SILCHAR: Christian missionaries preach many things and quote the Bible in particular to say, We do not hurt other

denominations. And behind the facade of this Biblical adherence lies the ugly face of their activities to take resort to illegal and fraud for conversion of the innocent and simple minded people by force, inducement and questionable means. It is now more than clear that it is these missionaries who create conflict and stoke the flame of religious bigotry and communal passion. Glaring example is Kandhamal.Laxamananda Saraswati was murdered because he had become a formidable force in the area against forced conversion of Hindus. His popularity and following in the area was rapidly increasing, scaring the Christian zealots. The pseudo secularists and the media of that mindset blamed the VHP and the Bajrang Dal for the Kandhamal situation without making any ground study. Let them come to Barak Valley of Assam and have independent and objective look at the nefarious and provocative designs of the missionaries to convert the Hindus.

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Singh, R.K. 1990. Tribla Identity in Manipur in Nationality, Ethnicity and Cultural Identity in NorthEast India. B. Pakem (Ed.) Guwahati : Omsons Publications. Smith, Anthony 1979.Nationalism in Twentieth Century. Oxford: Martin. R.O. Smith, Anthony.1981. The Ethnic Revival in the modern World. Cambridge :Cambridge University Press. Talukdar, A.C. 1993. Regional Political Party, Arunachal Pradesh : Its nature and role in State politics in Regionalism in India B. Pakem (Ed.) New Delhi : Har-Anand Publications. Thomas, C.J.1994. Ethnic Cleansing by Dirty Politics The Telegaraph.28 January 1994. Weiner, Myron 1978 Sons of Soil: Migration and Ethnic Conflict in India. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Bangladesh e-Journal of Sociology. Volume 6, Number 1. 2009. 80 Weiner, Myron 1983 Political Demography of Assams Anti-Immigration Movement. Population Development Review. Vol.9.1983 Ghosh,Subir 1996.A State and its fragments.The Telegraph.17 april 1996. Ghosh,Subir 1996.Return of the natives The telegraph. 7 June 1996. Gohain,Hiren 1990a The Task before Assams elite.TheTelegraph.6 April 1990 Gohain,Hiren 1990b Whom does the ULFA seek to librate The Telrgraph31July1990. Guha,Amlendu.1982.The Indian National Question. Economic and Political Weekly .17(31) July 31.1982. Guha,Amlendu.1987 Nationalism: Pan-Indian and Regional in a Historical Perspective in Nationality Question In India. Pune.1987. Hazarika,S.1992.The Bangladeshisation of India. The Telegraph.6 February.1992. Hazarika,S.1993 Bordering on catostrophy The Telegraph 27 May 1993. Hazarika,Sanjoy 2001 Imphal Imbroglio.The Times of India .June 29,2001. Hussain,Nazneen 1994.Brothers and other strangers The Telegraph 8,september 1994. Imchen, C.L.1993.Naga politics: regionalism or non-state Nation. In Regionalism in India. B.Pakem (Ed.). New Delhi:Har Anand Publications. Kamkhenthang,H.1990 Identity crisis among the tribes of Manipur. In Nationality, Ethnicity and cultural Identity in North East India .Eds, B.Pakem.NewDelhi :Omsons Publications. Mukherji,D.P. P.Gupta and N.K.Das 1982 The Zeliangrong or Haomei Movement in Tribal Movements in India Volume I

