18.0 The Context
The tribes all over the world are an integral part of the evergreen nature. But the modern industrial world has devastated the green nature, and the tribal world. The ever expanding urbanity and concrete jungles of the present day world has not only accentuated the waste colonialism, but also spread the ecocidal wasteland, decimated the green world, and displaced the tribes from their green environment.
There have been worldwide resistances by the tribes against this ever expanding anthropocentrism. Ian Bradley in his God is Green has exposed Christianity as the most anthropocentric religion and has commented:In absolute contrast to ancient paganism and Asia’s religions, it not only established a dualism of man and nature but also insisted that it is God’s will that man exploit nature for his proper ends... Certainly on the face of it Buddhism, Hinduism and Taoism, or the worship of Mother Earth, would seem much more congenial faiths for an environmentally conscious person to espouse than Christianity.
(Bradley 1992:2)
The statement in Genesis 1:26 regarding God directing man to dominate the earth and all the creatures on earth may be the root cause of human arrogance and indifference towards the world of nature. Of course, this is Christian fundamentalism which is responsible for the anthropocentrism against the original ecocentrism of ancient religions, and the tribal animism and even paganism. But in the same Christianity, there is a mystical tradition of ecological spirituality which is ecocentric. Hence Matthew T. Fox, a Roman Catholic priest and professor of Religious Education at the University of St. Thomas, Houston, Texas who was also a lecturer at the Thomas More Association was silenced for a year in 1988 and was removed by the Vatican from his post of Director of the Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality, Holy Names College, Oakland, California because of his controversial views.
He established his own University of Creation Spirituality in Oakland, California thereafter and propagated his experience of Creation Spirituality/Spiritual Ecology drawing on many earlier Christian scholars like Meister Eckhart, Hildegard of Bingen, Francis of Assisi, andDOI: 10.4324/9781003516415-23
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Julian of Norwich. He emphasises the importance of nature/creation in the mystical tradition with the sense of sacred, the sense of awe and wonder, and the unconditional love and delight that binds the whole creation. Fox pleads for a shift in Christianity from an ethic of duty-oriented stewardship to ecological spirituality founded on mysticism and the Cosmic Christ. He proposes four paths to spiritual ecology, viz. (i) experiencing the Divine in terms of delight, awe, and wonder at being present in the world which involves the intuition that creation is a blessing, and a response of gratitude (Via Positiva); (ii) experiencing darkness, deprivation, suffering, and pain (Via Negativa); (iii) moving towards a third path though human experiences with these first two journeys that leads to a rebirth of creativity (Via Creativa) and involves identifying new ecological virtues for living, such as vegetarianism, recycling, relearning the sacredness of nature, defending creation through political action, and making new rituals to celebrate sacred places, times, and beings in nature; and (iv) transformation to a more compassionate society in which all beings love one another (Via Transformativa). This fourth path of creating a compassionate society includes the making of justice (Fox 1998:228). These four paths of creation spirituality hold good in the upkeep of the stability of both the internal and external green environment and the sustainability of the cosmos.
18.0.1 Influence on Matthew T. Fox
Some ideas of the earlier Christian saints which influenced the views of Matthew T. Fox are the ideas of Meister Eckhart, Hildegard of Bingen, Francis of Assisi, and Julian of Norwich.
Meister Eckhart said, “I pray God to rid me of God” (Fox 1998:229) which emphasises on our praxis of living in this world. Eckhart also said, “Every creature is a word of God and a book about God” (Fox 1998:229). Fox insisted on the recovery of the mystical tradition in Christianity in the line of the British monk, Bede Griffiths, who said, “If Christianity cannot recover its mystical tradition, then it should simply fold up and go out of business. It has nothing to offer” (Fox 1998:229). Responding to the opinion of Hildegard of Bingen regarding the web of justice between humanity and other creatures, Gregory Bateson in his book Steps to the Ecology of Mind analyses three main threats to human survival, e.g., (i) technological progress, (ii) population increase, and (iii) errors in the values and attitudes of Western Culture. With the advancement of science and technology, and the industrialisation and urbanisation, the green environment was mercilessly devastated. Francis of Assisi fell in love with the beauty of nature and considered God as beauty (Fox 1998:231) and even he considered the non-human creatures and agents of nature as brothers and sisters in his Canticle of the Sun (Francis 2022:1-2). This perspective necessitates protection of the environment so that our future is safe, and hence, the world’s future is an engagement in the deep ecology.18.0.2 Tribe and Nature Interface since Colonial Intervention
All the tribes of the world have been living amidst the green nature in consonance with its ways. After the industrial revolution in Europe with the advancement of science and technology, there has been ever-expanding degeneration and exploitation of nature and depletion of natural wealth. The Europeans started colonising the other parts of the World mostly since the 16th century. With their mission of colonisation, the process of industrialisation, urbanisation, and propagation of Christianity also continued. The European colonisers brought the Christian missionaries with them thereby colonising the other parts of world in religion also.
