International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Vol 38, No. 2
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Implications of Having an Independent Missionary: A Review of the 1910 Kuki Mission Jangkholam Haokip uring the latter part of the nineteenth century and the among the dominant Meitei Hindus in the valley.6 The colonial Dearly twentieth century, Christian mission work in authorities soon revoked their permission for this work because what is now called Northeast India was conducted in of its perceived threat to the colonial administration; as collaboration with the British colonial administration a result, Pettigrew relocated his mission among the then present. In fact, the period during which mis- Tangkhul people in the hills of the northern part of sionaries were most active in Northeast India, the state.7 By 1896 Pettigrew had left the Arthing- particularly in the area where the Kuki people ton Aborigine Mission and had joined the lived, coincided with the peak of colonialism. “forces,” as they were called, of the American Missionary activity in that period was based Baptist Mission.8 Since Pettigrew had been the on a concept of racial and cultural superiority first missionary to work in Manipur, the colo- and was marked by the religious optimism nial government recognized him as the sole of the West. In this article I evaluate, from official missionary in the state and refused an insider’s viewpoint, the work a century access to Manipur to any other missionary. ago of an independent Welsh missionary, Watkin Roberts (see accompanying photo- Mission through a Back Door graph), among the Kuki, whose traditional homeland now forms parts of Northeast The 1910 World Missionary Conference India, Burma, and the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Edinburgh can be considered the high of Bangladesh. I argue that a fresh look at such point of world evangelization. For the Kukis, independent mission enterprises can enlighten however, 1910 was the dawn of Christianity. contemporary mission thinking and practice.1 Despite the tight restrictions in Manipur, Watkin Roberts brought Christianity to the Kukis in 1910, Mission Enterprise in Northeast India sixteen years after Pettigrew, the official missionary, had first arrived. The earliest known Christian missionaries in Northeast A successful quarryman, Watkin Roberts was born in India were Roman Catholic missioners in the seventeenth and 1886 at Carnarvon, North Wales, and was a product of the 1904–6 eighteenth centuries. Their work was not sustained, possibly revival in Wales. At the Keswick Convention of 1907 he learned because of a lack of vision for the region.2 After a century-long about and committed to the work in Assam and soon thereafter gap, Christianity was reintroduced, but this time the faith came traveled to India as an independent missionary to assist the work in conjunction with the rise of colonial power, which operated of Fraser, as mentioned above.9 Roberts was never on the staff of with the conviction that “what could not be achieved by the the Welsh Presbyterian Mission or of the Baptist Mission. Rather, military power could be gained by the power of the gospel.”3 he was self-appointed, unpaid, and unordained—an untrained The Serampore Mission of the British Baptist Missionary Society missionary working at his own expense as an assistant to Fraser. was the first agency to be invited by the colonial administration A letter from Fraser to R. J. Williams, secretary of the Calvinist to work in Northeast India, and the American Baptist Missionary Methodist Mission Society, shows Roberts’s commitment: “[Rob- Union came in contact with Northeast India at the invitation of erts] believes he would be disobeying our Lord if he stayed at Francis Jenkins, a colonial officer.4 The first American missionar- home now for a number of years.” Fraser continues, “It is my duty ies arrived in the Brahmaputra Valley in March 1836, and Jenkins and privilege to pray that the Lord will send out labourers into himself supported their work.5 A third agency was the Welsh His harvest. Mr. Roberts seems to be an answer to that prayer.”10 Presbyterian Mission, which in its beginnings had no ties with Since he was a product of the revival in Wales and sub- the colonial administration. David Evan Jones, the first Welsh sequently of the Keswick Convention, it is not surprising that Presbyterian missionary, arrived in the Lushai Hills, now called Roberts’s main mission objective was the spiritual conversion Mizoram, on August 31, 1897. Ten years later a medical doctor of the people. He learned the Lusei dialect and did evangelism named Peter Fraser joined Jones in Mizoram, and independent while assisting Fraser in his clinic. During that time he received missionary Watkin Roberts in turn assisted Fraser. a gift of five pounds through a minister in Wales, with which he In 1894 William Pettigrew of Arthington Aborigine Mission bought