Ed. K.S.Singh Delhi :Manohar. Mukhopadhyaya ,Kanchan,1994 Dynamics of ethnic identity Maintenance among the Khasis of north east India. J.Indian.Anthrop.Society.29 (3)209-219. Natarajan,Nalini 1977.The Missionary among the Khsis.New Delhi Sterling. Report on Bodo Issue. 1993-96. A Report submitted to the Government of India.Mimeographed. Navalakha,Gautam 2003.Naga Peace Process. Economic and Political Weekly.February 22,2003. Majumdar,D.N. n.d. Ethnic situation of North Eaest India .Mimeographed. Sarkar, J.K.1982.APHLC in Retrospective in Tribal Movements in India Volume I Ed. K.S.Singh Delhi :Manohar. Smith,Anthony 1979.Nationalism in Twentieth Century .Oxford: Martin. R.O. Smith, Anthony.1981. The Ethnic Revival in the modern World. Cambridge :Cambridge University Press. Thomas,C.J.1994.Ethnic Cleansing by Dirty Politics The Telegaraph.28 January 1994. Weiner, Myron 1978 Sons of Soil: Migration and Ethnic Conflict in India. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Weiner, Myron 1983 Political Demography of Assams Anti-Immigration Movement . Population Development Review. Vol.9.1983 Whitten, Norman, E.1975. 'Jungle Buchchu ethnicity in Le Despres (Ed.) Ethnicity and Resource competition in Plural societies. Paris: Mouton. Wolf, E.R.1994. Perilous Ideas: Race, Culture, People Current Anthropology, 35: 1-12. Bangladesh e-Journal of Sociology. Volume 6, Number 1. 2009. 81 Impact of the British Bangladeshi Musicians

Rongmei Naga, A study of Tribal Little Community -Adjustment, Interaction Pattern and Livelihood Strategies

Statement of the problem: Christian missionaries as a part of their proselytisation drive after abortive attempts at conversion have again targeted the Hindu Rongmei Naga inhabited village of Ujan Tarapur, near Banskandi. Under the guidance of their pastor they attacked the temple of Goddess Kali and set the idol on fire, besides causing extensive damage to the temple.On the basis of the complaint lodged with the Lakhipur police station by the Rongmeis, the police took prompt action and arrested Thuirangdin Rongmei (47), Pawhailung Rongmei (63) and Alum Rongmei (35). Thuirangdin is from the Tamenlong district of Manipur while two others are from Barak Valley of Assam. Another missionary involved in the crime identified as Miuri Rongmei isabsconding.Additional SP of Cachar Pradip Ranjan Kar, officer in-charge of Lakhipur Seva Singh and magistrate Ranjit Kumar Laskar rushed to the spot on receipt of information and arrested the missionaries who were produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court at Silchar. These missionaries have been chargesheeted under sections 120(B), 153(A), 295(A) of 427/435/34 IPC.According to the complaints of Hindu Nagas, the Christian missionaries from Tamenlong in Manipur in collusion with their Barak Valley activists have been converting the Hindus of Ujan Tarapur through allurements and even by threats. Zeliangrong Haraku Association (ZHA), an organisation of Naga TribesZeme, Rongmei and Liyangmeihas taken serious exception to the decision of the Myanmar Mission of the Council of Nagaland Baptist Churches (CNBC) to evangelise the Nagas.The Council at its last annual meeting held at Paren in Nagaland has adopted a resolution to conduct evangelisation programme. The resolution calls upon the Baptist churches to take positive steps in this regard. Quite intriguing is the use of code and the organised efforts of the Baptist churches to work for the realisation of Myanmar mission. Details of this mission are not known. The CNBC has reiterated to uphold this mission project in every possible way as a joint ministry in the world evangelisation mission.

