Constructing the Divine

Religion and World View of a Naga Tribe in North-East India

G. Kanato Chophy

• Éditeur: Routledge
• Année: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780429537318
• Édition: 1
• Sujet: Teologia e religione
• Sous-sujet: Religione etnica e tribale

From being characterized as 'primitive tribe' in the colonial imagination to become predominantly practitioners of the American Baptist faith, the Sumi Naga – formerly known as the Sema Naga – in the North-East Indian state of Nagaland have come a long way ever since this Naga tribe encountered the white man toward the latter half of the nineteenth century.
This book in a way chronicles the transition of Sumi society from the period of colonial contact up to the present-day context. A critical understanding of Sumi society and culture is at the heart of the narrative, and the analysis of Sumi religion and world view remains the main thrust of this book. It is argued that the Sumi, who are overwhelmingly Baptists, are faced with new religious issues which has brought about not only schismatic divisions but also rendering ebullience to religious life, and that a new discourse has emerged in Sumi religion. The author positions himself as an 'insider', and in doing so has given a reflexive account of Sumi religious life, meanwhile substantiating the arguments and findings in the light of contemporary theoretical developments. The volume brings out compelling evidence that religion significantly shapes the daily life of the Sumi. It offers a detailed ethnographic study of Sumi religion and world view, as the Sumi Naga was seldom studied in-depth in the post-Independence period.

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CHAPTER 1

Introduction

The study of religion in Naga society is less attended to as ethnonationalism and identity politics largely hold sway of the social science research. This academic and intellectual climate is ipso facto a historical process engendered by the atypical location of the Naga tribes in Indian history and social life. This is understandable because the emergent Naga self-determination and its repression by the state had influenced literature, poetry, music, and fine arts in the post-Independence period. In the present context, the study of religious life remains a domain of seminary students and largely influenced by Protestant theology originating in the West. Here the study of Naga religion is not emancipated from the ‘waste-paper basket of animism’ (J.H. Hutton, quoted in Majumdar and Madan, 2003: 142) but supplanted by the deluge of Christianity. There is inconsistency in the representation of Naga religious life due to the inadequacy of concepts and lack of in-depth study.

Overall, the study of religion among the Indian tribes is tailored to fit the vestigial categories of animism, animatism, totemism and naturism, and it lacks theoretical insights, although a great deal of description has been attempted.¹ The study of religious life in Indian social sciences has been pertinently from the ethnographic tradition. Nevertheless, the descriptive part of ethnography has overshadowed the other half: the theoretical vision. This paucity of theoretical orientation, in the Indian context, has resulted in a condition which Edmund Leach (1971: 2) has infamously called ‘butterfly collection’. In general, the study of tribal religion mostly emphasizes the morphological variations rather than the anatomical principles that underlie tribal religions and world views despite the noteworthy differences. There is also a deficiency of theoretical underpinnings and conceptual clarity to understand the Indian social reality. Also, the theories that have been developed in the Western context do not capture the immense diversity of Indian society. This does not imply that this book disavows the existing social theories emergent in the Western context, for I have relied a great deal on Durkheimian tradition and social constructionism – a variant of phenomenology (Berger and Luckman, 1966). The present work is not merely an ethnographic description but is also a theoretical endeavour since there is dearth of theory building in the Indian ethnographic scene, as most of us have been reduced to mere data collectors, while higher theorizing is left to the Western scholars.

The diversity of Indian social and cultural life is tremendous and there is always ample scope to find the ‘other’ (Guneratne, 2014: 125), but the heuristic concepts aiding deeper understanding of religious processes are found lacking, as the data are overwhelmingly on specific tribal beliefs and rituals without cross-cultural comparisons. In this context students of religion should take cognizance of three important social processes: first, the tribal worlds are interlocked in stories, and the beliefs and practices are sustained, perpetuated and legitimated by stories, which has enabled tribal religions to thrive in the absence of textual tradition; secondly, these stories blur the boundary between the secular and religious domains, and the imposition of the duality of secular and religious is a Western inheritance, which owes largely to the secularization of Western societies; thirdly, tribal religion in India is a primacy of supernatural beings rendering a wide spectrum of pantheons, and a panoply of beliefs and practices are predicated upon them.

Here I will flesh out these three propositions, both methodologically and theoretically, which will be the scaffolding of this book and give direction to the ethnographic data.

The Forms of Stories in Social Life

The emphasis is that stories are intrinsic to tribal societies. These stories are constructed, not superorganic or sui generis, and account for two important processes: the individual’s meaningful existence as a member of the social group; and the characteristic outlook of that group located in a particular cultural and historical context. This does not imply that individuals as volitional beings are undermined by the notion of a group representation or an overarching story, but a reflexive reminder that to be part of a community or group means sharing relatively similar stories which provide a narrative basis for the daily-lived world. An important aspect of any world view is the construction of life stories that enmeshes an individual’s personal story – a resultant interaction between the inner world and the external environment – with the larger story shared by the social group. But this raises an important theoretical and methodological question: is there an overarching story shared in common by the group (irrespective of its origin), or does an array of individual stories belie the notion of an overarching story? With this emphasis on the story construction and the narrative aspect of world view, I will direct the discourse toward an interpretative aspect of social life, but the theoretical developments and problems suffusing the arguments need to be highlighted.