copies of the Gospel of John, which he distributed among brought Christianity to the princely state of Manipur, working the surrounding chiefs. As a result, he received an invitation from Kamkholun Singson, chief of Senvon, to come and explain Jangkholam Haokip was previously registrar and the message of the book. It was an invitation that he saw as a lecturer in the Department of Theology and Ethics, “Macedonian call.” The invitation read, “Sir, come yourself, and Union Biblical Seminary, Pune, India. Following tell us about this book and your God.”11 Roberts immediately completion of doctoral studies at the University of responded by visiting Kamkholun Singson at his village in 1910 Aberdeen, Scotland, in 2011, he has been involved in and preaching in the surrounding villages as well. the development of local theology and integral mission In 1910 Roberts formed an independent mission called in India. —[email protected] the Thado-Kuki Pioneer Mission, whose main purpose was to evangelize those who did not yet have a missionary, specifically, 90 International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Vol. 38, No. 2 the Kukis. The heading on the official letterhead read, “An unde- A report in the November 1929 issue of Kristian (Christian), nominational and thoroughly Evangelical Mission, formed with a monthly journal published by the mission, shows that the the express desire of preaching the Gospel among the Thado- mission was growing both numerically and geographically. It Kookies in the State of Manipur, India.”12 was becoming a uniting organization among the Kuki people The Thado are one of the largest clans within the Kuki, in Lakhipur (now a city in Assam), Tripura (the third smallest although, as with any other ethnic identity, the boundary of the state in the country of India, now dominated by migrants), Chit- group cannot be precisely ascertained. The Thado developed tagong Hill Tracts (now in Bangladesh), and Upper Chindwin and, like the Lusei in the Lushai hills of Mizoram to the south, and Upper Burma (now in Myanmar).14 By 1954 there were became influential in the region; the Thado-Kuki language was 27,824 converts, with 134 national pastors, evangelists, and spoken by others, including some Nagas to the north. Possibly teachers; 341 chapels in Manipur; and 1,762 enrolled in Sunday it was for this reason that the hyphenated term Thado-Kuki was School. There were 50 teachers in Chittagong Hill Tracts.15 By used, but the scope of the mission included all the Kuki groups, 1960 the number of converts had grown to 29,678, hence the which, since the government of India recognized them as separate remark, “From our Mission Compound at Churachandpur men and women go forth to preach, to teach and to baptize, not only within the confines of the North East India General Mission field, but in other areas as well.”16 The NEIGM, today called the Evangelical Congregational Church of India (ECCI), claims to be one of the largest evangelical denominations in Northeast India.17 With a deep sense of gratitude, Thimkhup Buiting, a local ordained minister, writes about the work of the Kuki Mission in the Chittagong Hill Tracts: “Thus Christianity was spread among the Bâwm [Kuki] people, and today the Bâwm are 100% Christian. The first adopted denomination Evangelical Christian Church con- tinues its mission till today.”18 Mission versus Structures A faith mission practitioner, Roberts came into fierce confrontation with the structures of the established institutional mission agencies, and the authori- ties regarded him as an intruder. Conflict began when Roberts first officially forwarded a request, sent through a colonial officer in the Lushai Hills, tribes, are now known by various names (such as, besides the to the political agent in Manipur seeking permission to work Thado, the Hmar, Gangte, and Vaiphei, as well as a number of in Manipur.19 In October 1911 the political agent of Manipur, others). Altogether, the Kukis today number half a million. We William Shakespear, sent a telegraph to the superintendent see evidence for the broader vision held by the mission from (1) of Lushai Hills directing him to stop Roberts from entering the mission’s first converts, who were Thangkai and Lungpau Manipur when he had already started his work there. Although of the Vaiphei group; (2) the first chief to be converted, who the matter appeared purely political, Pettigrew, being the only was Kamkholun Singson of the Thado group; and (3) the first officially recognized missionary in the state, was informed of village to be converted, which was Senvon, populated by the all the developments either by the political agent or by the Hmar group. Because of the mission’s breadth of outreach, it is vice president of the Darbar (i.e., the council to the maharaja).20 more appropriate now in the postmissionary era to refer to the Besides his zeal for evangelization, Roberts viewed the Kuki whole as the Kuki Mission of 1910.