Tribes of Nagaland And The Catholic Church: A Journey Together

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Tribes of Nagaland and the Catholic Church is a valuable treatise on the history and contribution of the Catholic Church in Nagaland and the role it played in the development of the State. It traces the roots, growth and the influence Catholic Church had on the people and the state in general.

Recalling the immense sacrifice the earlier Catholic missionaries and lay leaders made, the book also highlights the struggles of social isolation, indifference, threats and expulsion that they faced on account of their Catholicisim.

Rev. Fr Thomas John is a Parish Priest in the Diocese of Paisley, Scotland. Born in Kerala, he studied Philosophy from Good Shephered Seminary, Dimapur, Nagaland and later Theology from Oriens Theological College, Shillong, Meghalaya. He joined the Diocese of Kohima and served as Parish Priest and Associate Professor until 2016. His subject of research for his Doctorate was Impact of the Catholic Church on Naga Society.

It is an accepted fact that Christianity had a huge impact in the Northeastern region of India. This impact produced a synergy that changed the entire landscape of the Northeast and the world view of the people of the region. Nagaland being one of the seven sister states of the region and a Christian majority state, Christianity has had much deeper and revolutionary impact on all aspects of the lives of the Naga people and it continues to do so even now. Some even describe this change in terms of "from headhunting to soul hunting."

The book Tribes Of Nagaland And The Catholic Church: A Journey Together has been an attempt at knowing how the Catholic Church took its roots in the state and the influence it has had on the people and the state in general. Though a few books on the Catholic Church in Nagaland have been written, this book is much more in depth in nature as it is supported by vast quantity of resources. Most part of the book is presented in a narrative form and hence various events are chronologically mentioned.

The British rule in North East India exposed the tribals of the region to Christianity. Thus they entered the world of knowledge and civilisation. The consequence of this remarkable shift was reflected in their everyday lives. The strenuous efforts of the Christian missionaries from America and Europe in the educational, religious, social, cultural and economic fields early in their contact with the tribals opened the minds of the latter to a fast changing world. The same work continued even when those missionaries were replaced by missionaries from mainland India.

The contribution of Christianity to the socio-economic development of the North East has been immense, although the main purpose of all the three major Christian denominations namely the Presbyterians, the Baptists and the Catholics, was evangelisation (Passah, 1996). The term 'evangelisation' in the ordinary sense is understood as 'preaching.' Hence in the beginning it was believed that the Church's involvement in socio-economic activities was a move away from its main mission.