Colonialism, Religion & Rebellion: How Missions Shaped Insurgency in India

• In Event: Historical Legacies of State Capacity, Conflict, and Insurgency

Abstract

This paper argues that changes in social structure brought about by the spread of organized religion during the colonial period profoundly affected insurgent mobilization in contemporary India. Drawing from ethnic insurgencies in Northeast India, this paper highlight the salience of social context, as shaped by the advent of organized religion following missionary activities in British India, in explaining both the pattern of insurgent mobilization as well as conflict outcome. The expansion of the hierarchical Presbyterian Church under the Welsh missionaries among the Mizos entailed homogenization with reduced salience of sub-ethnic identities and enhanced within-group social ties. Among the Nagas, on the other hand, the Baptist churches, under the American Baptist missions that placed a heavier emphasis on a decentralized church structure, came to be organized around sub-ethnic or clan identities and linguistic differences, which, while increased intra-clan solidarity, cemented inter-clan differences. The social context facilitated insurgent mobilization among both the Mizos and Nagas, but the latter came to be organized along sub-ethnic identities. Consequently, we observe a socially-embedded insurgent movement among the Mizos while a socially-embedded but fragmented insurgent movement among the Nagas. The resulting social-embeddedness of the Mizo and Naga insurgents has made them more responsive to calls for negotiations from the population, but divisions among the Nagas have prevented a final settlement.

Author

• Anoop K. Sarbahi, University of Minnesota