Here, I begin with the premise that every social group tells stories; that societal stories reveal the world view and the religious expression of the group. This does not imply that social and cultural processes are reduced to mere storytelling, but an emphasis that stories form an inherent part of world-building activity (Berger and Luckmann, 1966; Berger [1969], 1990). Thus the theoretical and methodological stance that has been adopted follows a particular strand of enquiry, which is directed toward the multiple Sumi societal stories amid the various enmeshed strands of socio-cultural processes. The discourse is weaved around two important processes: people living out the life stories in the daily-lived context, and the individual and community stories retained and recurring in the memories of the people. Thus the nature of discourse proceeds as a seamless narrative, although some of the social processes that have been described do not exist anymore (realists might find this problematic). However, I have done this keeping in mind that in the flow of the Sumi social life the compartmentalizing of the past, present and future is but an imposition on social reality; the location of social life is not time-bound, although individuals are aware of their impermanence as biological beings. Thus in social life, the societal stories of the past tradition, the present existence and the future presuppositions often overlap providing meaning to people as sentient individuals and as constituting a social group.

In this context, Maurice Bloch (1989: 1-2), as an ethnographic critique, has mentioned that the subject matter of anthropologists in the form of conversations has been taking place long before one arrived, and the continuing societal conversations supersede both the researcher and the researched.² Taking a cue from Bloch, I have attempted to locate the conversation – in the Sumi case, a living and telling of stories – in the social life, especially reflected in the religious life and the world view of the people. Thus the discourse that has been developed is two-fold: first, religious narratives, themes and symbols and the people’s view of reality as expressed in the societal stories and individual life stories; and second, the construction of world view as a form of stories.

Religion as a timeless narrative plays a pivotal role in the behavioural aspect and values of a social group. The meanings, symbols, and values of a religious system, which may or may not be codified, are made comprehensible to people through narratives during social interactions; and usually this religious narrative sanctions behavioural norms and values that are to be followed by the adherents not only within the institutional set-up, but also in the daily social life. There is a difference in the nature of narratives when the Sumi traditional religion and Christianity are juxtaposed with each other. The differences in the two systems are understood better if the life stories of the community are related to the concept of the supernatural agent. Here, I have used the term religious world view to understand the narrative aspect of religion imbuing the beliefs and practices of the people. Because, in reality, the human social life is a conscious attempt of constructing the world based on past experiences, existential reflections, and the presuppositions about the future. This can explain the multiple outlooks on life or reality, which have emerged in human history and will continue to do so as long as human societies exist.

One of the important domains of world view study is the relationship between world view assumptions and socio-cultural behaviour. Socio-cultural behaviour is of wider scope, but the study of a relationship between the story system and socio-cultural behaviour of the social groups can form a pertinent aspect of world view analysis. The story system of a society is commonly shared, socially sanctioned, and culturally codified. What can be argued is that the story tradition is one of the important aspects forming a link between the cognitive process and social reality. The narratives are not only a result of thought processes, but more importantly, they reflect the interaction between individuals and the environment and their relationship with each other as members of a social group. In the Sumi context, stories are imperative for social change: the human and supernatural stories that are narrated become nullified or get reified in the ongoing social life, providing a basis for social change. Here, Christianity narrated as a form of story has inordinately affected the socio-cultural values and belief system of the Sumi Naga. Thus an analysis of religious life as a form of story would evince the changes in the world view of the people.

The Sundering of Religious and Secular Realms

It is common to see the expression ‘religious world view’, or to be more specific conception like Christian world view, Hindu world view, tribal world view (relating to their cosmological belief), and so on used in an arbitrary fashion with categories such as scientific world view, secular world view and modern world view, etc. Here the expression ‘religious world view’ is understood tacitly as the ‘characteristic outlook’ of a particular religious group. Similarly, the terms ‘scientific world view’ and ‘modern world view’ are used as expressions of a particular outlook of a group or an individual. This development points toward a simplistic breakdown of social life into the secular and religious worlds, in reality, these two domains often overlap forming two sides of the same social process. Also the interaction between these two domains facilitates a newer way of interpreting, experiencing and constructing the social world. Thus at the level of speech and reductionism of social reality, the conceptualization of social reality into the secular and religious worlds is possible, but this juxtaposition begs for critical introspection due to the complexity of social life.

My argument is that, in reality, there is a blending of religious and secular domains. The social life can be seen as a form of story where people construct various themes, both religious and non-religious, to give meaning to their life. Thus social life appears like a seamless narrative due to the intersecting of these two important domains. This is especially observed in the Indian context where the secular and religious domains are not clearly defined as in the Western society. The secular and religious realms often interact informing each other, contradicting each other, and share elements, giving rise to an overall story in the social life. Contrary to popular assumption that societies become more secular with modernity, the Indian social life proves otherwise. The onset of modernity has not heralded the demise of religion; in fact, amid technological advancement and modern ethos, Indian communities have retained their particular stories woven around various themes (both religious and non-religious) amid the forces of modernity encountering Indian society from both within and without. The emphasis here is not on religious versus secular, or tradition versus modernity, but a reminder that people live their lives around stories emerging out of the changes facing the society. This is particularly observed in the Sumi society where individuals and the group do not live their life in either/or paradigm, meaning compartmentalizing their daily social life as secular or religious, but constructing stories around various themes; and these stories encounter them as real, figurative, metaphorical and mythical, and around which the social life is organized.