Gaifui Rongmei, Pinsingpoi Rongmei and Chinkudai Rongmei of Ujan Tarapur had complained earlier that this proselytisation drive is not new. Three missionaries have been frequenting their areas and forcing them to embrace Christianity. This process started in 1996 when copies of Bible were distributed among the 50 odd families of the village. Following year their visit was with questionnaires to all of them and particularly on the essence of the Bible and what they have learnt about Jesus Christ and Christianity. Panicked villagers met Kalyan Ashram members who immediately took up the matter with the then deputy commissioner, Pawan Kumar Borthakur and SP Jeevan Singh as well as the subsidiary intelligence bureau officials. The villagers said the missionaries abused their gods and goddesses and advised them not to offer worship at their apoo ragwang (Shiva) and paimadiliu (Kali) temples. They also alleged that the missionaries not only resorted to coercive methods but also extorted money from 43 families.ZHA in a statement at Haflong while advising the Zeliangrongs to preserve their tradition, culture and heritage has cautioned the missionaries against conversion for such a process would only create tension and conflict, fraught with disastrous consequences. The above incident is not a sporadic incident. Of two closely allied Naga movements, the Zeliangrong Council and the Manipur Zeliangrong Union, both of which were formed in 1947 and sought to bring together the Zemei, Liangmei and Rongmei Nagas. In tracing the historical roots of these movements we could show how important a role the traditional Naga religion played in early resistance to British rule and in the formation of a cohesive Zeliangrong identity. . From the beginning of the twentieth century a new factor intruded into the Rongmies primal world as Christian missions began their work in the Manipur hills. Thus by the 1920s there were in place a number of those elements - resentment of colonial control, inter-ethnic animosities, new religious claims . In spite of this Rongmei Naga could come overboard and continue with their traditional belief and faith. In Cachar district though they have been living in scattered manner still they are firmly rooted to their traditional faith. The Rongmei is one of the leading Naga tribes of Manipur. They are occupying an area of Manipur and some parts of

Assam. The Rongmei Naga tribe has languages and or dialect and culture of its own. They have a collective identity as Zeliangrong. In Manipur, the Zemes and Liangmeis together are known as "Kacha Naga", while the Rongmei and Npuimei as "Kabui Naga". Zeme and Liangmei were recognised as Zeliang Nagas in Nagaland (excluded Rongmei and Npuimei).During the early 20th Century, these tribes are politically united into one group called "Zeliangrong" (Ze+Liang+Rong), drawing from the first syllable of the three important groups, i.e. 'Ze' from 'Zeme', 'Liang' from 'Liangmei' and 'Rong' from 'Rongmei'. However due to the advancement in human civilisation, group division are also come into picture. But no matter how far a group claim to be different their close affinity are more than their difference .In north eastern India several tribes came from several stocks. Most of them belong to Mongolian group. Before the Mongolian the Austoloid and Negroid groups had also come to this area i.e. the eastern border of North east India. Mongolian tribes came from different directions such as North, North east, South east etc. and also they came during different periods. Among this Mongolian some became confined to certain small geographical areas, while others were distributed over larger areas. Linguistically they are Tibeto - Burman groups which is divided into two broad branches the North Assam and Assam Burmese. The Assam Burmese branch is again divided into five groups, of which three main groups belonged in eastern border of North east India are Bodo, Naga and Kukichin. The Naga group who first settled in Nagaland and Manipur then migrated to eastern part of Assam. They are again divided into three groups namely Rongmei, formerly known as Kabui group, but presently they are known as Rongmei group , another two are Liangmei and Zemi group. According to the Rongmei Nagas opinion the word Kabui was given by the Britishers, they had given up the word Kabui ,which they think a deregotary term. The word Rongmei is a combination of two words. Rong means South and mei means people. So Rongmei means the people of South or Southern. In quest of better life and under stress of internecine conflict the Rongmei group started to migrate from Manipur and Nagaland towards eastern part of Cachar. In

17th century they had come to Jiribam , which is the border of Manipur and Cachar district of Assam. Then they reached the Eastern part of Cachar district. The Rongmei are the only Naga group of people living in Barak since the beginning of the nineteenth century. Though migrated from Manipur and settled in the Hindu surroundings, they still exist as a distinct social group maintaining their traditional beliefs and practices.

REASONS OF MIGRATION The reasons are as follows: 1 The inter community conflict was mainly responsible for their migration from Manipur and to settle in Cachar district. Due to the continuous attack of Kukichin group on Rongmei groups, the Rongmei People were bound to leave that place and settled in present village. 2. When Rongmei people first came in Narayanpore T.E. their population increased enormously, but their cultivation land and source of income were very limited. So for the sufficient cultivation land and other source of income they migrated from hilly areas to plain one i.e. from Narayanpore to Ngaseluang Village. 3. To get rid of several critical diseases and frequent epidemics they were bound to migrate from Narayanpore to present village.

