The reverberative nature of the global network of Christianity among the Naga of northeast India (completed)

Vibha Joshi Parkin

The research project focuses on global networks of religion with special reference to Christianity in Nagaland, northeast India, especially the efforts of the Church to bring a peaceful solution to the protracted Naga national movement for independence from India and to heal the conflict-ridden society. It seeks to produce a comparative framework for studying similar processes and attempts at reconciliation elsewhere, in which international sources of influence are intrinsic to local peoples’ political religiosity and their wider religious understanding. The research takes as a major premise that a global religious network will result from constant struggle and accommodation between a local people’s internal diversity and different global influences, pressures and opportunities to which they are subject. The transition to post-colonialism is crucial to the history of this process.

The research develops out of and builds on earlier doctoral work and now the subject of a book being completed entitled ‘Christianity and Healing: The Angami Naga of Northeastern India’. While that earlier research concentrated on internal diversity, the present research broadens the perspective to Naga and non-Naga involvement straddling northeastern India and other parts of the world. Research will be conducted through ethnographic fieldwork in Nagaland, along with the study of Christian Mission and colonial archives in India, UK and USA.