increasing rate with every generation. But why is it disappearing? It is not necessarily from what some people would call a natural progression of a society. It is from a more deliberate plan started by outsiders. Let me explain just a few points of consideration…
The fact is that the primary reason why the indigenous cultures of Northeast India are threatened is because of the conversion tactics that are engaged in by the western forms of monotheistic religions that have entered the area. This is primarily done by the Christian missionaries and groups that have taken up their cause. Even though the Christians profess the desire for doing humanitarian activities, their real goal is conversion. For example, in one Christian hospital that offers free care, which would be a good plug for the Christians, a pregnant woman registered herself for care in delivering her baby during childbirth. However, she was expected to sign papers that said she was converting to Christianity. When she refused to sign the papers, she was notified that the hospital would not take care of her without the signed papers. So, as she was nearing childbirth and hardly able to walk, she was forced to leave the hospital.
In the west, Christian organizations raise money for humanitarian work with the idea of sending it to countries and people in need of it. But much of that money actually goes for conversion tactics, even to militant groups such as those in India’s northeast, and for “Christian” education in the third world countries. But what is the real purpose of such education? While I was in India I read in the newspaper of how two young Indian children in a Catholic school were beaten until they were bleeding and needed medical attention. Why? Because of merely speaking Hindi in a conversation with other Indian students on the Catholic school grounds. This is the way “Christian” education forces the students to give up their native ways and forget their previous culture and language.
Furthermore, Christianity, in the name of progress and western values, has brought the increased use of drugs and alcohol, where it had previously been limited. While I was there, I personally saw a “Christian” Christmas party at the Sabarimata Hotel where we were staying. At this party, which was for Christians only, the teenagers and young adults were charged an entrance fee to attend. Therein they would dance, smoke, drink and then easily associate with those of the opposite sex. Being in a hotel, they could also “follow their path of salvation” in private rooms upstairs for more intimate affairs. So, although Nagaland is a dry country and alcohol is not allowed, I saw that for Christians liquor was easily flowing. In fact, although Christian pastors have banned local alcohol, it is common knowledge that no pastor is without his liquor.
It is also interesting to note that abortion rates, which never used to be an issue, increase by 3 or 4 times in the months of January and February. Obviously, those Christmas parties produce some unwanted results. Is this the sign of the type of progress that adopting a new western form of religion can bring? In former times the punishment for illicit sex was quite strict and severe with Nagas, even up to being banished from the village. Or at least having the boy and girl being made to marry each other. But now they are invited to join the Christians through conversion who say their local laws will no longer apply to them once they convert. Then if they do these things they will not be forced to face the consequences of the local standards. Now many illegal elements have joined Christianity on this idea of avoiding local or traditional forms of punishments.
In this way they have a double standard, depending on what they want to accomplish. In another example, the Christian churches, including the pastors and their wives, had been doing a double your money pyramid scheme, encouraging other members of the congregation to participate. But when the pyramid ran out of participants and people started losing money, there were so many complaints that the government stopped it. The Church was then subject to the anger of the people who lost money. They were asking what business does the church have in engaging in such duplicitous activities. But then the church put out a statement in the press merely saying that we should all simply forgive and forget. Of course, that doesn’t help return the money to those who lost it.
Source:
http://www.stephen-knapp.com/my_northeast_india_mission.htm
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