4. For business purposes they were bound to contact with the plain people. They are very expert in preparing rice beer. So, for selling this rice beer and to purchase their essential commodities, they were to made contact with the people of plain area. Thus ultimately they migrated to plain area like Ngaseluang village. For number of year Rongmei Naga has been living in Cachar district peacefully with other surrounding plain tribes and population groups like Bengali Tea garden labours. Being uprooted in their quest for better life they came over here and over the years through toil & moil they could garner their livelihood so purposely and methodically.

The Rongmeis had taken firm grip over the valley by the process of adjustment and interacting with non tribal communities. The study of process of adjustment, development, interaction with other communities is necessary to understand the present volatile situation of the N.E. India. The study focuses on complex nature of man environment adjustment in the bigger social milieu. Objectives of the study 1 It is a model study how the little community survives and develops in the midst of multicultural nontribal communities. 2. It is cross cultural study of a tribal pocket in context of non tribal settings 3. It will focus on historical background of migration and settlement of little community. 4. It will display the comparative of culture of migrant societies and societies of origin. 5. It will exhibit the impact and change in tribal culture due to infusion and assimilation with nontribal culture 6 Finally it will be micro-macro cultural contrast and cultural adjustment for greater prospect of community development.

Research questions:
The study village, Ngaselung, is a well defined pocket of cultural and ethnic minority who are an immigrant population , they have been maintaining both territorial and cultural solidarity as much as they can along with their adjustment in the unusual situation in which they have found themselves. Unlike the global phenomena migration is a consequence of two subsequent world wars , where the people especially from the third world countries migrated to industrialized and economically advanced countries as a means of selling cheap labour. The Rongmei Naga of Cachar district migrated from western part of Manipur due to some political and economic reasons and not as a result of the two world wars in the sense of which Manipur was a battle field. Being the victims of

ecological imbalance and being politically suppressed by other neighbouring tribes (such as Rongmeis of Manipur was suppressed by the Kukichin group) some of the Rongmeis from Manipur west district came down to the plain of Cachar in search of new prospects of life and adopted wet cultivation and became a part of the population of the Cachar district. The Rongmeis of Nagaseluang Village are such an ethno cultural group that they have a distinct dissimilarity with the surrounding populations, in physical features, language as well as in total cultural configuration. Their profession and occupation also debarred them from getting social recognition in the greater structure of the society.

In order to understand the objectives of the research study the following research questions are formulated. 1. In spite of adopting a new method of raising crops how could they still manage and continue with their survival strategies. 2. Though they are in constant interaction with surrounding dominant communities still they manage everyday needs purposefully and how they could carve out niche of their own maintaining traditional way of life left to be answered for. 3. How could they sustain and coexist with other dominant group in spite of outside stress? 4. How could they maintain traditional religion under threat and duress of Christianity? 5. Taking cue from non tribal counterparts Rongmei imbibed several survival strategies What are they? 6. How far Rongmei had undergone changes after their migration?

Review of literature:
India has the largest concentration of tribalpopulation in Asia and it is the second largest in the world in terms of tribal population (Upreti 2007).The relation between forests and tribals is intimate and is age old. Appropriately referred to as Vanyajati (forest community) and Girijan (people of the hills),