The Supernatural Being: A Contextual Reflection

Among the Indian tribes, the notion of supernatural beings is at the heart of people’s beliefs and practices. The notion of supernatural may vary from one group to the other, but to understand the religious themes, motivations, beliefs and practices of the community, the notion of supernatural beings relating to the daily-lived world must be at the forefront of the enquiry into religious life. The conception of supernatural beings pervades Sumi religious beliefs and practices, and the rites and rituals are maintained and perpetuated contingent on the relationship with the supernatural beings. The Durkheimian functionalist tradition, which gives precedence to rites and rituals over the conception of supernatural beings (Durkheim, 1912 [1995]: 227), will be a partial representation of Sumi religion if the same logic is applied in the Sumi context. The idea of gods and supernatural beings is not a ‘figurative representation’ of the social group or an epiphenomenon to social solidarity, but is a dominant theme determining the Sumi religious beliefs and practices.³ Notwithstanding the fact that rites and rituals translate into group solidarity and social cohesion, to understand Sumi religion and world view the idea of supernatural beings must take precedence over the concept of social solidarity because religious beliefs and practices are determined by the nature and scope of supernatural beings, which changes over time. What is observed among the Sumi is that the variation in beliefs and practices pertaining to the supernatural beings have translated into denominational and sectarian conflicts, thereby affecting the solidarity of the social group. Thus, although Melford Spiro’s (1967) theory of religion has been critiqued by others (see Herbrechtsmeier, 1993; Goodenough, 1974; Donovan, 2003), his approach is relatively relevant in understanding Sumi religion. Here Spiro delineates the beliefs and behaviour directed toward supernatural beings as a domain of culture, ‘In short, ‘religious’ beliefs are beliefs related to supernatural beings…. By “religious behaviour” I mean any behaviour (including, but not exclusively consisting of ritual) that is related or indirectly to beliefs concerning these supernatural beings.’ (Spiro, 1967: xii).

The location of the supernatural beings as the pivot of religion is significant in the Sumi context. To understand the continuity and change of Sumi religion and world view, the supernatural being as understood by the Sumi is people of immense scope to the research enquiry. The belief in supernatural beings is a salient feature of Sumi religious life, and it provides a basis for the conception of the nature of reality.⁴ In the Sumi context, the belief in supernatural beings is at the heart of traditional religion, and the location of supernatural beings in social life had remained invariably the same when the Sumi embraced Christianity. However, the conception of supernatural beings changed substantially with conversion to the new faith. With regard to Christianity, the conception of the Holy Spirit changed the landscape of the Sumi religious life. The differences with regard to the conception of the Holy Spirit give impetus for religious polemics and power play within Sumi Christianity. The conflict within the traditional Baptist church can be attributed to the global charismatic wave of the twentieth-century, but more importantly, the resurgence of a localized, fervent Holy Spirit movement has brought about a makeover in the traditional Baptist faith.

Robert Redfield in his theory of world view assigned a diminished role to supernatural beings, which is static and of lesser scope.⁵ He placed the supernatural beings in the category of ‘other’ – a world view universal, as opposed to the ‘self’ (Redfield, 1953). Interestingly, what concerned Redfield was the presumed notion of the modern world view insidiously impinging on the peasant world view (see also Kuper, 2003: 390). This is an ideological development, which Kearney (1984) later tells of every world view having an ideological stance, and the theorizing of world view in itself an ideology. The convergence in the study of religion and world view is that ‘world view comprises of images of Self and all that is recognized as not-Self, plus ideas about relationship between them’ (Kearney, 1984: 41). Kearney points out the inevitability of a supernatural being in world view theorizing; implicit in his argument, he theorized the concept of the supernatural being as a domain of other – a world view universal, that is, ‘a mode of conceptualization’ (ibid.: 68-72). Although Kearney jettisoned the notion of religion in his world view analysis, a systematic study of world view requires a body of knowledge that religion sanctions and perpetuates. Religious beliefs may not be the foundation of people’s world view in every human society, but they are imperative to world view study and analysis.

Outline of the Book

In the introduction, I begin with the particularity of tribal religion in India, especially among the community like the Naga who have witnessed substantial conversion to Christianity. A brief trajectory of theoretical developments is traced to throw light on the subject matter. The two concepts, religion and world view, which evince multiplicity of perspectives and orientations are posited as dimensions of an overarching social life. Also contextualizing the community under study – the Sumi Naga – I have identified the significant themes, what I call as conceptual guideposts, in Sumi religion and world view that will permeate the entire thesis of this book. The hinging principle bridging religion and world view is proposed in the form of societal stories, which are understood as pivotal for the Sumi construction of the social world.

Chapter 2 is devoted to the whole...