CHRISTIANITY AND THE MISHINGS OF ASSAM: MISSIONARY ENCOUNTER, CONVERSION DYNAMICS, AND SOCIO-CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION

Abstract [English]

This article examines the encounter between Christian missionary enterprise and the Mishing community of Assam, northeastern India, from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Drawing on oral testimonies, fieldwork conducted across Majuli, Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, and Dhakuakhana districts, and on published and archival secondary sources, the study analyses the historical trajectory of missionary activity among the Mishings, the socio-economic and religious factors that rendered communities receptive to conversion, and the multidimensional impacts of Christianisation on Mishing culture, social organisation, and religious identity. The article argues that conversion among the Mishings was neither a simple act of cultural capitulation nor a straightforward adoption of a world religion, but a complex and negotiated process shaped by caste exclusion, economic marginality, flooding-induced vulnerability, the institutional resources of missionary agencies, and the internal contradictions of the Mishing religious landscape. The findings contribute to broader debates in the anthropology and sociology of religion concerning religious change among indigenous communities in South and Southeast Asia.