the tribals are known for their association with forest and hills (Rao 2001) .The first and foremost characteristics of the tribal economy is the close relationship between their economic life and the natural environment or habitat, which is, in general, the forest (Mehta 1994).Technology, life and livelihood strategy of a tribal group depends on the nature of habitation, environment and resources. Tribal population lives in close nearness with biodiversely prosperous landscapes have evolved area specific and novel livelihood strategies based on their traditional knowledge. The term Livelihood implies the capability and capacity to survive (Gregory 2008). Study of socio-cultural and ecological systems suggests that biocultural diversity can support resilience (Holling 2001, Maffi 2001, Maffi 2002, Maffi 2005, Harmon 2002, Harmon 2007, Berkes et al. 2003, Turner et al. 2003, Chapin et al. 2004, Adger et al. 2005, Folke 2006, Kassam 2009a). Resilience, defined as the capacity of social and ecological systems to absorb disturbance and still retain their basic function and structure (Holling 1973, Folke et al. 2002, Walker and Meyers 2004, Walker and Salt 2006, Miller et al. 2008), is closely linked to the sustainability of cultures, societies, and their respective environments. Although mustering empirical evidence to demonstrate the role of resilience in connecting socio-cultural and ecological systems has been challenging, a deeper understanding of resilience may be achieved by incorporating the concept of pluralism. Pluralism asserts diversity, both in the natural environment and in human culture, and recognizes that change is a normal part of ecological and sociocultural processes. Pluralism not only accepts difference but values it. In the context of social and ecological change, pluralism enables diverse groups to work successfully together in order to realize their common good (Kallen 1915, Engelhardt and Jennings 1989, Schlosberg 1999, Mason 2006). While socio-cultural and ecological diversity are empirical facts, pluralism is normative because it values and seeks to safeguard it. An alternative view (Holling 2000; Gundersonand Holling 2001) suggests that the complexity of living systems of people and nature emerges not from a random association of a large number of interacting factors rather from a smaller number of controlling processes. These systems are self-organized, and a small set of critical processes create and maintain this self-

organization. (Self-organization is a term that characterizes the development of complex adaptive systems, in which multiple outcomes typically are possible depending on accidents of history. Diversity and the individuality of components, localized interactions among components, and an autonomous process that uses the outcomes of those local interactions to select a subset of those components for enhancement are characteristics of complex adaptive systems [Levin1999]). These processes establish a persistent template upon which a host of other variables exercise their influence. Such subsidiary variables or factors can be interesting, relevant, and important, but they exist at the whim of the critical controlling factors or variables. If sustainability means anything, it has to do with the small set of critical self-organized variables and the transformations that can occur in them during the evolutionary process of societal development. But these two views of complexity require alternative

Of Indias 84 million tribals (2001 census), approximately 55 percent live in and around the dry tropical deciduous forests of central and southern India. These rural poor are unfortunately burdened by their dependence on marginally productive and increasingly unsustainable land-use practices. Over the years, many land-based development schemes have been formulated and implemented in this region to assist tribal communities. However, some of these schemes appear to hinder rather than support the socio-ecological resilience of these communities (Nadkarni, 2000). But conservation and development efforts can come to naught if careful analyses of stakeholder preferences do not accompany the economic implications of projects, (Kothari et al., 1988; Johnson, 1993). This study is an attempt to highlight the importance of socio-ecological and economic analyses when it comes to land-use planning for forest-dependent tribal farmers. Fundamental eco cultural adaptations of man emerged in reciprocal relationships with technology and social organisation. Conspicuously, the particular environmental setting, population and their subsistence activities, cultural practices, opportunities for cultural interactions with other people are some

of the important variables for the comprehensive understanding of eco cultural adaptation. How a particular environment exists and why certain cultural traits developed and sustained due to the influence of environment? This is a question having extreme significance. Environment plays a greater role in the formation and development of cultures, particularly in the case of tribes. Environmentalism and possibilism (Hardesty,1977; Anderson, 1997), and eco cultural adaptation are still applicable in the study and analysis of people living in forest habitat. Anderson argues that environmentalism and possibilism tend to separate mans culture from his environment and behaviour from biology, and in fact they tend to treat them as opposing entities. At one extreme of the continuum culture is viewed as passive and the environment as an active force moulding culture to its pattern. At the other extreme, culture is viewed as the active force reshaping the passive environment (Anderson, 1997: 185).According to Steward (1955) (quoted in Anderson1997), Cultural Ecology emphasis in the interactional analysis of environmentalcultural relationships. According to my analysis, cultural ecology can be considered as a theory as well as a method. Adaptation to environment is the major process of cultural change or Stewards basic notion of adaptive interaction is the basis for his cultural ecology. Analysis of such change holds only the methodological variations. Besides this, the interpretation of functional interdependence among the parts of culture has already been discussed in the functional, and structural functional theory of Malinowski and Radcliffe-Brown respectively (Bohannan and Glazer, 1973). Therefore, the cultural adaptation is the only novel characteristic of the theory of cultural ecology. According to Harris (1968: 667)Steward was not merely saying that a particular combination of technology and environment made it possible for man to create a particular type of social organization; the whole weight of his argument was in the direction of insisting that a similar techno-environmental relationship regularly caused a similar effect regardless of whether the people involved were creatively inclined or not. But, if cultural adaptation is the fundamental feature of cultural ecology, the conglomeration of culture and the social organization is the most important feature; because human can adopt modern technologies even without much creativity. Evolution as well as diffusion of culture traits or technology cannot be denied. Moreover, while analysing, the comprehensive meaning of the term culture will have to be re-examined. Culture is the sum total of integrated learned behavior patterns which are characteristic of the members of a society (Hoebel, 1958: 7).