The tribes in different parts of the world, who were considered heathens by the colonisers, had their own glorious and rich praxis of living, often and narrowly called animist practices. They basically believed in spirits and the world of spirits. The spirits were their gods only. Their praxis of living was simple, humble, honest, immaculate, and unbiased and their community chiefs were in constant communion with the spirits from whom they were drawing inspiration for doing anything and everything. The advent of Western culture in the colonised worlds created tremendous confusion and the colonised worlds also resisted it vehemently. During the colonial and postcolonial regimes there have been continuous protests and reactions against the modus operandi of the colonisers. The postcolonial writers have etched several narratives depicting the tribal resistances that narrate several tales. These narratives are available in different parts of the world like Chinua Achebe’s Arrow of God depicting the pre-colonial Nigerian animist practices and the accidental triumph of the new religion besides the nostalgic and idiosyncratic animist world of the Ezeulu and exasperation of the Nigerians against the White men who drove away all their customs (Achebe 1986:84). There are also several Native American fictional narratives like those of N. Scott Momaday (Jamir 2018:38) and Leslie Marmon Silko (Jamir 2018:67) that depict the ancient animist practices and significance of the natural world which was devastated by the colonisers resulting in turmoil and disequilibrium in the natural environment.In British India, Northeast India was then mostly known as Assam. The province of Assam was annexed to the British Empire in 1826 AD. The present-day provinces of Northeast were the different districts of the then Assam with a few princely states, though the larger part of it, known as Brahmaputra valley was ruled by the Ahom; and the tribal pockets were ruled by the respective tribal chiefs or village councils.
The region as a whole was evergreen being a confluence of two major biodiversities of the present-day world with variegated species of flora and fauna. With the British colonial annexation, it was explored by the colonisers for wider connectivity and further colonisation of tribal pockets where there were several tribal chiefs with multiple tribal ecoethical practices and animist beliefs. With colonial exploration, the Christian missionaries also explored the region for setting up their missions in remote regions thereby colonising the tribes with Christianity, the new religion.18.0.3 Foundation of Analysis
This chapter intends to examine two ecofictional and historical narratives etched by Mamang Dai of Arunachal Pradesh and two other ecofictional narratives by Easterine Kire of Nagaland. Mamang Dai’s The Black Hill (2014) depicts the sad quest of Father Nicolas Krick, a French Jesuit Priest and dates between 1847 and 1855 AD, whereas her The Legends of Pensam (2006) depicts the ancient tribal ecoethical lore, advent of the colonisers and the sad transition of the Adi ecoethical praxis and the current reactions against the same. Easterine Kire’s A Naga Village Remembered (2003) tracing the British expedition since 1832 AD to 1879 AD, depicts the final fatal challenge to the British crown in 1879 by the Khonoma village and subsequent reactions against the new religion till its assimilation and adoption in a localised transformation where Kepenuopfu, the Angami birth spirit is compared with Isu. Easterine’s When the River Sleeps (2014) furthers the depiction of the Angami ecoethical practices which were divine to the hearts of the tribe. When the River Sleeps explores the magic of Heart-stone and Vilie, the hunter protagonist’s possession of it through a difficult quest from the sleeping river as he dreamt and the powers of the stone and a tribal’s initiation to the world of ecoethics, what we call religion. Her A Naga Village Remembered presents the Angami ecoethics of virtues and rituals as well as the rites of sovereignty, as Angami hinges on.
18.1