12.0 Introduction
Tribes of Northeast India had their own distinctive beliefs and practices - or rather, tribal- traditional religion - before the arrival of the colonials i.e., British administrators, ethnographers, and Western Christian missionaries1.
While there may be a question or two about the name of tribal traditional religion, the beliefs and practices of indigenous communities were sustainable in terms of principality. The arrival of the colonials brought with them a new faith with a distinct set of beliefs and practices, along with socio-religious expectations from the indigenous communities. Specific to the Tangkhul Nagas2, they imposed a foreign socio-religious conception to their already sustainable socio-religious practices. While it is generally assumed that the colonials managed to do away with the tribal traditional religion, I will argue that the key values of tribal traditional religion were retained, along with the institutionalisation of the new religion. This is to suggest that the indigenous beliefs were subsumed with the practices of the colonials, but were not lost (Downs 2001:63)3. Though the colonial religion dominated the indigenous socio-religious beliefs and practices, some key elements of tribal traditional religion linger in the contemporary context.To fulfil the said task, I argue for decolonial thinking4 of the Tangkhul traditional religion in the contemporary context. Arguing for decolonial thinking does not mean reverting to tribal traditional religion, but it is to argue for historical and contextual sensitivity of the indigenous community; and to be historically and contextually sensitive means recognising the chronological development of socio-religious beliefs and practices in and from the pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial period for theologising. This will be done by being critical of the adoption of colonial values and also by showing how some aspects of Tangkhul traditional religion are adapted in the contemporary faith and practices.
What this means, in terms of praxis, is that though the contemporary Tangkhul religious institution (or church) is critical of theological tasks that engages with tribal traditional religion, they are uncritical of how they freely adopt socio-religious values of the colonials and of the pre-colonial Tangkhul traditional religion (see Wilson 1982)5. This is to further argue for colonial difference which points to the key aspects of tribal traditional religion which were adapted - from the pre-colonial period to the present - in the thinking and practices of contemporary Tangkhul religion or church.
12.1