The integrated behaviour of a society is controlled by the environment, which is nothing but environmentalism. Of course, according to the peculiarities of an environment, a society must have to adapt, without which one society cannot survive. Moreover, in times, the culture of a society may exert changes on environment, but the environment is always active too in extending its controls. In the case of tribes, particularly the hunter-gatherers are[living] in a natural state (Keesing, 1981:124) or they are the instances of Natural State of humankind. Generally, most of the tribes primarily depend on the environment for food resources and also for materials for the construction of houses, etc. The hunters and food gatherers completely rely on environment for sustenance (Bhanu, 1992; Vidyarthi, 1976). A diachronic analysis proves that diverse ecological conditions moulded varied cultures and that was one of the bases for the emergence of civilisations. Civilisations are nothing but cultures of a society, andpeople are the constituent elements of a society. Academic interest in the connections between (religious) beliefs and practices, colonial encounters and self/community identity has increased in the last few decades. B.G. Karlssons Contested Belonging: Indigenous Peoples Struggle for Forest and Identity in SubHimalayan Bengal (2000), situates the dialogue of an indigenous people in India and their place in the framework of larger identities, and shows how the maintenance of identity is an everyday struggle for marginalised communities. Harjot Oberois (1997) study of Sikh tradition is also relevant to how the construction of distinct religious boundaries gave rise to monolithic notions of identity, which, at one time, accommodated fuzzy and multiple identities within their tradition. These are pertinent examples that highlight the struggle of a young Heraka movement as it deals with issues of marginalisation, boundaries and identity and religious modernisation. the ecological setting is acting as a limiting factor for development. This is in agreement with Hardesty who argues that the deterministic [environmental deterministic] view holding that environment actively shapes man and the possibilistic view assigningenvironment a limiting or selecting role (Hardesty, 1977: 6-7). It is a general idea that,the forest gives the tribals food and provides material to build a homeand in fact, the tribal economy revolves round the forest in tribal India. The forest supplements even the agriculturist tribes by its produce such as fire-wood, leaves, fruits, honey, grasses, etc. (Vidyarthi and Rai, 1976: 440). But, the isolated life within the forest is a restricting factor for development in par with the mainstream population. A similar

situation is existing among the Cholanaickans of Nilambur (Bhanu, 1992) Some of the early anthropological notions presumed that the tribals could lead a self sufficient life within their traditional habitat, which is a myth in terms of the subsequent theories. The concept of environmentalism and possibilism are applicable since the forest acts as a limiting factor in shaping from their subsistence activity to their house types; and the concept, environmental possibilism holds the view that culture is active and environment is passive (Hardesty, 1977; Harris, 1968; Anderson, 1997). Due to restrictions and absence of opportunities the subsistence technologies remain unutilized and therefore are unable to develop in their own lines. Thus, culture seems to be passive in shaping culture. In spite of the fact that tribes are trying to adapt to their environment and limited resources, they could not find substantial means of livelihood. Of course, the analysis of socio cultural-environmental adaptations serves to uncover variables that explain the origin of particular cultural features or structures in similar environmental conditions (Anderson, 1997: 187). When analysing the variables such as forest habitat, isolation from the mainstream population, traditional huts, subsistence activities, modern jobs, etc., the concepts determinism, possibilism, and adaptation are applicable.