By Jeremiah Darlong
It is often assumed and asserted that the Darlong people, currently
scattered within the present political map of Tripura, embraced
Christianity 'en masse' in less than
half a century essentially due
to the fact that they were backward in every aspect including
intellectually and spiritually and have nothing better to choose. This
article argues that this assumption may not be fully correct for the
simple reason that these people did have own their philosophy or ideas
of God, life ,death, life after death and some highly valued social
norms some of which are quiet akin to Christian values and teachings.
Hence the higher level of acceptability of Christianity to the people.
Introduction:
Two months ago, one evening I was seated by the side of my Boss(Ex
Boss) and were talking on the point of conflict between different
religions. After a while our topic got little diverted and my Boss
started asking me about the early religions of Darlongs. One of his
sentence that really pierced my thought was that, ‘If the Darlongs have
had proper religion, they would not have embraced Christianity en masse
as they did today’. I found that his observation was quiet sharp but did
not react to it as these could be how outsiders perceived the
transformation of the Darlong society. The issue however lingered on my
mind for all over the month. In one sense, I tend to agree that if the
Darlong people had been deeply engrossed in the religious teachings of
Islam or for that matter in the clutches of Hinduism or Buddhism with
the entire attendant practices, Christianity could not made much headway
as it has been doing as of today. But it may not be fully correct to
assume and assert that their conversion to Christianity was wholly due
to this factor. There were certain other factors as well. Amongst them
was the then existing beliefs and practices of the people during the
pre-Christianity period which is broadly being termed as the ‘Darlong
Philosophy ’for the purpose of this article.
Concept of God:
It
is admitted fact that the Darlongs worshipped anumber of Gods or
deities. What they did may not really be termed as ‘worship’ which
signifies more of the ‘adoration and honor’ to the object. It was more
of appeasement acts to various evil spirits whom they attributed to be
causes of their illnesses and ill lucks. Once the sacrifices were
performed with or without the expected positive outcome they were
ignored. The priest determined the nature of sacrifice and the right
animal to be offered to the deity. Some of these spirits do not have
even name and often referred to as ‘Ramhuai’ 'Khawhri' Tarpa, Rikul
khawbawl, Bungzut Ripui, Khuachultenu(Zingngawrtenu), Lasi, Khawbiak,
Lungtan Pathian, Hrawlsenahel or any other awesome reference. They were
attributed with all kinds of shapes and sizes who may prank or harass
the people but not necessarily expecting any offering.
God as Human Being:
‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that
whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life’7 The
Darlong people did not have problem with this Bible’s commandment as
well. God, having a son may be an issue for many other people since God
is believed to be spirit and he should not and can not have a son.
However, the Darlong people have not questioned this miraculous verse of
the Bible. This is again due to their philosophical background of the
concept of God. For them God can do anything including having a son,
however awkward it may appear to be in human terms. Therefore, God
having a son or Gods son becoming a human was neither questioned by the
people nor was the idea strange or repulsive to them. Similarly to
believe in the son and having eternal life at the simplistic level was
so not a questionable proposition to the people. The difficulty possibly
could come for them only when it says that, ‘I am the way,the truth and
the life. No one comes to the father except through me”. It implies
that one should have full faith only in Jesus, surrender everything to
him and live your life according to his desire and commandments. Here,
people started doubting and reportedly asked the missionaries. ‘Will
your Jesus be able to defeat all these numerous evil spirits if we only
trust in him?’ ‘Can he really protect us from all these harassments and
evil designs? In fact, because of this point of faith, many people
started doubting the ability of the new Christian faith to take care of
their future interest in this life. It was widely claimed that those
families who fully converted themselves into Christianity did paid the
price in some forms from the evil spirit such as serious illnesses in
the family or even death. Many of them went back to the pre-Christian
practices though those who did not give up apparently did not face
extraordinary sufferings as expected of them by the people.
Social norms and Values:
In the Bible, particularly Gospel books of the New Testament record a
numbers of incidents and stories wherein Jesus scorned upon the
hypocrisy and the arrogance of the Jews people particularly the upper
class such the Pharisees and Sadducees. His main thrust of the
missionary work was humility combined with a strong sense of social
service. A number of incidents were there where the arrogance of the
rich people was thrown to the dustbin and the lowly sincere attitude of
the ordinary persons was emulated by Jesus. His social service attitude
is best exemplified by the story of the good Samaritan helping the poor
victims of robbery on the roadside. The thrust of the social values
largely embodied in the Bible is quiet receptive to the Darlong people.
Since time immemorial, they have had certain ethical social codes. These
have been well emulated all along by various groups of the Darlong
people. Humility, sincerity, respects for elders, concern for others
particularly the widows and other weaker sections of society and
courtesy in speech and behavior were very much part of the cultural
ethos of the Darlong people. However, on the positive side what stands
prominently is ’Tlawmingaina’. This connotes and implies uprightness,
courage and self sacrifice. It also symbolized courstey, humility and
modesty. Its essence is consideration for what is good and pleasing for
others and for society. respect for parents and older people and ready
to help for the needy.
Conclusion:
The philosophy of the Darlong
people may be Rudimentary compare to that of the Greeks or the Romans
or the Chinese. But they did have their own concept of God, life, death,
life after death and other social norms. These ideas and values were
largely uninfluenced by the surrounding civilizations and religious
thoughts such as Buddhism in the east, the Islam in the South and west
and the Hinduism in the North and North West. Their ideas and thoughts
remained pristine, unpolluted by these larger and more influential
thoughts. When Christianity arrived in their part of the world, though
quiet late due to the physical distances and poor communications, they
found many of own in tune with that of Christian concepts and values.
This undeniably helped them to be more responsive to the teachings of
Christianity and its values. It is therefore not wholly correct to
attribute their backwardness and absence of organized religion for rapid
Christianization of the Darlongs.
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